As the last of our troops come home from Iraq, including a couple of my friends, I want to write that I am overjoyed that the Iraq war is finally over! We should be dancing in the streets. But I simply can't feel it. What I feel instead is a great sadness. Iraq started out a bad situation to be sure, but I'm not sure our invasion helped, pushed through on false premises and almost zero forethought (remember when it was going to last a few months and cost less than 2 billion?) Of course we're not going to feel anything like a sense of accomplishment.
I'm reminded of something my dad used to say: if you get a mouthful of too-hot coffee, anything you do next will be wrong. But I''m trying to resist the feeling that everything we did was wrong, because I know that can't be the case. We must have left something of lasting value besides the unaccounted-for billions in cash and some very valuable trash (bases, tanks, etc. that are not life-giving at all.) We were going to leave a few troops to "help" but the Iraqis wouldn't let us leave them without their being subject to their laws, so we backed out of that, too. If that is what is preventing us from helping people, that's not a very good sign.
So there must have been some winners here. Who are the ones who gained? Besides companies like Haliburton (I'm sure Cheney's being VP was just a coincidence) American contractors made a killing. We may convince young, poor people to die for their country but no company is asked to sacrifice in the slightest. I only hope if I ever go to that part of the world people know the difference between America and an American.
Wouldn't it be great if our nation could give for the simple sake of the joy of giving?
I'm reminded of something my dad used to say: if you get a mouthful of too-hot coffee, anything you do next will be wrong. But I''m trying to resist the feeling that everything we did was wrong, because I know that can't be the case. We must have left something of lasting value besides the unaccounted-for billions in cash and some very valuable trash (bases, tanks, etc. that are not life-giving at all.) We were going to leave a few troops to "help" but the Iraqis wouldn't let us leave them without their being subject to their laws, so we backed out of that, too. If that is what is preventing us from helping people, that's not a very good sign.
So there must have been some winners here. Who are the ones who gained? Besides companies like Haliburton (I'm sure Cheney's being VP was just a coincidence) American contractors made a killing. We may convince young, poor people to die for their country but no company is asked to sacrifice in the slightest. I only hope if I ever go to that part of the world people know the difference between America and an American.
Wouldn't it be great if our nation could give for the simple sake of the joy of giving?
No comments:
Post a Comment