There are a number of articles out right now on the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Historian Stephen Zunes's recent piece, which is cogent, brief, and to the point, is worth reading. (Link below.)
The commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom was wrong irrespective of how one parses the concept of "wrong": logically, strategically, morally, legally, or financially. And as Zunes is right to point out, Iraq was not a "mistake." It was the projection of power in the hopes of a payoff, though things didn't pan out as hoped. No matter. The liabilities and burdens belong to the population. (See the second link below, which addresses this point.)
I followed the Iraq war rather closely for its duration. I had chilling discussions with Iraqis in Jordan back in 2005-06, and contemplated entering the country. (Going in as an independent on one's own at that time was extremely dangerous, and my Iraqi acquaintances in Amman urged I not make the journey to Baghdad. "You'll spend your whole time hiding. There's no point," a young engineer told me.)
What the United States did to Iraq and its people is staggering, and I cannot address it in this blog post, lacking sufficient time and space. Suffice it to say that Americans were shown very little of the horrors and devastation.
While reading Zune's article, for some reason I could only think of the yellow-ribbon car magnet phenomenon. It seemed back then like every third vehicle on the road had one. The magnets made manifest both the population's good intentions and confusion on the issue. The American people had been sold a list of lies, and lacking the education to process what they were hearing from the Bush II administration, believed those lies. It is quite ordinary for Americans, especially men, to bluster and grouse about how politicians are a bunch of "crooks and liars." This sentiment is commonplace in the culture, and if you listen closely, you will hear something quite interesting: while venting these feelings, the individual does so as if those in Washington can actually hear the remarks. In other words, the venter's umbrage is voiced as if Joe Politician will receive the message and the hurt feelings to go with it. In actuality, this low-grade airing of frustrations is encouraged. As long as people are grumbling in their living rooms, their political dissent is contained. Washington couldn't be happier.
Back to the magnets. The words printed on them were "Support Our Troops." What the message said was "Support the War." To speak critically of the war was the equivalent of not supporting the troops. The two became conflated. To support the war was to support the troops, and vice versa. However, to support the war was to defend the very thing that was needlessly and pointlessly placing the troops in grave danger. The magnets might as well have said "Do Not Support Our Troops." Or more simply, "Support Dick Cheney."
At the time there was an underlying fear that being critical of the war would recreate Vietnam-era scenes of vets coming home and getting screamed at and spit upon. Understood. But are those the only options? Therefore we support a war that ends up claiming some 4,500 service personnel, wounding perhaps 100,000 or more, and precipitating a suicide epidemic among veterans, because we've supposedly learned the lessons of Vietnam? Vietnam did offer lessons, not least of which was to question the dubious assertions being made by heads of state. Iraq, like Vietnam, did not attack the United States. This was cause for automatic skepticism. A graduate degree in Middle Eastern history is not required to assess the surface of these things; logic alone would have done the trick. But when the population is disoriented and scared - because it doesn't understand what is happening - it turns to the "crooks and liars" for solace, guidance, and clarity. Every word is believed. Popular support to invade Iraq was 70 percent.
The magnets are now gone; it's rare to see one. In a way, there is a poignance and sadness to their absence - as if their quiet, gradual removal from all those cars and trucks was the gesture of a despondent population preferring to just not talk about it. One can only hope that the silence surrounding Iraq (and Afghanistan) is one of introspection and not denial.
Incidentally, what have all those Vietnam movies taught us anyway?
Zunes
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/10-4
Iraq costs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/us-public-defrauded-hidden-cost-iraq-war
