By Tim Robertson
Spreading democracy.
Eliminating sources of terrorism.
Removing an evil regime.
Regardless of one’s opinion on whether or not the U.S. should have invaded Iraq, it is hard to argue with these reasons. Against the war and skeptical that these were even the real reasons we were going to Iraq, I bit my tongue and supported our troops hoping that, regardless of the administration’s intent, Iraq would become a safer, democratic society, complete with the freedoms we enjoy. In retrospect, it was quite foolish.
Nearly four years since the beginning of operations and three years, six months from our President’s grandiose statement of “mission accomplished,” on an aircraft carrier, 2,700 American lives have been lost and “countless” Iraqi civilians have perished. Many of these people were willing to die for the cause of making Iraq a better place, but their deaths appear to be increasingly meaningless every day, or worse, making Iraq a worse place. Mission accomplished.
In a rather sinister equation, the number of anti-American militants killed in Iraq is less than the number being recruited, largely due to the motivating factor of our invasion. Put simply, our involvement in Iraq, instead of removing terrorists from the region, has given them something to rally and recruit around, according to the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate, a compiled report of 16 different U.S. intelligence agencies. The report also acknowledges that Islamic radicalism is intensifying around the world in response to our actions. Mission accomplished. As the war endured, so did my support, I believed that abandoning the Iraqi people in the middle of their democratization would surely wreak havoc on an already unstable nation. While that was certainly true then and still is now, it is becoming harder to imagine that our continued presence will benefit Iraqis at all. Things are going to get worse whether we stay or not. However, it is becoming obvious that while our guns are there swinging the banner of America, we are not really expressing our ideals, only war. Mission accomplished.
Now we find out the truth, somewhere around 600,000, give or take a few thousand, Iraqis have been killed. It’s time for us to realize that too many innocent people are dying for our “fight against terrorism,” and we are not winning. In fact, we are losing badly because we are fighting the wrong war. Our government’s arrogance of “collateral damage” is setting our ideals aside and turning us into the real villains, those that kill innocents.
How did we really expect people with ideological differences to respond to our cowboy entrance, cruise missiles ablaze? There is hope for Iraqis because they are a great people with a great history and, to date, many remain supportive of our actions. However, the longer we stay in Iraq and the more civilians we kill, fewer and fewer of our supporters are going to remain friends and become enemies, and rightfully so, because our greatness is being overshadowed by the shortsightedness of a few men. However, our greatness is in question because none of our ìgoalsî have been accomplished, and it doesn’t even look like those in charge are trying.
Spreading democracy – mission unaccomplished. Eliminating sources of terror – mission unaccomplished. Removing an evil regime – maybe not. Saddam Hussein may be rotting in prison but there is little to suggest that the country of Iraq is in any better shape now than it was before we stepped in. If our actions matched our ideals, I’d say fight on, but they don’t, and everybody knows it.
Tim Robertson is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science. E-mail him at opinion@louisivllecardinal.com.
