| I have watched with heavy heart and
mounting dread as the ever-precarious battle to bring security to
post-war Iraq has taken a desperate turn for the worse in recent days
and hours. Along with so many Americans, I have been shaken by the
hellish carnage in Fallujah and the violent uprisings in Baghdad and
elsewhere. The pictures have been the stuff of nightmares, with bodies
charred beyond recognition and dragged through the streets of cheering
citizens. And in the face of such daunting images and ominous
developments, I have wondered anew at the President's stubborn refusal
to admit mistakes or express any misgivings over America's unwarranted
intervention in Iraq.
During the past weekend, the death toll among America's military
personnel in Iraq topped 600 -- including as many as 20 American
soldiers killed in one three-day period of fierce fighting. Many of the
dead, most perhaps, were mere youngsters, just starting out on the great
adventure of life. But before they could realize their dreams, they were
called into battle by their Commander in Chief, a battle that we now
know was predicated on faulty intelligence and wildly exaggerated claims
of looming danger.
As I watch events unfold in Iraq, I cannot help but be reminded of
another battle at another place and another time that hurtled more than
600 soldiers into the maws of death because of a foolish decision on the
part of their commander. The occasion was the Battle of Balaclava on
October 25, 1864, during the Crimean War, a battle that was immortalized
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his poem, "The Charge of the Light
Brigade."
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Tennyson got it right -- someone had blundered. It is time we faced
up to the fact that this President and his administration blundered as
well when they took the nation into war with Iraq without compelling
reason, without broad international or even regional support, and
without a plan for dealing with the enormous post-war security and
reconstruction challenges posed by Iraq. And it is our soldiers, our own
600 and more, who are paying the price for that blunder.
In the run up to the war, the President and his advisers assured the
American people that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq. For a
brief moment, that outcome seemed possible. One year ago this week, on
April 9, 2003, the mood in many corners of the nation was euphoric as
Americans witnessed the fall of Baghdad and the jubilant toppling of a
massive statue of Saddam Hussein. Less than four weeks later, the
President jetted out to an aircraft carrier parked off the coast of
California to cockily declare to the world the end of major combat
operations in Iraq.
For those with tunnel vision, the view from Iraq looked rosy then --
Baghdad had fallen, Saddam Hussein was on the run, and U.S. military
deaths had been kept to a relatively modest number, a total of 138 from
the beginning of combat operations through May 1.
But the war in Iraq was not destined to follow the script of some
idealized cowboy movie of President Bush's youth, where the good guys
ride off into a rose-tinted sunset, all strife settled and all
wrongdoing avenged. The war in Iraq is real, and as any soldier can tell
you, reality is messy and bloody and scary. Nobody rides off into the
sunset for fear that the setting sun will blind them to the presence of
the enemies around them.
And so the fighting continues in Iraq, long past the end of major
combat operations, and the casualties have continued to mount. As of
today, more than 600 military personnel have been killed in Iraq and
more than 3,000 wounded.
Now, after a year of continued strife in Iraq, comes word that the
commander of forces in the region is seeking options to increase the
number of U.S. troops on the ground if necessary. Surely I am not the
only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development. Surely, the
Administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in
Iraq will only suck us deeper into the maelstrom of violence that has
become the hallmark of that unfortunate country. Starkly put, at this
juncture, more U.S. forces in Iraq equates more U.S. targets in Iraq.
Again, Tennyson's words bespeak a cautionary tale for the present:
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Like Tennyson's Light Brigade, American's military personnel have
proved their mettle in Iraq. In the face of a relentless and seemingly
ubiquitous insurgency, they have performed with courage and resolve.
They have followed the orders of their Commander in Chief, regardless of
the cost. But surely some must wonder why it is American forces that are
still shouldering the vast majority of the burden in Iraq, one year
after the liberation of the country. Where are the Iraqis? What has
happened to our much vaunted plans to train and equip the Iraqi police
and the Iraqi military to relieve the burden on U.S. military personnel?
Could it be that our expectations exceeded our ability to develop these
forces? Could it be that, once again, the United States underestimated
the difficulty of winning the peace in Iraq?
Since this war began, America has poured $121 billion into Iraq for
the military and for reconstruction. But this money cannot buy security.
It cannot buy peace. $121 billion later, and just 2,324 of the 78,224
Iraqi police are "fully qualified," according to the Pentagon. Nearly
60,000 of those same police officers have had no formal training --
none! It is no wonder that security has proved so elusive. The time has
come for a new approach in Iraq.
The harsh reality is this: one year after the fall of Baghdad, the
United States should not be casting about for a formula to bring
additional U.S. troops to Iraq. We should instead be working toward an
exit strategy. The fact that the President has alienated friend and foe
alike by his arrogance in "going it alone" in Iraq and has made the task
of internationalizing post-war Iraq an enormously difficult burden
should not deter our resolve.
Pouring more U.S. troops into Iraq is not the path to extricate
ourselves from that country. We need the support and the endorsement of
both the United Nations and Iraq's neighbors to truly internationalize
the Iraq occupation and take U.S. soldiers out of the cross-hairs of
angry Iraqis.
And from the flood of disturbing dispatches from Iraq, it is clear
that many Iraqis, both Sunni and Shiite, are seething under the yoke of
the American occupation. The recent violent uprising by followers of a
radical Shiite cleric is by far the most troubling development in Iraq
in months and could signal America's worst nightmare -- a civil war in
Iraq that pits moderate Shiites against radical Shiites. Layered over
the persistent insurgency being waged by disgruntled Iraqi Sunnis and
radical Islamic operatives, a Shiite civil war could be the event that
topples Iraq from instability into utter chaos.
As worrisome as these developments are in and of themselves, the fact
that they are occurring as the United States hurtles toward a June 30
deadline to turn Iraq over to an interim Iraqi government -- a
government that has yet to be identified, established, or vetted -- adds
an element of desperation to the situation.
Where should we look for leadership? To this Congress? To this
Senate? This Senate, the foundation of the Republic, has been unwilling
to take a hard look at the chaos in Iraq. Senators have once again been
cowed into silence and support, not because the policy is right, but
because the blood of our soldiers and thousands of innocents is on our
hands. Questions that ought to be stated loudly in this chamber are
instead whispered in the halls. Those few Senators with the courage to
stand up and speak out are challenged as unpatriotic and charged with
sowing seeds of terrorism. It has been suggested that any who dare to
question the President are no better than the terrorists themselves.
Such are the suggestions of those who would rather not face the truth.
This Republic was founded in part because of the arrogance of a king
who expected his subjects to do as they were told, without question,
without hesitation. Our forefathers overthrew that tyrant and adopted a
system of government where dissent is not only important, but it is also
mandatory. Questioning flawed leadership is a requirement of this
government. Failing to question, failing to speak out, is failing the
legacy of the Founding Fathers.
When speaking of Iraq, the President maintains that his resolve is
firm, and indeed the stakes for him are enormous. But the stakes are
also enormous for the men and women who are serving in Iraq, and who are
waiting and praying for the day that they will be able to return home to
their families, their ranks painfully diminished but their mission
fulfilled with honor and dignity. The President sent these men and women
into Iraq, and it is his responsibility to develop a strategy to
extricate them from that troubled country before their losses become
intolerable.
It is staggeringly clear that the Administration did not understand
the consequences of invading Iraq a year ago, and it is staggeringly
clear that the Administration has no effective plan to cope with the
aftermath of the war and the functional collapse of Iraq. It is time --
past time -- for the President to remedy that omission and to level with
the American people about the magnitude of mistakes made and lessons
learned. America needs a roadmap out of Iraq, one that is orderly and
astute, else more of our men and women in uniform will follow the fate
of Tennyson's doomed Light Brigade. |
