September 13, 2006

The Dream: A World Without the Iraq War

 

Of all the paradoxes of this political season, one of the most illogical is the blind confidence of many Americans in Republicans over Democrats in the area of national security. Any reasonable review demonstrates that our nation’s safety has diminished greatly since the current leadership has taken charge.

 

We are weaker economically and militarily. We are more isolated internationally, perhaps more so than any time since the Vietnam War, at a time when we need the support of other countries more than ever. Our borders are more porous, by land and sea. Our military is severely overextended and lacking critical resources in many areas. Our enemies are stronger and more prevalent than ever before. Our human and financial resources are being squandered at an enormous scale.

 

I’m consistently reminded of Ronald Reagan’s very effective question to Jimmy Carter during their presidential debates way back when, “Are you better or worse off than you were four years ago (in this case six years ago)?” It might be useful for Democrats to show some clips of him asking that central question during the coming congressional elections or next presidential election. One aspect of a potential response became more vivid for me recently while I was fast asleep.

 

I had a dream the other night – a dream that we didn’t actually invade Iraq when and how we did. I wasn’t certain from the dream how this situation came about, but that didn’t really matter to the point of the experience. It might have been because Al Gore had become President in 2001, or because the Senate hadn’t voted to authorize the use of force so quickly and uncritically, or perhaps because our intelligence had been better, or because our intelligence providers had more courage and integrity.

 

Oh yes, of course, it might also have been because our current leadership hadn’t had an obsession for creating this war, even from before 9/11, without a clue about the reality on the ground, the potential implications of their actions or the willingness to listen to those who had relevant valuable knowledge and experience, including the President’s own father. In any case, my dream only focused on the result of this different road taken.

 

The images in the dream were fascinating and compelling. The United States still found itself at the center of a broad international coalition, created after 9/11 and including many Muslim countries, dedicated to working together against Islamic extremism around the world. Our FBI and CIA were continuing to work closely with our European and other allies, to identify and apprehend dangerous people, and to create the global political will to eliminate support for their actions.

 

The fight in Afghanistan was still proceeding, slowly but surely, fortified by the strong focus and commitment of the United States and a strong and growing international coalition. Al Qaeda’s influence had diminished significantly, as it was regrouping in Somalia, its recruitment considerably down. Iran was preoccupied with developments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. was focusing its attention primarily on that country and North Korea.

 

The United States Congress was intensively debating priorities for additional support for the strengthening of various aspects of our domestic security – ports, trains, nuclear facilities, borders, in addition to new initiatives in health and education, with the additional several billion dollars of available revenues. Our country was united and committed to securing our safety and prosperity and weakening our enemies.

 

In the dream, it wasn’t entirely clear whether Saddam was still in power. During one phase it seemed that he was still around, but under extremely close scrutiny by a greatly increased number of UN inspectors. In another he had been overthrown by some of his own military, fed up with the pride and sovereignty of their country being squandered by their leader’s obsessions. In another, he had been removed from power in 2003 by a broad coalition of countries that were assembled quite readily when Saddam attempted to evict the UN inspectors after two years of ever-tightening scrutiny.

 

Most importantly to many people, many additional American young men and women, and thousands of Iraqi’s of all ages, were alive and healthy, and contributing to their societies in many productive ways. My dream kept flashing to scenes of young soldiers and civilians laughing and talking with their families.

 

This was quite a happy dream in many ways. But it was a dream that has also left me with much pain, since I dreamed it a short while ago.