The Quagmire at Home

I saw a good but somewhat depressing editorial over at the Wall St. Journal's OpinionJournal website today and it caused me to pause for a moment and consider a lot of things.  Where are we as a nation anymore?  What is the nature of our character?  What beliefs make up the foundation of our decisions?  It used to be that we stood for something.  What happened to that hard-working, moral backbone that used to characterize Americans?

We seem to be a nation on stilts.  Hoisting our haughty selves above the rest of the world as if we weren't a part of it.  We claim to be a compassionate people always willing to give comfort and aid to those in need and those who are suffering.  And to some flimsy extent that's true.  If it requires picking up the phone and dialing a hotline to donate a few pennies from our bank account then yes... I suppose we do aid others - as long as that's all the effort it takes.  But when it comes to really sacrificing to help people who are suffering we really can't be bothered.  At the end of the day, we're too selfish to pony up.  Too comfortable with our two cars, two kids, home in the suburbs, smokes, beer with our buddies, hobbies, workouts at the gym, trips to the tanning salon, closets full of clothes, running hot and cold water, reliable power, appliances, babied pets, computers, and so on.  We truly live the lives of kings here.  Even if things are tight for us financially, nearly all of us live a life of opulence compared to most of the rest of the entire world.   And despite it all,  we're a bunch of spoiled crybabies when you boil it all down.

So turning on the news and seeing some politician do everything he can to discredit his political opponents instead of doing his job isn't exactly a breath of fresh air to me.  There is not a single excuse someone can give me as to why after roughly 3 years of complaining we don't have a single politician in Washington who cares enough to step aside from party politics and really try and work to get the job done in Iraq.  Nothing but complaints and calls for pulling out of Iraq after 3 years.  Nothing.  No one willing to try and work with others at all.  Just offer criticism.   I honestly can offer no defense for that.  It really says a lot about the caliber of people we have elected in Washington and of Americans as a whole.  And I'm sure it sends a wonderful message to the rest of the world.  If you want to know why we are so looked down on in the rest of the world you can start your search in Washington DC.  You know, the immature children you see bickering on TV all the time.  Nothing like seeing a bunch of wealthy millionaires throwing criticisms and insults at each other on national television all claiming to represent us.  No images of intelligent men sitting around a table working to come up with solutions for these problems.  Instead we see sly insults and bickering.  I would spank my child silly if I heard them saying some of those things to their peers.  Respect is something long gone from Washington.

There is no consideration to the future in politics either.  At least not what the rest of us might consider the future.  The future to our politicians is tomorrow or the next election cycle at best.  So they have no care to the long term effects of the decisions they make or the legislation they pass - say 30 or 40 years in the future.  What they really care about is the effects on the next election and how they can look good and the other guy look bad.   Everything that is said and done and every piece of legislation and every vote is weighed and calculated for political capital.

Far be it from any of these people to honestly sit down in a room and try and come up with ways to address these colossal issues that face our nation without degrading into "my party versus your party."  Or trying harder to prove the other guy wrong than to actually work with him to find a solid solution for something.

Everything is about what can I say or do to make him look bad and make me look like the good guy.  There isn't going to be any room for good solutions in that kind of environment.  Let me do something against the other guy's will - almost just to spite him - and then pat myself on the back for it and toot my own horn because I'm the good guy and he lost out.

So reading that article today really drove home how far gone our politicians are.  And how screwed we are as the general public.  What exactly is the benefit of passing a resolution in our Congress that goes counter to our Commander-in-Chief's war plans?  Why have a Constitution if we're just going to place all the power squarely on Congress?  Why do we even need  a President or an Executive Branch?  And when did the people bestow this power upon Congress?  Because the Constitution is pretty clear on the President's duty in a time of war.  They didn't leave a lot of room for misinterpretation when they wrote that part.  They didn't say the President has to run all his war plans through Congressional committees.  No.  The President is THE Commander-in-Chief.  Not the chairman in chief of the war committee.  The buck stops with him.  Right or wrong.

But it's not even about that.  I understand why they are pulling these political stunts.  It's the same reasons the opponents of the President have continually postured against everything he's done.  Doesn't matter what the subject is or what the President's position is, it's wrong.  If he says less troops, there aren't enough.  If he says more troops then it's an escalation.  If he says he's keeping Rumsfeld then he's an idiot.  If he replaces him then it's proof his policies were a failure.  If he sticks to his strategy then he's too inflexible if he changes his strategy then it's the wrong strategy.  It really doesn't matter what his strategy is/was/or will be - it's always a failed one.  Man I've got this figured out.  This game is easy.  And the greatest part about this game is that because the President is responsible for the war - no one in Congress has to take the heat for anything that goes wrong; only the President does.  So endless criticism is the perfect political weapon.  Because there are no consequences for those in Congress if we fail in Iraq.  It'll be time for mountains of "see I told ya so."  There is truth in saying "it's the President's war" even though it's really ALL of our war.  There will be consequences for us all if we fail - not just for the President.  I don't see how it's possible to assume that we can just go ahead and leave Iraq without having any consequences to face as a result.

Bringing the troops home before the job is finished would be the single greatest gift a President has ever given his political enemies.  Far and beyond even Watergate.  The resulting chaos in Iraq and the rest of the region and the impact that would have on the world would be the stuff of legends.  How can we assume that everything would be fine if we left?  What kind of callousness do we have ingrained upon ourselves to be ok with that action?  How can we assume we wouldn't pay a very heavy price in the long term for such folly?  I think people far underestimate the determination of the people behind the violence and the bloodshed in Iraq.

And what does that say about us that so many of our politicians are pushing for a strategy of "get the troops out of Iraq"?  What the hell kind of military strategy is that?  And how do you just ignore the ramifications of that?  This has nothing to do with my party is better than your party or who's going to win in 2008 and EVERYTHING to do with coming up with a solid plan to win this conflict in Iraq versus finding a way to lose everything we hold dear.  It's amazing the nature of a human being that can actually assume that his life won't change significantly if things collapse in Iraq. 

Are we the kind of insensitive people that are willing to sacrifice an entire nation for political gain?  That we're willing to essentially negate the deaths of those soldiers who gave their very lives for a cause that we ultimately decided... eh.. nevermind?  And how in the world does it not dawn on any of us that this bickering and slinging mud at everything the President says might be the catalyst to infuse more resolve and more support into our enemies?

If I was the commander of a small force with absolutely no chance of defeating my enemy in a toe-to-toe battlefield fight, I would certainly be encouraged in seeing those supporting my enemy engaged in such bickering.  My outlook would turn from grim to perhaps hopeful.  Anything I could to do continue the discord would work to my advantage.  I could use the evidence of the discord in my enemy to encourage my supporters and get them to send more resources in hopes of victory.  I could use it as propaganda to boost the morale of my fighters.  It would become by greatest weapon and my greatest resource.  Is it any surprise at all that we're still engaged in this conflict in Iraq considering the message we've been sending?

There are an incredibly large number of "compassionate Americans" who are just out to help the little guy and those in need but in whatever messed up kind of logic were just fine with leaving Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq.  That is truly hypocrisy plain and simple.  You are either compassionate towards those who are being oppressed or you aren't.  You don't get to say "well I'm for people who are oppressed - but only in this country."  That's completely absurd.  No one has ever questioned Saddam's treatment of the Iraqi people when he was ruler of that nation.

And what of the Iraqis?  Don't they have some small stake in this too?  Yet they are left silent in our news.  It's all about Democrats and Republicans and dead soldiers and the President's failed policies and lies.  Funny how the very people with the most to lose in all of this bickering have no voice at all in our media.  More proof to me that we really don't care about them in the end.  Regardless of what people might say about "supporting the Iraqis" or "supporting the troops", the proof is in our actions.  And our actions seem bent on pulling out of Iraq regardless of consequences for the troops, the Iraqis, and even ourselves when all is said and done.

When these politicians speak about a quagmire, they're totally correct.  But the quagmire is here in the United States - not in Iraq.