Let’s just say for the sake of argument that we made a mistake invading Iraq. Since Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein didn’t even control all the area within his country, he posed no threat to his neighbors. Since he considered al-Qaeda to be a threat to his regime, there was no prospect of him cooperating with them. And no matter the costs and problems with our containment policy, they were infinitely more managable and affordable than the problems we have now.
So, it was a mistake. And who wants to die for a mistake? Who wants to be the last to die for a lie?
But, what if, as so many say, we have a new situation that we cannot walk away from? What if Iraq has become a real threat to our security? What if we now have a real reason to occupy that country even if it didn’t start out that way?
That is the argument that Joe Lieberman and the Republicans are making. They’re saying that we have to stay to make right what everyone now realizes was a mistake. When was the last time you heard someone ask whether we would be better off with Saddam Hussein in power? We know the answer to that question now. Of course we would be better off with him in power. Of course Iraq would be better off, and the region would better off. But he’s dead now.
What we are asking our troops to do is to go into battle under a commander that has made one blunder after another, in order to make up for all his mistakes. This is a war for Bush’s legacy.
The Republicans say that we are not supporting the troops if we don’t support the policy. But the policies have been the biggest betrayal of the troops imaginable.
At a minimum, even if we grant the premise that a broken Iraq is a real national security threat, we shouldn’t force our troops to go into battle under the command of the people that screwed this up in the first place.
If the Republicans really think we need to stay in Iraq, and they really support the troops, then impeachment of the President and Vice-President should at the top of their priority list.
