Remember We Were Wrong, Intro

Purposeful Americans once defiantly yelled “Remember the Alamo” and “Remember the Maine” to stir up national emotions. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday our children’s children yell “Remember Iraq” for similar reasons.

To me, the only question is what will they remember? What will we try hard to not let them forget?

I know it’s painful but we have to ask ourselves these questions now about Iraq. Whether mismanaged or misguided, the historical depth of the quagmire can’t be ignored. Because it has become such a brutal mess with no good end in sight most everyone now wants to hear that it was a mistake and that we were wrong to invade Iraq in the first place.

Maybe the honest answer is not correctly worded or maybe we just haven’t found a comfortable way to respond yet. We will leave Iraq behind us soon enough but maybe we need to better understand what happened before we pack up the tents so we will remember it properly.

I can not and will not speak for the world, an entire nation or much less the whole American military. In fact, I am the last person to claim any hidden insight or knowledge of modern political consensus. But with the aide of 20-20 hindsight, allow me to at least explain my lonely perspective as a citizen of this country and as a single member of the US armed forces at the time of the invasion of Iraq.

If nothing else, by writing these words, I can get it off my mind for a while.

Armed only with a thin shred of credibility, I confess I am no general, no politician, and no celebrity. My only platform is that I am an average nobody. You need not listen to my opinion and you are free to have your own. As a certified nobody, the linguistic demon I’m about to publicly wrestle with is something called “wrong”. I hope you agree that its best we leave the deep discussion of what truly defines “wrong” and its antithesis for another day. For the purposes of my meandering opinion which follows, let’s accept a common understanding of this word and just assume that there really is such a thing.

Regarding events in Iraq today, there is no question about IF we were wrong. If we open our eyes, we can see the proof in the devastating scene before us, a devastation that did not exist before we began this affair. The important question now is WHY were we wrong?

I don’t think we can simply blame Bush and Cheney for this tragedy in Iraq. The votes of our elected representatives in favor or against were mere reflections of our own confused opinions. As citizens, we all must accept our responsibility. You and I are just as much to blame as anyone else. There’s plenty of blame for everyone. Whether actively or passively, by vocal demonstration or tacit agreement, most of us allowed this war to happen. That is the essence of a democratic republic and most of us agreed to it even if we did pray for a far better result.

Individual American citizens, generally speaking, did not choose to go to war with Iraq. Even our elected representatives in Congress can all honestly say they did not choose this war. In the beginning, only my brothers and sisters in the military had a clear and defining choice to make. Practically every one of them chose the path of honor and integrity rather than jail time. The vast majority chose to follow the lawful orders of their Commander in Chief.

As Americans, we were all led or ordered into it by the Bush administration. I remain convinced the members of the Bush administration allowed themselves to be led into it by the endless recalcitrant threats of Saddam Hussein.

With all the best intentions but still the question lingers. Why were we so wrong?

We must remember this. Before 1998, it was not the slippery policy quest of America to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Long before 1998, it was Saddam Hussein’s stubborn policy to one day make America and her allies pay dearly for misjudging him.

Between 1992 and 2002, the American public and their leaders did not openly panic about Hussein’s threat. It seemed as though we had beaten him once and we could beat him again if necessary. Some of us waited patiently for our chance to do exactly that. I admit, during that long decade, I was anxious for the cards to play out.

Even though he spoke the pragmatic truth, I recall once I was most disappointed to hear Prime Minister Blair use the phrase “containment policy” in reference to Iraq. I felt we were really not resolving anything that way, only pushing the inevitable confrontation off for a later date. But, honestly, after hearing Blair speak, I reluctantly felt I could live my entire life without that confrontation ever taking place if that’s what everyone wanted.

I believe our British allies up until 2001, although I can offer no direct proof of this, were most insistent that Iraq remain contained instead of directly confronted in a prolonged way in spite of Hussein’s determined attempts to subvert that policy. Perhaps the British leaders didn’t think their public would be as easily convinced as their American cousins. However justified, American leaders at the time seemed to agree while I and those like me were stuck in a forgettable revolving door of miserable deployments to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, trying to contain Hussein.

I understood the reasons. Containing Iraq with relatively little funding and manpower year after year made it easy for American and British citizens alike to live a normal life, forget Hussein’s threat or to assume that it had been effectively eliminated.

But the governments of America and her allies could not forget because our armies faced this persistent menace every day for years. He tested our patience and our restraint constantly during this time. Even if seriously hampered, rumors and insinuation continued to swirl across the oceans suggesting Hussein still intended to someday make good on his threat.

It’s tempting to say all that changed after the events of 9/11/01 unfolded. It’s tempting to say that on that day we tragically realized the urgency of Hussein’s threat too late.

But that isn’t true.

On the contrary, in spite of official arguments, without unveiling a single damn thing you don’t already know, I can confidently confirm to you that Hussein’s threat remained as determined, viable and unfinished on 9/12/01 as it was on 9/10/01 and our reasonably accurate awareness of that danger remained constant the whole time.

So what did change?

The only changes that I could see occurring as a result of 9/11 were our government’s response to it and the heightened fear or willingness of our citizens which allowed them to respond in the panicked and vengeful way that they did.

We all know what happened next. First, we allowed the speedy cleansing of Afghanistan and the violent search for Osama bin Laden’s head in the mountains of Tora Bora. Then, instead of just containing Iraq, we all allowed our government to unleash our military forces on Saddam Hussein in a display of shock and awe. And we allowed them to do this unilaterally, with only the slightest nod towards the diplomatic concerns of other nations around the world.

We may now say and prove how we were misled but I know how many Americans felt. I can tell you during that time I was supervising part of the effort to train, equip and organize manpower for some of these operations. When Afghanistan started, I had no shortage of motivated volunteers. I even had retired service members calling me, begging me to overlook the standard administrative and physical requirements so they could squeeze back into a flight suit and join the battle.

We were all pissed off and rightfully so. We found some quick if uneasy comfort in the fact that those who had directly harbored bin Laden, the peasants of Afghanistan, the foolish and the wise, the guilty and the innocent alike, all paid the price for our anger.

But, if we were any way right about Afghanistan, why were we wrong about Iraq?

Before I finish this, let me say that I do not accept the inside-job conspiracy theories that abound on the internet. If you search for such fodder, then you might as well get off the bus now. I have nothing for you.

I think it’s proven that members of the fresh 2001 Bush administration had long been on board with the concept of forced regime change in Iraq. Still today, I’ve seen no evidence to suggest they had a correct understanding of what it would take to actually push that idea through to the end. I also think it’s clear, based on their inept and bumbling activities in the months leading up to 9/11, that they were in those days uniquely incapable of mounting an effective attack much less convincing a wary public of the need to do so.

In fact, they were only later deemed worthy in that last area of propaganda exploitation.

I think it’s also reasonable to assume that these folks in the White House had some warning that something bad was about to happen although they were not sure of when, or where, or how. Regardless of the details, they certainly guessed the correct result of a 9/11-style event long before it happened. They knew their world would be turned upside down if it did happen and their precious political skins would be judged, rightfully or wrongfully, by their immediate response to it.

As far as their ability to secretly initiate the issue, do the detailed thought and planning necessary to force anyone’s hand and then carefully cover their tracks, I see no evidence before, during or after 9/11 to suggest they were even remotely capable of any of that.

In my opinion, we hired the wrong folks to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and that's something we should definitely remember.

On to the Beginning ...