"Bringing the Troops Home"

(Note: I wrote this piece several weeks ago, and submitted to the op-ed desk of a leading area newspaper. With no response from them, it's safe to assume they won't be running the piece. Though I would have preferred a much broader audience for this than my humble blog enjoys, I've decided to go ahead and run it here. The thoughts expressed herein are far too important to me to leave them unsaid.)

Bringing the Troops Home
by Peter Anderson

Recently I caught a few moments of a very moving scene on a television news program. A young soldier surprised his equally young son at school, in the middle of the day. The boy ran across the classroom and into his father's arms, his face streaming with tears and his mouth opened wide in an anguished howl. I hoist up my daughter in much the same way when I come home from work every day, but she and I are all quiet smiles, for I have only returned from a comfortable office, an easy train ride and a short drive. The young soldier, in his beige desert camouflage fatigues, had returned from Iraq. The boy's overwrought emotion, which soon turned to smiles and laughter, was clearly shock and then relief at the sight of his father, whom the boy must have believed he might never see again.

And yet, despite the obvious sorrow endured during his father's absence, that young boy was one of the lucky ones. His father came home. The families of more than three thousand American soldiers aren't as fortunate.

For the past several years I have believed that George Bush sees war as mere abstraction, and soldiers as nothing more than pawns, convenient means to a hoped-for but illusory end. Having never fought in a war himself, never feared for his own life or seen his buddies die horrifically before his eyes, never longed for his family on the other side of the world, he lacks the personal experience which might have otherwise dampened his enthusiasm to declare war, and to perpetuate it. He sits comfortably in the Oval Office, or on Air Force One, or on his ranch in Crawford, listening to the suggestions of his senior advisers and the briefings of his generals as he directs the war's continued path, never truly appreciating its human cost. He even refuses to attend military funerals, perhaps wanting to spare himself the sight of the tears and anguish and loss which are the direct result of his policies.

In contrast, veterans like John Kerry or Wesley Clark, while by no means perfect presidential candidates themselves, know what it's like to be a soldier on the ground, with shells exploding overhead and an armed enemy potentially behind every tree or corner. With this remembrance vividly in mind, a veteran would have been very reluctant to put troops in harm's way for a military solution to a political conflict. Before going to war, either Kerry or Clark, or even Colin Powell for that matter, would have wanted incontrovertible proof that Saddam Hussein and Iraq posed a direct threat to the United States. They would have demanded more than a few satellite photographs, a bureaucrat's theoretical projections of Saddam's potential arsenal, an opportunist expatriate's grim assessments, or unsubstantiated rumors of uranium purchases in Niger or meetings with al Qaeda in Prague. They would have demanded overwhelming proof of a threat, and not mere conjecture.

But conjecture will suffice when one's actions are driven by ideology instead of pragmatism, or by abstraction instead of reality. George Bush settled for conjecture, and eagerly and defiantly declared war. The toppling of Saddam was swift and relatively easy, which was hardly surprising given the huge strength disparity between the coalition forces and Saddam's army. But now, due to an inexplicable lack of foresight -- or perhaps willful ignorance -- Bush finds himself and his military in the middle of a civil war between two factions who are fueled by centuries of mutual resentment and hostility, with no clear way out. Bush continues to insist that training new Iraqi security forces -- many of whom are more loyal to those sectarian factions than the artificial construct that is "Iraq" -- and someday turning over control to them will bring peace to Iraq. Yet the violence continues to escalate, despite our military's continued efforts. And with the restoring of order being Bush's stated prerequisite for withdrawing troops, the likelihood of either event occurring seems more remote with each passing day.

It's over, and now is the time for George Bush to admit it. He must now finally concede defeat, admit the limitations of American military power, and acknowledge that not every conflict can be resolved by sending in troops and dropping bombs. Despite the claims of war supporters, talk of withdrawal by no means undermines our troops, nor shows disloyalty to them. Rather, withdrawal is the ultimate show of support for the troops, as it will safely remove them from a conflict which we have little chance of winning, an intractable struggle which the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds of Iraq will ultimately have to resolve on their own.

For consolation, Bush can always point to the success of Saddam being permanently removed from power, and hope that history will forgive him for the ensuing ethnic strife that was subsequently unleashed. At this point, that's probably the best he can expect.

Unfortunately, Bush doesn't appear to agree. In the wake of his 20,000-troop surge to quell violence in Baghdad, which has had only modest success, now comes word that another 13,000 National Guard troops are being shipped overseas to Iraq, and tours of duty are being extended. And that the vice president is still claiming a pre-war link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. And that the defense secretary insists the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will inevitably result in ethnic cleansing, as if that wasn't already happening despite our ongoing military presence. But rather than face unpleasant reality, George Bush and his administration are digging in their heels, staying the course and perpetuating this unjustified, misguided and fruitless war.

Thinking back to those televised images, I can't help but fear that the young boy's joy will be short-lived, and that his daddy, the soldier, will soon be returning to Iraq. Along with thousands of fathers and mothers just like him.

Copyright©2007 Peter Anderson