Confidence
in Iraq conflict waning, lacking
Patrick Creaven
There is no Santa Claus.I was 8 years old when I heard those five devastating
words. I was in line to play four-square when a big, mean, ugly fifth-grader
decided to stomp all the innocence out of
my Santa-loving childhood.
There were still three weeks before Christmas. I wanted to believe the fifth-grader
was just playing a mean joke. Finally though, my stint in purgatory came to a
crashing end. I snuck outside on Christmas Eve and from the backyard I watched
my Dad stuff the stockings.
That was 13 years ago. But now I again find myself trying to believe in something
that probably isn’t true.
I want to believe Iraq is going to be OK. I want to believe one day I will be
able to sit down with my cousin, who has gone on two tours to Iraq, and talk
about how he made the world a better place. I want to believe Iraq will become
a beckon of freedom in the Middle East and will spread democracy throughout the
region.
Excuse me from stealing from Martin Luther King Jr., but I want to believe that
one day little Shiite, Sunni and Kurd children will live in a nation where they
are not judged by their ethnic background, but by the content of their character.
My heart wants to believe all of these things. But my brain is telling me it
isn’t going to happen.
After the fifth-grader got the idea into my head there was no Santa Claus, I
tried to justify to myself there was an old man living in the North Pole. Sure,
it sounds crazy that elves make presents all year, then on Christmas Eve Santa
jumps in his sled, and with help from his flying reindeer, drops off toys to
good boys and girls around the world.
I wanted to believe it, but the more I thought about the logistics, I realized
it wasn’t possible.
Now I’m at a similar crossroads. Sure, it sounds crazy that you can take
over a country, implement a new government, put together an army from scratch
and peacefully leave with a stable democracy in place.
I might be fooling myself again, but I do think there is at least a chance this
terribly run war might work out. Maybe Iraq will discover its own Abraham Lincoln,
who will be able to unite the many factions in the country. Maybe, but probably
not.
What concerns me are the people who truly believe Iraq will one day be a great
democracy and haven’t got anything right about Iraq so far.
There was President George W. Bush saying in his argument for war that, “The
Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It
is seeking nuclear weapons.”
Then there was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claiming American forces would
be treated as liberators saying, “There is no question but that they would
be welcomed.”
Finally, Vice President Dick Cheney in June 2005 said, “I think they’re
in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”
Wrong, wrong and wrong. When Bush gave his State of the Union Address a few weeks
ago, I can’t say I was feeling too “confident.”
“
I am confident in our plan for victory; I am confident in the will of the Iraqi
people; I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military. Fellow citizens,
we are in this fight to win and we are winning.”
Oh how I want to believe you, Mr. President, but I’m afraid you are stuffing
the stockings.
Patrick Creaven is a senior journalism major.
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