Twice a year I write an editorial for this newspaper and wish I could write about something besides the foreign policy of our government, but we are in a crisis. Inaccuracies, distortions, and manipulations abound, and sorting it all out is challenging. I came of age in the Fifties and had no doubt that Americans were the good guys. The American invasion of Southeast Asia cured me of that easy belief, though I still believe in the unrealized potential of our country.
Historically, our greatness has been defined by our idealism, our inventiveness, and our courage, but our current government dismisses not only the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Geneva Accords, but the Magna Carta as well. Signed in 1215, it is a date everyone remembers from junior high school, though unlike 1492 and 1776, it is hard to remember why it is so important. The Magna Carta’s doctrine of Habeas Corpus said “show me the proof of the crime, ” in Latin, literally “show me the body.” That is, the dead body is evidence that someone has been murdered. It came to mean you couldn’t lock someone up for no reason, if a person cannot be shown to be guilty, he must be set free.
At Guantanamo, however, prisoners have been denied this fundamental right and held four years, in violation of international law. Many are innocent. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If an Afghan told the Americans someone was with Al Qaeda the person who turned him in would be given $5,000 to $10,000. These bounties offered people an opportunity to get rid of an enemy or just to make a lot of money.
Many Iraqis hate us. In the first Gulf War, the American conducted saturation bombing that destroyed not only military targets but also bridges, water systems, schools, septic plants,and electrical generating stations. We imposed 12 years of sanctions that, according to the United Nations, resulted in the death of at least half-a-million people, about two for every hundred people. If you were an Iraqi, you probably knew a niece, or a grandfather, or a son who died of malnutrition. These statistics are well known to the Iraqi people, and by 2003, the country was on its knees.
During the first Gulf War, the US followed the Powell Doctrine. This holds that, if the United States goes to war, it will use overwhelming power and a clear plan for how to end the invasion. But Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney thought they had a better idea: use as few troops as we could, win the war, and, easy as pie, the Middle East would be a better place.
Unfortunately there is a rule of thumb in military circles that it takes 20 troops to control 1000 people in an occupied area. This statistic is based on the experiences of British and French troops controlling their colonies after they have established control. If this guideline had been followed, we would have sent in over 500,000 troops, but we sent about 150,000. We invaded “on the cheap,” so we did not have enough soldiers to establish control. Irreplaceable relics of the ancient civilization from “the cradle of history” disappearing in a few days of looting and chaos. Imagine watching the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Institution being looted by gangs while the “authorities” did nothing. More reasons for the Iraqis to hate us. Also left undefended were over 100 munitions sites that were systematically looted by well-organized, well-equipped groups. These sophisticated weapons and explosives are now killing our soldiers and innocent Iraqis.
Over three years ago, against the advice of most of the world, we invaded Iraq. Many Iraqis had hopes that their lives would improve. We had plans to build 142 Health Clinics, but instead of contracting with Iraqis and putting unemployed Iraqis to work, the contract went to the American construction giant Parsons, Inc. The Army Corps of Engineers just announced that Parsons hopes to finish 20 of the 142 clinics they contracted to build. They couldn’t do the work because there weren’t enough troops to control the situation. This is just one example of hundreds of failed plans.
A few weeks ago, I heard an authorized military spokesman discussing a big offensive the US had launched. He said the United States controlled 50% of Iraq and predicted, after many such offensives, we would control 75%. The prediction was wishful thinking, but in an unguarded moment, a bit of truth slipping out. The greatest power in the history of the world only controls 50% of Iraq.
Indeed, the illegal and immoral invasion has been a disaster. Our leadership is incompetent and have left us with a terrible dilemma: if we stay, the war, which we can never win, will never end. But our departure could lead to a deadly civil war. We hear about Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the south, but in Baghdad and in much of the middle of the country, Kurds and Sunnis and Shiites are mixed together. They’ve been getting along, more or less, for thousands of years, but there are old and new scores to settle.
We are in a lose-lose situation. It’s too late to send in more troops, and getting the Iraqi army “to stand up so we can stand down” is not as easy as it sounds. In the dictatorship under Saddam, the police and the military were often ruthless, and the situation doesn’t seem much better now. Muqtada Sadr is almost always referred to as a “radical Muslim cleric,” in the American press, and his followers have been joining the police and military in large numbers, but their loyalty is not to Iraq. Replacing American troops with the South Vietnamese never worked, nor will that failed idea work in Iraq.
Still, our leaders keep repeating we will stay “until the Iraqis can defend themselves.” Last month Donald Rumsfeld wrote an op-ed claiming, “The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. Now is the time for resolve, not retreat.” Last fall Dick Cheney claimed the insurgency was in its “last throes” and recently said that description was still “basically accurate.”
Congressman John Murtha has a more honest view. We really need to get out of Iraq. We are the problem right now, and the violence will never end until we leave. All along the neo-cons planned for our air force to stay on permanent bases (“landed aircraft carriers.”) They will use the emerging civil war to justify our need to stay. We will be able to fly helicopter gun ships and air raids whenever the US military wants.
Fortunately, the Republicans are the party that stands for fiscal responsibility and against raising taxes, so they would not have a war costing hundreds of billions of dollars without making sure it was paid for. Not! Dick Cheney told former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, “deficit spending doesn’t matter.” He meant that voters do not punish you for it, but that is ridiculously shortsighted. The Republican Party portrays itself as a party of fiscal responsibility, but they should be laughed off the court. Deficit spending has been a characteristic of underdeveloped third world countries that live beyond their means. That is what we are doing. This war could destroy our country financially. Deficit spending is a tax on our children and attacks our grandchildren.
There is no denying there is wealth in America. The riches our country offers us are impressive and seductive. Walk through a supermarket and you can see the cornucopia overflowing. We are living in the lap of luxury. Whatever you want, you can have, and if you can’t afford it, you can charge it. You can create your own personalized version of deficit spending.
To put it bluntly, our country is being run by hypocrites, liars, and thieves. In violation of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the United States plans to build 125 new nuclear bombs every year. We are now making plans to bomb Iran and the drumbeats of war sound eerily familiar.
Retired Four Star General Anthony Zinni said, “We should not fool ourselves to think (an attack against Iran) will just be a strike and then it will be over.” Iran is three times larger and more populous than Iraq. Rumsfeld is threatening to use “bunker-busting” nuclear weapons against Iran. Nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945. This threat is a great way to demonstrate nuclear responsibility to Iran and the rest of the world.
I want the United States to stand down from the bluster of “we will rule the world with our military might.” It is not working. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to stop running up debts they will have to pay. There are ways out of our current impasse. The alternative is to begin the transition to what Joanna Macy calls “the Great Turning.” We need to begin to move toward a saner, less militaristic, more humble, sustainable world. We need to begin to show some of the idealism, inventiveness, and courage that once made America great. The future is in our hands.
Douglas Wilson is a Unitarian Universalist minister and Executive Director of UU Rowe Camp and Conference Center.
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