Third Year in Iraq

This week marks the third year our forces have been fighting in Iraq. Public opinion has turned sharply against the handling of the war in recent months. As of 3/19 U.S. military casualties were at 2317 while the official number of wounded was posted by the DOD at 17004. These numbers are heavy in hearts and minds of Americans as we ponder what our role was in bringing the nation to this point. For the past three years we have pointed fingers as much that we believed before the war has turned out to be untrue. Some of us blame the President and his administration for lack of planning and a rush to action. Others have blamed congress for an over eager vote to support a popular President. Still others blame the international community for not supporting us after all the times we have supported other countries. If these questions could be answered easily we would not still be debating them. There are so many moving parts to the world that I am at a loss to know what finger I should point or where I should point it. So instead of pointing fingers I think it is time to confess. I am at least in part to blame for the difficult situation we now face in Iraq.
Although I strongly supported our military efforts in Afghanistan, I have from the beginning felt the invasion of Iraq to be a mistake. I felt it was a distraction from our efforts against Bin Laden and a simplistic solution to the tyrant of Baghdad. However, I never wrote my congressmen before the war. I didn’t sit in the rain with anti war protesters to make my voice heard. I never wrote this paper or any other to say I thought what we were doing was misguided and wrong. Instead I fretted and complained to my friends and pointed my finger at others I thought to be more powerful than I. Ultimately I sat back and did nothing to help my nation solve the problem of what action we should take in the world. When my armed forces needed my voice of descent the most they got nothing but my silence. I don’t know who is to blame for the state of the world today. What I do know is that I bear, at least in part, some responsibility. This is the burden we all share living in our democracy where free expression and descent is a right and a privilege paid for with the blood and tears of heroes.