Unveiling the Light

Our Congress should be ashamed of itself. When this war in Iraq began, they were fully behind the mission, the troops, and the goal of eliminating Iraq from being a threat to the United States. When we rolled over the Iraqis in a stunning victory, they were quick to put themselves next to the military and the President to share in the glory. Now, when the going gets tough, they claim they had nothing to do with this decision, that they were mislead, that they were lied to, or that they were simply mistaken. All of this because the situation is Iraq has not worked out as we had hoped. They seldom do in a war.

It was made clear at the beginning of this war that troops would not be dedicated to this fight unless the country was fully behind them. That has been our policy since the disaster of VietNam where soldiers fought, suffered and died for this country only to come home and be spat upon and attacked by a powerful anti war movement. The military, Presidents, and Congresses have said they would never allow that to happen again. Now we have a Congress telling the soldiers that our being in Iraq is a mistake and that there is no mission in our national interests. Once again, for the sake of politics, we are turning our back on our troops.

I don’t accept the idea that Congress was mislead. Everything pointed to Iraq being a threat and holding weapons of mass destruction. We still don’t know the truth because while none were found, we have ample evidence that something was massively moved out of Iraq into Syria just before the war began. Those WMDs could still be around. Besides, Congress has its own sources and its own access to intelligence. They cannot blame the White House when they had the same information and came to the same conclusion. Also, no one mentions that we had to have a no fly zone to keep Saddam from killing his own people and that he repeatedly attacked U.S. planes flying in that zone as they protected those threatened. He undertook many acts of war without us retaliating in a significant manner. Were we going to wait until he was successful at killing Americans?

Nobody is happy with the war today. It has become worse than we hoped for and quite a mess, but we are making progress. I don’t look to the politicians or the news for this information. I depend on what the soldiers themselves report. This is a war with global implications. To think we can pull out now and that somehow we will be left alone is ridiculous. Part of the reason we have not been significantly attacked since 9-11 is that the terrorists have put so much towards fighting us in Iran. Better there, against trained soldiers, than here against innocent civilians.

I would love to see this war end and peace reign but I also know that nobody ever won peace by retreating. This is a tough war, but the fact is it is one that has not cost us more than we can afford and, sad as 3,000 casualties is, it is far less than a country of 300,000,000 can afford. In the time of this war we have lost 40 to 50 times that many Americans on our roads and far more young people die here for stupid alliances and acts of idiocy. At least our soldiers in Iraq have found a way to serve. We mourn every death but it should be a mourning for those who gave themselves on our behalf. Congress is saying that they are dying for nothing.

I firmly believe that Congress is acting for political reasons and not for the good of this country. The message they are sending is that we do not have the will to protect our interests. That was the lesson of Somalia when we evacuated after taking casualties and that was the example of Bosnia where we were glad to bomb the country into ruins because there was no danger to our people, but where we refused to step foot into the war zone where we might take casualties.

When things get tough, our leaders are supposed to step up and back their decisions and support those carrying out their decisions. This congress does just the opposite. In the first year of World War II we took tremendous losses on all fronts. Our leaders supported the troops and rallied the country until eventual victory was ours. Today, as soon as the war does not go exactly as we had hoped, Congress runs for cover and points to others. They are political hacks and moral cowards. Either they should have stood up against the war before it started or should back up their decision. Now they are just being expedient at the cost of our troops and national interests.

The main problem with this situation is the wise saying that a country has the government it deserves. I hope that is wrong because we I hope we deserve a lot better than this bunch. I would not want one of these Congressmen for a distant neighbor, much less as a leader. I hope the American people are deserving of more and that we earn that better government in future elections.