Iraq Withdrawal Consequences
The President has recently drawn parallels between the withdrawal of forces from Viet Nam and the potential withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. His point seems to be that if we had stayed engaged in Southeast Asia that we might have averted the tragedy that took place there. It seems that he is suggesting that American forces should have continued to fight and defend the jungles of Cambodia and Viet Nam until a stable government emerged that would reconcile all parties there in peace. Although this is a very beautiful, idealistic and noble idea, it has a disconnection to the reality of that time as broad as the disconnect that he seems to have in regards to our own.
Withdrawing from Iraq will not be as easy as it was to leave Viet Nam. Although both conflicts share absurdities, they are also very different in scope and dynamic. The Viet Nam conflict was fought on the idea that the spread of communism needed to be halted through military intervention. The justification for waging war in the jungles was that China and the Soviets needed to know that we would fight their ideology where ever they tried to expand it; even in places that were otherwise inconsequential to us. On this front Viet Nam was a success. At least in the view that the spread of communism did not continue with great energy after we withdrew ourselves from Southeast Asia. The failure to install our hoped for government did not impact the United States in any significant way. However the withdrawal of American interest did have significant impact of those left behind.
When we withdrew from Viet Nam, thousands, millions of people died in the aftermath. Their deaths did not appear on YouTube. Their deaths did not appear anywhere in the consciousness of the American people until years later. Their loss did not affect the stock market or make Christmas more difficult to pay for and enjoy. Pictures of the missing line walls of Cambodian museums acknowledging the dead. Piles of bones and skulls stand witness to what transpired there. The after the fact postmortem of a tragedy will not be what faces the American public when our policy in Iraq bears the fruits of its failure. Mist shrouded jungles shielded the western world from the horrors of human purgings and their civil war so many years ago. Today we see and will continue to see the consequences of our actions recorded by every person with a cell phone capable of taking a picture.
It was easier then to turn our attention away from what was happening an ocean away. Easier to disregard the blight of people that had no impact on the lives we lived. Viet Nam was a purely political war. The fact that we had no national interest in the country made it much easier to engage and then remove our forces. There was nothing they had that we needed. No oil, natural resource or strategic position kept America fighting in those jungles for as long as we did. Iraq is far different in this regard. Outside of the debate of when to bring our troops home, troop levels and WMDs sits the fact that we need, have to have, oil from this region of the world. In order to maintain our economy and our extravagant way of life it is necessary for a steady stream of tanker ships to move back and forth from the desserts of the Middle East to the shores of the United States.
Chaos in Iraq means further likelihood of disruptions of oil from the region. This is the ugly truth that no one wants to think too much about. The Middle East matters because it sustains us. Viet Nam never contributed in the maintenance of our way of life. Today the same can be said of Darfur, Sudan and Indonesia. These places can burn with war and conflict and it doesn't affect my job, my future or vacation plans. Turkey is in conflict with the Iraqi Kurds in the north. Iran is pressing its influence into the country from the east while Syria pushes from the west. Saudi Arabia exerts its influence quietly from the south trying to keep its ports open to everyone while still maintaining its monarchy despite the discontent of its people. Under normal circumstances in relationship to any other part of the world, the American public would shrug and turn the channel away from such reports. After all, it is what I do whenever I see something on the issues facing any corner of Africa. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, I tell myself. More importantly, there is nothing it can do to me personally so why engage in futile compassion.
The United States military has worked hard and sacrificed much in the years spent in Iraq. They have done everything that this president has asked them to do. They deserve to be able to say that they accomplished the task they set out to do. Unfortunately the task was flawed from the beginning. The mission was as unrealistic as our president's world view. He and his neo-conservative advisers have failed our service men and women who have worked so hard to give him the world that was in his dreams. The tragedy of Iraq is not a fault of a military failure. The tragedy of Iraq is due to a lack of a pragmatic understanding of the world and implementation of our military. Now is the time to let our armed forces re-engage itself. Redeploy in a new way that might bring a real change to the world stage. Pulling out of Baghdad does not mean defeat of our will or of our troops. It only means that we've come to realize that there are other ways to help and engage in the world and its conflicts. Every person that has served in Iraq wants to believe that they made a positive impact with their presence and sacrifice. Those that have served this President and this country have worked very hard to give us what we need. We need leadership and policy that will allow all of that hard work and resource to be effective and worth the sacrifice. The President is right that we did make mistakes in the era of Viet Nam. Let us not simply let those errors of the past justify our continued errors of judgment in the present. We can't simple remove ourselves from the situation as we did in Viet Nam those many years ago. We can't expect that what happens in the region will not have an impact on the lives we are living here at home. However, we cannot continue to believe that a fairy-tale ending will emerge if we only continue to believe hard enough in the original vision of our President and his circle of true believers.
Withdrawing from Iraq will not be as easy as it was to leave Viet Nam. Although both conflicts share absurdities, they are also very different in scope and dynamic. The Viet Nam conflict was fought on the idea that the spread of communism needed to be halted through military intervention. The justification for waging war in the jungles was that China and the Soviets needed to know that we would fight their ideology where ever they tried to expand it; even in places that were otherwise inconsequential to us. On this front Viet Nam was a success. At least in the view that the spread of communism did not continue with great energy after we withdrew ourselves from Southeast Asia. The failure to install our hoped for government did not impact the United States in any significant way. However the withdrawal of American interest did have significant impact of those left behind.
When we withdrew from Viet Nam, thousands, millions of people died in the aftermath. Their deaths did not appear on YouTube. Their deaths did not appear anywhere in the consciousness of the American people until years later. Their loss did not affect the stock market or make Christmas more difficult to pay for and enjoy. Pictures of the missing line walls of Cambodian museums acknowledging the dead. Piles of bones and skulls stand witness to what transpired there. The after the fact postmortem of a tragedy will not be what faces the American public when our policy in Iraq bears the fruits of its failure. Mist shrouded jungles shielded the western world from the horrors of human purgings and their civil war so many years ago. Today we see and will continue to see the consequences of our actions recorded by every person with a cell phone capable of taking a picture.
It was easier then to turn our attention away from what was happening an ocean away. Easier to disregard the blight of people that had no impact on the lives we lived. Viet Nam was a purely political war. The fact that we had no national interest in the country made it much easier to engage and then remove our forces. There was nothing they had that we needed. No oil, natural resource or strategic position kept America fighting in those jungles for as long as we did. Iraq is far different in this regard. Outside of the debate of when to bring our troops home, troop levels and WMDs sits the fact that we need, have to have, oil from this region of the world. In order to maintain our economy and our extravagant way of life it is necessary for a steady stream of tanker ships to move back and forth from the desserts of the Middle East to the shores of the United States.
Chaos in Iraq means further likelihood of disruptions of oil from the region. This is the ugly truth that no one wants to think too much about. The Middle East matters because it sustains us. Viet Nam never contributed in the maintenance of our way of life. Today the same can be said of Darfur, Sudan and Indonesia. These places can burn with war and conflict and it doesn't affect my job, my future or vacation plans. Turkey is in conflict with the Iraqi Kurds in the north. Iran is pressing its influence into the country from the east while Syria pushes from the west. Saudi Arabia exerts its influence quietly from the south trying to keep its ports open to everyone while still maintaining its monarchy despite the discontent of its people. Under normal circumstances in relationship to any other part of the world, the American public would shrug and turn the channel away from such reports. After all, it is what I do whenever I see something on the issues facing any corner of Africa. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, I tell myself. More importantly, there is nothing it can do to me personally so why engage in futile compassion.
The United States military has worked hard and sacrificed much in the years spent in Iraq. They have done everything that this president has asked them to do. They deserve to be able to say that they accomplished the task they set out to do. Unfortunately the task was flawed from the beginning. The mission was as unrealistic as our president's world view. He and his neo-conservative advisers have failed our service men and women who have worked so hard to give him the world that was in his dreams. The tragedy of Iraq is not a fault of a military failure. The tragedy of Iraq is due to a lack of a pragmatic understanding of the world and implementation of our military. Now is the time to let our armed forces re-engage itself. Redeploy in a new way that might bring a real change to the world stage. Pulling out of Baghdad does not mean defeat of our will or of our troops. It only means that we've come to realize that there are other ways to help and engage in the world and its conflicts. Every person that has served in Iraq wants to believe that they made a positive impact with their presence and sacrifice. Those that have served this President and this country have worked very hard to give us what we need. We need leadership and policy that will allow all of that hard work and resource to be effective and worth the sacrifice. The President is right that we did make mistakes in the era of Viet Nam. Let us not simply let those errors of the past justify our continued errors of judgment in the present. We can't simple remove ourselves from the situation as we did in Viet Nam those many years ago. We can't expect that what happens in the region will not have an impact on the lives we are living here at home. However, we cannot continue to believe that a fairy-tale ending will emerge if we only continue to believe hard enough in the original vision of our President and his circle of true believers.
posted by kamuizot at 1:15 PM
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