Republicans still try to defend indefensible blunder in Iraq

By Charles Linderman,
Published Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I watched the Republican National Convention on C-SPAN. One evening, speaker after speaker was telling the cheering crowd that we are winning the war in Iraq. America’s great purpose, it seemed, was to fight and win great wars. The speakers and the crowd seemed aroused.

I thought everyone knew by now that our invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and was sold to the American people with lies. To make it worse, if that’s possible, the invasion was carried out with gross incompetence.

It was not pointed out by any of the speakers that Sen. John McCain was one of the promoters helping George W. Bush and Dick Cheney sell this immoral undertaking. He is on record telling us the Iraq war would be quick and easy and cost very few American lives. Barack Obama, on the other hand, voiced opposition to this war from the start. He further warned of the dire consequences that have since proven true. Now tell me which candidate has the good judgment to be commander in chief?

I find it particularly galling that these war promoters stoop to the filthiest slander of Obama. McCain himself has stated not once but twice that Obama would lose a war to win an election. I don’t know how losing a war wins an election. Ask McCain. If Obama had his way, we would not be in this war.

Former senator and actor Fred Thompson asked the convention, “If we lose in Iraq, who wins?” Let me turn that around. If we win in Iraq, which all these Republican speakers assured me we will, then who loses? Not al-Qaida. Their leader, Osama Bin Laden, is safely hidden somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan. George W. Bush once said he can run but he can’t hide. McCain says he will follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell. So far, this has all been blustering nonsense. Incidentally, I would strongly advise Bush, Cheney, McCain and all their associates to stay far away from the gates of hell.

The sad and disgusting truth is this: America lost the day we invaded Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat to us. We are by far the biggest military power on earth and it was easy to overthrow the government of a little Third World country like Iraq. Can you say “Mission Accomplished?”

But Bush and Cheney had no plan to secure Iraq, so it was immediately left wide open to any terrorists who wished to set up shop. They were even allowed to loot unguarded stores of weapons. Since then we have lost more than 4,000 of America’s finest young people and thousands have been wounded, some with life- changing injuries. Thousands of Iraqis have died, and thousands are displaced from their homes.

Polls have found that about half of Iraqis think it is acceptable to kill Americans. It is estimated that the war will cost us $1 trillion, none of which has been paid for but has been charged to our children in the form of national debt. Now, will these war apologists please relate to us exactly what we are winning in Iraq to justify the horrendous cost?

The invasion of Iraq and subsequent events are the worst foreign policy disaster in American history. Obama is the candidate who understands that. Our present problem is how and when to extract ourselves from this horrible situation with the least dire consequences. Obama is the candidate who we can most trust to do that.

Beyond the problem of Iraq, we must begin to solve world problems without shooting. For the foreseeable future, we will still need a strong military. But we must develop a new mindset that war is bad and peace is good. Military action should always be the last resort when all else fails. As Bill Clinton aptly stated, we should lead by the power of our example rather than the example of our power.

We should be trading goods and services with other countries, not shooting at each other. With the world population exceeding 7 billion and the capacity of the world’s resources being tested, it is a moral imperative that we use our God-given intelligence rather that our gut-level fighting instincts. Human survival demands it. Obama understands that.

Linderman lives in Carrington, N.D.