BATON ROUGE, La. “”mdash; In 2003, as a senior in high school, I wondered exactly what end the president and Congress had in mind when invading Iraq. Exactly four years later, I ask the same question.
Overthrowing a governing regime, weapons of mass destruction or none, creates chaos. And in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans found themselves irresponsibly short-sighted in their foreign policy.
Forcible imposition of democracy was never going to work. The enforcement of a political culture unknown to a people will never have the desired result, not under a Republican, not under a Democrat.
We know sectarian tensions existed long before 2003 ““ a factor the administration and Congress should have considered before their hasty call to arms, but a factor the primacy of our own interests deemed irrelevant.
Today we find ourselves in a disastrous situation we should have expected. And so I ask, what “end” have we achieved? For the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, tens of thousands of lives and the United States’ reputation abroad, what have we purchased?
Operation Iraqi Freedom has failed to benefit the Iraqi families who have lost sons, daughters, brothers and sisters to violence. It has brought only grief to American families, many right here in Louisiana, whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives to this war. The United States has gained nothing as a nation from the loss of respect it has suffered around the world.
Consider the consequences.
Consider that patriotism does not imply deference to the administration. Debate makes our nation’s decisions stronger, and we should be slow to label opposition as unpatriotic.
Consider that war always involves two groups of people and always involves civilians. Never do we fight only the evil, but the innocent as well.
Consider that war does not last seven days or two weeks or even four years. Destabilization will be felt long after we leave, and its victim is not a dictator but a nation.
American political conscience is slow to admit mistakes. But we must recognize that a war that was unjust in its inception will not come to a just end. Iraqis will continue to suffer because of the United States’ mistake. But American military presence will never provide a solution to the power struggle that now exists within that nation. A “surge” will not save Iraq.
Iraqis need control of their nation. Violence will continue to thrive while Iraqis live under a government propped up by the American military. No one claims that an American pullout will result in peace for Iraq. In fact, we can be sure that sectarian violence will continue. But Iraqis need an Iraqi solution for what is now an Iraqi problem, and American military occupation is only delaying the inevitable.
We cannot say who will gain power or how many more lives will be lost in the process. But the United States cannot continue to pretend it is able to dictate the future of another country.
And so, while American patriotic fervor was short-sighted and has caused suffering that will continue for years, let us hope that our memory is not. In light of the disaster that is Iraq, perhaps the United States will learn the lesson it failed to gain from past wars. Next time, I hope we will consider the consequences.
Perez is a columnist for the Daily Reveille at Louisiana State University.