I feel there is an error I must correct that I have found in reading about the Iraq war in both liberal and conservative articles. Everyone continues to simply state that having a stance either supporting or opposing the war is enough.
I served in 2003 in the invasion and in 2004 during the occupation. I had the opportunity to meet with a wide variety of Iraqi citizens and talk with them. I don’t feel I have a clear stance on the war, and I certainly can’t classify the whole conflict one way or the other.
I’m not asking anyone to support or protest the war. I’m asking for more educated opinions and for people to look at the war in parts, not as one whole; to see gray areas, not just black and white. It’s too large and too complex to have a blanket opinion about the whole conflict. Know why you support certain aspects and not others, have real arguments, not just “Make love not war” (the reused slogan of a recent on-campus peace protest) or “We’re spreading democracy, liberating the oppressed masses of the world” (the standard reasoning I get talking to conservatives).
Today’s political culture is becoming more and more polarized. Hard right, hard left. Anti-war, pro-war. Pro-choice, pro-life. Our world is far too complex to have such polarized and simplified stances on important issues, and I feel we have a duty as citizens of not just our nation, but our world, to be better informed and take into account the complexities of something like the Iraq war in order to truly attempt to better the world we live in. Don’t be color-blind, Bruins; see beyond just black-and-white issues.
This right-wrong mentality ignores, first, that no war is simple and can be judged wrong or right in its entirety, and second, that the current Iraq war has at least two very distinct portions: invasion and occupation. Not taking into consideration the differences of these two portions is to have a flawed view of the war. There are a few main differences that illustrate my point.
The objectives of the invasion and the occupation, while related, are not the same. During the invasion the goals were the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath party government, discovering weapons of mass destruction and preservation of infrastructure. The occupation has the goals of reconstructing the nation, building a democratic government and containing the insurgency. While the truth or validity of these goals may be under debate, the objectives in the two parts of the Iraq war are clearly different.
The two parts are more clearly defined by examining the enemy. During the invasion the primary opposition came from Iraqi regulars, soldiers armed with equipment and with uniforms (although most of them shed the uniforms once the invasion began). They were conventional forces in a relatively conventional conflict. Once the occupation began, foreign leaders and insurgents started becoming active in large numbers, shifting the primary enemy from conventional Iraqi regulars to a mix of foreign leaders and young local recruits using unconventional guerilla warfare.
The invasion was a fluid conflict, with the military moving toward clear objectives, usually another city on the path to Baghdad. There was a sense of accomplishment as objectives were achieved. It was far more popular among both military personnel and Iraqi citizens, especially in the southern Shia areas. Most people wanted Saddam Hussein gone and welcomed his removal, heralding American and British forces as heros.
The occupation is more convoluted and static. For the military, sitting in defensive positions, often under cease-fire agreements that the insurgents never honor, while making only small headway, causes deep frustration. For the people, the longer the military is there, the more fighting and destruction happen. American bombs and insurgent bombs all leave the same holes, the same wounded, and who is really to blame doesn’t much matter, except the Americans will pay you for your dead.
Carter is a third-year transfer political science student. He served four years in the Marine Corps as support personnel with an infantry unit. He was deployed to Iraq in March 2003 for the invasion and again in the summer of 2004 to Fallujah for the occupation.