The Iraqi regime has used diplomacy as a ploy to gain time and advantage. It has uniformly defied Security Council resolutions demanding full disarmament...
The danger is clear: the capability to use chemical, biological, or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfil their stated ambitions and kill thousands of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other...
Under Resolutions 678 and 687, both still in effect, the United States and our allies are authorised to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction...
Today, no nation can possibly claim that Iraq does not possess the capability to create and develop and terrorize the world with weapons of mass destruction. And it will not be rid of this capability so long as Saddam Hussein holds power. [bold words added]
What would have happened?
Nobody can know or will ever know, unfortunately.
Americans who lived through this dark era (that is not over despite the election of Barack Obama) will forever know that this war, like the majority of wars, did not have to happen.
Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the Project for the New American Century crew will be on news shows from now until the last unit of combat troops is withdrawn from Iraq. They will be on the defensive because public opinion is now, thankfully, somewhat at odds with them. (But, think about it---six years after the war and members of the media are now willing to allow a debate on the Iraq War to take place on the airwaves. How terrible is that?)
As architects and supporters of the war defend the case for war (despite the fact that the Iraq Survey Group and other entities have proven that many of the architects’ and supporters’ arguments are blatantly false), military families who think their sons and daughters have made a great sacrifice will struggle to defend and justify their son’s or daughter’s (and in some cases, sons’ or daughters’) decision to go fight and “defend” this country.
Those responsible for the war (anybody in government over the past six years who did nothing to stop the war) will offer platitudes as band-aids for the wounds that may never heal in the souls of parents and young soldiers who gave up so much because they believed in this war.
Perhaps, truth and reconciliation can mend the wounds in some way or another. The truth that this war was waged on false pretenses may liberate and turn those deeply affected into warriors for peace, justice, and freedom. With truth, those deeply affected may wish to reconcile with the victims of this war---millions of Iraqi civilians---and also, may wish to call for the prosecution of those involved in the war who have allowed for war crimes and crimes against humanity to be committed so that so-called freedom could be protected.
The most difficult thing to do for those involved, however, will be to reconcile with the idea of supporting the troops. Those yellow ribbons and red, white, and blue ribbons with “support the troops” on them will always remind them of the Iraq War.
Soldiers will tell you that many of them want out and would resist the war if they didn’t feel so good about the fact that many Americans support the soldiers’ efforts.
Matthis Chiroux, who has refused to redeploy to Iraq, has described this reality---the reality of being thought of as a coward if he refused to fight:
We have been inundated for the longest time with this “America” and “we support you the troops” and there’s this intense love and respect and after I got out of basic training, I went back to my hometown and people were jumping off the sidewalks to thank me with tears in their eyes. All of these things, all of this “support the troops” rhetoric, actually makes it so much harder for service members to break away from the party line. Because they see, wow, I’m a hero now. My country is so overwhelmingly moved by my sacrifice. If I walk away from this, I’m going to be letting my country down.
If Americans start asking the question “Support the troops’ efforts for what?” then Americans may begin to realize that the sacrifice may not be worth supporting after all.
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