It's been 10 years since the U.S. invaded Iraq. I was a junior in college and my biggest concern in late 2002 and early 2003 was where was I going to go for Spring Break. I have always been aware of American foreign policy, but I generally have found myself to be indifferent (this applies to much of my life). I remember people talking about the war, vaguely, but my biggest concerns were with partying and studying. College can be a cocoon and part of the cocoon is a tendency to be very self absorbed. Rarely did you leave campus to venture out into the world. Everything you needed was in the self contained bubble. The one memory that sticks out was hanging out at my roommate's house over spring break in rural Ohio (exciting, I know) and talking about his friend who was in the Marines. I really did not know what was going to happen, but I also didn't pay attention to the lead up to war.
The one thing that has stuck with me was the lack of questioning and the almost blood-lust of people champing at the bit to go to war. If you were against the war, you were against America. There was no long term plan, there was no plan at all beyond invade and let things figure themselves out. When more details came out, about no-bid contracts for a company the Vice President used to work for, about pillaging of Iraqi art museums, of growing guerrilla warfare, of private security contracts and billions of dollars thrown around to spend on another country's infrastructure (never mind the crumbling one at home), of 100,000+ Iraqi civilians wantonly and indiscriminately killed and no sign of weapons of mass destruction, it really made you question why we invaded another sovereign country in the first place. The biggest problem I think, is the lack of remorse or regret or introspection about the lead-up to war, the actual ground war, and its aftermath whose effects are still being felt. People don't want to talk about it or dwell on the past, they want to move on. But, to paraphrase Santayana, those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. If you don't acknowledge mistakes, they will happen again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's crazy it's been ten years. A war of choice that nearly collapsed our economy and it is like it never happened. You can put a lot of the blame on the lack of introspection on wussy Democrats who refused to investigate the Iraq war in order to move forward. Can you imagine if Al Gore was the man who created the Iraq war? He definitely would have been tried for multiple crimes and the mistake in Iraq would be mentioned every other word on Fox News. I mean Republicans went crazy over Clinton's consentual sex and still talk about the Embassy attack. And what did President Obama get out of refusing to investigate the war? More cooperation or more willingness to negotiate? Nope. He got nothing. Classic Obama deal making. He gives up something and he gets nothing back.
ReplyDelete