Is it legitimate to blame war critics for a loss of will in the Iraq War?
Most critics of the war have not been calling for immediate US withdrawal. On the contrary, prewar opponents of the war understand (more clearly in many cases than prewar cheerleaders) that by occupying Iraq, the US took on moral, legal and practical responsibilities for Iraq's present and future.
The Bush Administration largely has itself to blame for the current lack of confidence in the ongoing Iraq War, in America and abroad. Their false prewar claims about "weapons of mass destruction" and connections between Iraq and 9/11; their arrogance in alienating every other country (except Britain) that could have provided more than symbolic assistance; their grotesque lack of postwar planning. All that was a setup for a serious drop in public confidence when a guerrilla war situation developed.
Then there was Bush's post-9/11 appeal for how the public could support the new War on Terrorism: travel all you want; shop till you drop; and, most of all, PAY LESS TAXES. Bush has spent the time since asking the wealthiest and most privileged Americans to make especially large contributions of the latter type.
Conquering Iraq was quick and easy, at least for the folks back home watching the exciting new reality-TV show, "Operation Iraqi Freedom." But occupying and reconstructing Iraq is not quick or easy. And it has to be paid for in tax money and the blood and suffering of American soldiers. Not by pleasure trips and shopping sprees.
- Bruce Miller
Hearing: Nina Hagen and Apocalyptica, "Seemann"
Tags: bush administration, iraq war
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