About the Iraq War

The Iraq situation will continue to fester as long as the general public has doubts about why we invaded Iraq in the first place and as long as they continue to be presented evidence that the post-war effort to stabilize Iraq has not been effective.

 

It is important to evaluate the justification for the war that was given to us before we invaded Iraq. Most certainly Americans will tend to support a military action to ensure our own safety and national security. But I don't think that they would have agreed to the invasion if our primary goal was mainly to topple Saddam so that a democratic government could be constructed.  Americans have a tendency to address real problems but we do not usually have a stomach for imposing our vision of utopia on other countries.

 

The Bush Administration says that we need to remain in Iraq so that we can address the terrorist threat there. I generally agree with him that we need to do what we can there to ensure that Iraq is not a breeding ground for terrorists that could threaten our national security. But I also think that we need an honest assessment of the United States' role in making Iraq fertile ground for such breeding. And, unfortunately, we have done more than the Bush Administration wishes to admit in applying the fertilizer.  I know I'm not the only one who sees a problem with our justifying our continued military presence in Iraq by citing conditions that were created largely by our own actions.

 

Yes, let's address those problems. But we cannot stick our head in the sand (no pun intended since we are talking about a country with abundance supplies of sand) and not hold accountable those who failed America in pre-war intelligence gathering and analysis and pre- and post-war planning.

 

It's easy to say we shouldn't point fingers and assign blame. The reality though is that you need to understand what went wrong to effectively craft a solution to address the failures. And though some may not like it, a side effect of finding out what went wrong is oftentimes finding out who did wrong.

 

There may be honest disagreement about the causes of the problems we are experiencing in Iraq. For example, was the intelligence supporting invasion manufacturered or cherry-picked to justify a predetermined course of action? Or did one or more people simply make a mistake despite good faith efforts to do the right thing?

 

When the government -- one that is allegedly by and for the people -- has a terrible record like the one in evidence in Iraq, only those officials with something to hide would insist that we avoid finding and correcting problems.