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WORD COUNT
665
AUGUST 31, 2005
SO THAT’S WHY WE’RE
IN IRAQ – by Donald Kaul
Finally, after many
fits and false starts, President Bush has given us a good reason to
support the war in Iraq. We must fight the war in Iraq, he says, to
honor the soldiers who already have been killed fighting the war in
Iraq. In a speech to a VFW convention in Utah, he mentioned that we have
lost more than 2000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and said:
“Each of these heroes
left a legacy that will allow generations of their fellow Americans to
enjoy the blessings of liberty.
“We’ll honor their
sacrifice by staying on the offensive against the terrorists.”
Make your heart swell
with patriotic pride? Well I should say. And it makes sense.
If we hadn’t invaded
Iraq we wouldn’t have anyone to honor, would we? We might as well be
Switzerland. And the beauty of the reasoning is that the longer the war
goes on and the more of our soldiers get killed the more reason we’ll
have to fight it.
The hard-hitting
White House press corps was turned to butter by the President’s
performance. It pointed out that it was virtually the first time he had
acknowledged that American troops were dying in Iraq and Afghanistan
and, not only did he prove he knew it, he knew how many, giving lie to
those who say he’s not on top of things.
He went so far as to
mention the survivors of the dead in his speech, another first. “Each of
these men and women left grieving families and loved ones back home,” he
said.
He did not, however,
mention Cindy Sheehan, an actual grieving mother who camped outside of
his Texas retreat trying to get a word with him. She’s unhappy with his
war policy.
But you know what
they say: There’s always one sorehead who complains no matter what. So
she lost a son. She got her tax cut didn’t she?
After making the
speech, Mr. Bush went off to fish and bike at Tamarack Resort
overlooking Lake Cascade in Donnelly, Idaho.
The new rationale for
the war comes just in time for Mr. Bush. One of the old ones---that we
invaded Iraq so that we could bring democracy to the Arab world---is
beginning to look a little dicey. It seems that the Shiite majority has
adopted the Tom DeLay, winner-take-all philosophy of democracy. They
have the most votes so they can pretty much do what they want, which is
to control the south of the country where most of them live and, more
importantly, most of the nation’s oil is.
The Sunnis---who
under Saddam Hussein used to run the place and got the lion’s share of
everything, oil included---object. They want a national government that
will divvy up the oil spoils equitably.
The Kurds up north
don’t care about the Sunni-Shiite dispute so long as everybody leaves
them alone and lets them have the oil in the north.
At this writing, they
were trying to write a constitution that reconciled these irreconcilable
aims but were having imperfect success. Unless the problem is solved,
however, a civil war is virtually inevitable, constitution or no
constitution. I know, some say they’re in a civil war over there already
but if the Sunnis decide there’s nothing in a united Iraq for them and
throw in with the extremists, the resulting strife will make what’s
going on now look like an Easter egg roll.
Would we then stick
around to try and referee the fight or would we leave? It depends on how
much honor the nation can stand, I suppose. It took 58,000 dead before
the American people got truly sick of the Vietnam War.
Right now, we’re
about 3 percent of the way there.
As for me I’m going
to do my part to support our troops. I’m going to buy an SUV. With all
those kids dying to keep us in oil, it would be unpatriotic not to use
as much as you can.
--
Donald Kaul recently
retired as Washington columnist for the “Des Moines Register.” He has
covered the foolishness in our nation’s capital for 29 years, winning a
number of modestly coveted awards along the way. Email:
donald.kaul2@verizon.net -- A photo of Donald Kaul is available at
CLICK HERE
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