Too Many Americans Still Live in Fantasyland on Iraq
by Mary
Juan Cole points to a poll that shows 49% of Americans believe that the war in Iraq has made the US safer and only 15% believing it has made us less safe. This in an increase from last year where 47% of the public believed that. So despite the fact that the majority of Americans believe that Bush lied about WMD to take us to war in Iraq, too many do not understand the true damage this war has done to our country and its security. Sadly, only 39% of the respondents to the poll realized that the war in Iraq was a distraction to the real war on terrorism, while 49% continue to believe that it was central to the war on terrorism.
Another poll shows that 49% of Americans doubt that Iraq can become a peaceful nation that enjoys freedom and democracy, yet a plurality (46%) believe that is more important to stay until Iraq is peaceful and free than those that believe it is time to look to bringing our troops home (44%).
Folks, this indicates that there is still a long way to go before the American public really understands the consequences of Bush's war of choice. A significant portion of the public buys into his canard that we are fighting terrorism in Iraq so we don't have to fight it here in the US. And they are still being propagandized into believing that Iraq was a necessary part of the war on terror.
Those who live in reality-land must continue to pound away at the lies that Bush and his lying cohorts spew because we will not end his destructive march until enough Americans demand that it stop. The American public somehow must come to understand that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and it was unnecessary despite the lies of the administration and their media appeasers.
One good example of how to do this was the major foreign policy speech that Barbara Boxer gave last Friday to the Commonwealth Club of Northern California. Here is how she started her very powerful indictment of Bush's lies that led to the war in Iraq and her proposals for getting our country back on track in Iraq.
...[B]ut the war in Iraq is the most daunting [issue we have to face]. Because the status quo of Americans dying, of Iraqis dying, of young soldiers coming home in the thousands with injuries to mind and body weighs so heavily on all of us and the American people. As a policy maker I must push as hard as I can for a strategy that can succeed in Iraq and bring our brave men and women home. That will only happen if we immediately have credibility, accountability and responsiblity. That we bring credibility, accountability, and responsiblity to a war that has been lacking in all three.
In this speech she laid out a proposal for setting a real plan to bring closure to the war on Iraq. She pointed out that one of the largest problems we have today is there is no well-defined mission.
I believe our mission is Iraq should be this: Security for the Iraqis, provided by the Iraqis. Very straighforward mission, very clear mission. We need a Manhattan Project to train the Iraqi soldiers and a successful plan to tighten the borders which should include troops from around the world. And what about our democracy goals? Yes, we must help the Iraqis create a government in which everyone has a stake, including the Sunnis, it's very important. But, while we are likely to continue to play an advisory role, if we are asked, we cannot tie troop levels to goal of a well-functioning democracy, which even under the best of circumstances takes generations to perfect. ... It takes a long time to get a perfect democracy. Ours certainly did. And that brings me to this point. The administration continually compares Iraq's struggle for democracy to our country's struggle for democracy. Fine. But we fought for it with our own people. That's what countries do. Others helped us to be sure. But the people power was American. If there is to be a free Iraq, and I certainly hope that there will be, then the Iraqis must want that freedom and be willing to defend it as much as we want it for them. We need to hear from the administration exactly how many Iraqi forces are needed, how to meet that goal and by when. The current pace will not cut it.
She described what the security situation is like in Iraq from her visit to Iraq in March. She reported that even inside the Green Zone, each of the visiting Senators had two machine-gun armed guards that went with them everywhere. As she said, it is not safe in Iraq.
Finally she talked about the need for responsibility. She noted that we have a requirement to fulfill our obligation to our soldiers by providing adequate equipment, training and support while deployed and healthcare when they come home, to the American public by giving them an understandable mission and making sure they know the truth, and to future generations. As she said, it should be our mission to leave the world better than what we found it to be. To do that, we must find a way to bring the war in Iraq to an end.
A major impediment to bringing that about is the fantasyland that too many Americans inhabit. The American public must realize that ending this war is essential if we want to get our nation on track once more. Our country will never have a way to overcome terrorism as long as a significant proportion of Americans think that we were right to go into Iraq because of 9/11. Reality can be painful (and many Americans fear facing the truth), but it is the only answer we have for charting our path forward.
