Mission Accomplished

Some 4 years ago today, major combat operations ended in Iraq, all our troops came home to the tremendous victory parades of a thankful nation and the great leadership of President George W. Bush, pushed the world away from the brink of an unstable state having WMD's and the US military began retooling and preparing for future threats to this nation.

I'm unsure what fantasy world the Bush administration was living in at the time or what they anticipated, if anything the sell to post 9/11 America was brilliant. Four years ago some genius in the White House decided it was a good idea to put the President in a carrier aircraft and declare that major operations were over. I suppose that we'd never asked for a definition of major combat operations, but suffice to say, there are many combat infantry badges, bronze stars, silver stars and even a Medal of Honor that have come from this "post major combat operations" era.

The threat from terror was there, no doubt, there are enemies to America out there. But this ramp up to war was a disturbing harbinger of things to come. The lies or misinformation about WMD's and imminence of a nuclear/biological/chemical attack on the United States, then the implied if not direct assertion from the highest levels that al-Qaeda was connected to Saddam Hussein, would lead first to the Rumsfeldian folly of invading with an inappropriate number of troops to the incredible ineptitude of the early Iraqi occupation led by Paul Bremer.

Post 9/11 was a time for tough talk. America revered the fact that it had a cowboy president. It was thankful that it had not elected the egghead intellectual who would have been as likely to run 100 focus groups, a candle light vigil, and a drum circle as the necessary attack the basecamps where the attacks on New York and Washington were born. This need for trust in papa GOP soon led to a necessity for blind faith and fidelity to the President and little questioning and dissent. Led by Vietnam/Gulf War hero Colin Powell, (likely one of the most trusted and respected men in America) we soon followed the drums of war. Shock and awe, air power, and lightning war did little to secure the weapons that would later help to arm the lengthy insurgency.

The canard is that you cannot support the troops if you don't support the war. Bullshit. One can support the soldiers and even support the mission of quelling the insurgency, getting rid of the "bad guys" that enact the very insane nature of the criminal acts of al-Qaeda in Iraq. But one must question the timing, whether this is truly part of the Global War on Terror as of 2003, likely it is today as we have upset the beehive, question whether this was the best policy and expenditure of "blood and treasure" (as Sen. McCain would put it)

The administration has consistently made our fear of not supporting the troops a part of their silencing dissent to all administration policies. To back up their stories, the government created a mythology about particular soldiers. Pat Tillman by all standards is an American hero. Giving up millions and fame to crawl around the swamps of Georgia on his way to becoming a US Army Ranger and lose his life in Afghanistan. Friendly fire was not a sexy enough death for the pentagon, who felt for some reason that being felled by friendly fire in the fog of war did not fit the public relations model for an American hero. These lies are an insult to the memory of Corporal Tillman and of that of every soldier that serves and their families.

When a supply convoy made a wrong turn at the beginning of the war, (also a folly of the early Rumsfeldian blunder of the blitz campaign, not covering your supply lines) it ran into well equipped fedayeen and a major multi vehicle accident. This led to many soldiers being taken prisoner of war and killed, including one Jessica Lynch. The fear of American women being taken POW is one of the major fears of putting women in combat situations. Private Lynch was a clerk, a young pretty blond woman from rural West Virginia. The military's spin machine quickly went into overdrive after her rescue, the media soon began to point at this quiet young lady as the "Rambo from West Virginia" and some suggestions were even made in the media to award the Medal of Honor, ignoring the fact that none of these extreme heroic acts were true as Private Lynch kept asserting that the real heroes were not getting the attention deserved.

There are many heroes in the field, NCO's, soldiers and junior officers that are on their third and fourth tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many that serve because they are making a difference on the ground, believe in their country and their duty. They are ill served by their Commander in Chief and those who have advised him on the road to war and beyond. We are all somewhat culpable collectively in this debacle, unable to speak truth to power as voters, unable to see beyond our own fog of fear of terror, fear of the unknown that came out of the terrible, terroristic actions of September 11, 2001. It is "funny" to think that on my wedding day four years ago my brother in law called from a "sat" phone in Iraq and on my fourth anniversary, he is again "downrange." Serving, as thousands of other's do, bravely and without the fanfare and arrogance of those who claim to serve and protect us in Washington, in the halls of the Capitol, the White House, the Pentagon, the neo-con think tanks and the cowardly newsrooms.

But to say there were not politicians that did not understand it over 4 years ago, is incorrect, I leave you with the words of the much maligned and often targeted Senator from Massachusetts.

It is impossible to justify any such double standard under international law. Might does not make right. America cannot right its own rules for the modern world. To attempt to do so would be unilateralism run amuck. It would antagonize our closest allies whose support we need to fight terrorism, prevent global warming, deal with many other dangers that affect all nations that require international cooperation. It would deprive America of the moral legitimacy necessary to promote our values abroad. And it would give other nations, from Russia, to India, to Pakistan an excuse to violate fundamental principles of civilized international behavior. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 2002