We Have To Fight Them Over THERE So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over HERE
The Iraq Effect: War Has Increased Terrorism Sevenfold Worldwide
“If we were not fighting and destroying this enemy in Iraq, they would not be idle. They would be plotting and killing Americans across the world and within our own borders. By fighting these terrorists in Iraq, Americans in uniform are defeating a direct threat to the American people.” So said President Bush on November 30, 2005, refining his earlier call to “bring them on.” Jihadist terrorists, the administration’s argument went, would be drawn to Iraq like moths to a flame, and would perish there rather than wreak havoc elsewhere in the world. The president’s argument conveyed two important assumptions: first, that the threat of jihadist terrorism to U.S. interests would have been greater without the war in Iraq, and second, that the war is reducing the overall global pool of terrorists. However, the White House has never cited any evidence for either of these assumptions, and none appears to be publicly available.
It’s been a matter of faith with this Administration that the war in Iraq is all about fighting terrorism. At least that’s the rationale they’ve finally settled on. The reality is that there was no terrorist threat in Iraq prior to the American invasion, and now that there is one there, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © feels duty-bound to fight it. Talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies, eh? We create our very own terrorist threat, and then trumpet our efforts to fight that threat and keep the world safe for those who love freedom and democracy. How’s that for American ingenuity?
It would be nice to think that the efforts and sacrifices of so many heroic Americans has actually made a dent in the global terrorist threat. The reality, though, is that jihadist terrorism around the world has increased significantly since the beginning of the war in Iraq. That fact highlights the reality that the loss of more than 3,000 American lives has accomplished exactly…nothing.
Saying that the sacrifices of so many brave Americans has been a waste is not something I say lightly, but how can any reasonable person argue otherwise? What, exactly, has the deaths of more than 3,000 young Americans accomplished? Are we any closer to “victory” in Iraq? Has the threat of terrorism been diminished? Is Iraq any closer to being the American-style democratic Paradise on Earth envisioned by Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © ? I honestly wish that I could point to some sort of positive result, but let’s face reality, y’all; Iraq is this generation’s Vietnam. We’re entangled in a war that appears unwinnable, regardless of the cheerleading of Bill Kristol and other out-of-touch neoConservative zealots.
WE DESERVE BETTER. And so do our men and women in uniform, whose lives are being sacrificed for Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © legacy…and little else.
