Ownership
I've been reflecting on something lately. As more people who formerly supported the war become disenchanted with it, instead of feeling good that they are seeing the light, I'm troubled because I don't think that most of these newly minted anti-war people have, in fact, become anti-war. I suspect that they just don't like losing.
Perhaps this is a product of a video game mentality, where the pain is only inflicted in one direction. It's as if the war was OK up until the time that it started to hurt what they cared about. They didn't understand that you're only really willing to fight a war if you are willing to die to ensure victory. We anti-war people were against this war because we knew that real people were going to be horribly hurt and that the pack of lies being fed to us didn't justify that suffering. It didn't matter whether it hurt us directly or not -- we knew that each person's death would diminish us.
These people seem see it as a problem now that American soldiers are dying in increasing numbers and that it's costing the tax-payers a huge amount of money and they've decided that they don't like it anymore. Their "solution" is to pack up and go home and leave it to the Iraqis to deal with. But I don't think it works that way.
Remember the expression we heard Colin Powell use about the potential consequences of invading Iraq: if you break, you own it? Well, the "owning it" part doesn't mean you get title to it or that you can do what you want with it. It means that it's now your responsibility -- that you have to deal with it. It means that you can't walk away.
I've always felt that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was analogous to going into someone's home and smashing everything with a baseball bat and then being surprised that, not only were you not appreciated, but you were hated. But I don't go along with the notion that, at that point, you can say in exasperation: Fine, if they don't appreciate me, then I'll leave and they can deal with it themselves and see how they like it.
I don't think it works that way. I don't think the U.S. gets to walk away. The "ownership" of the problem in this case has to do with accountability, with responsibility and with consequences... and I think that in matter of the illegal invasion of a country, we're talking prosecution for war crimes and reparations for damages.
Perhaps this is a product of a video game mentality, where the pain is only inflicted in one direction. It's as if the war was OK up until the time that it started to hurt what they cared about. They didn't understand that you're only really willing to fight a war if you are willing to die to ensure victory. We anti-war people were against this war because we knew that real people were going to be horribly hurt and that the pack of lies being fed to us didn't justify that suffering. It didn't matter whether it hurt us directly or not -- we knew that each person's death would diminish us.
These people seem see it as a problem now that American soldiers are dying in increasing numbers and that it's costing the tax-payers a huge amount of money and they've decided that they don't like it anymore. Their "solution" is to pack up and go home and leave it to the Iraqis to deal with. But I don't think it works that way.
Remember the expression we heard Colin Powell use about the potential consequences of invading Iraq: if you break, you own it? Well, the "owning it" part doesn't mean you get title to it or that you can do what you want with it. It means that it's now your responsibility -- that you have to deal with it. It means that you can't walk away.
I've always felt that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was analogous to going into someone's home and smashing everything with a baseball bat and then being surprised that, not only were you not appreciated, but you were hated. But I don't go along with the notion that, at that point, you can say in exasperation: Fine, if they don't appreciate me, then I'll leave and they can deal with it themselves and see how they like it.
I don't think it works that way. I don't think the U.S. gets to walk away. The "ownership" of the problem in this case has to do with accountability, with responsibility and with consequences... and I think that in matter of the illegal invasion of a country, we're talking prosecution for war crimes and reparations for damages.
posted by Bill at 10:10 PM
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