PRESIDENT ‘BRING IT ON’ MOUTHS OFF
I also just read an opinion column in The Washington Post. “The Toll on American Innocence” spoke the effects the Iraq occupation is sure to have on the American national psyche.

The author spoke of his friend who, “likened the Bush administration's implacable march into Iraq to Britain's mobilization for the deadly morass of World War I and America's self-inflicted wounds in Vietnam.”

“I am sorry for America," the author’s friend continued. "You are stuck. You have become a country of the Middle East. America will never change Iraq, but Iraq will change America. To survive, you will have to develop a sense of irony."

Now, we hear of almost daily attacks on American troops in Iraq. It is so sad the horribly difficult position the president is putting our troops in. I understand they didn’t enlist in the military to play tiddleywinks, but defending OUR country was probably high on the list for many of them.

Our soldiers are an occupation force in a country where the people, as much as they may have hated Saddam, clearly want the soldiers to leave sooner rather than later. They have to “win the hearts and minds” despite being in an unfamiliar climate, in an unfamiliar culture, where they don’t speak the language, where they weren't invited and apparently not especially welcome.

Given all the problems they’re having restoring even basic services, it’s almost as though the Pentagon brass prepared for every eventuality except quick success! Such things are always difficult but when you come in as self-appointed liberators, high expectations accompany you. Iraqis may have hated Saddam but they liked drinking water. Most people aren’t keen on chaos.

And then you’ve got the macho taunts President “Bring It On” Bush uses. How reckless can the alleged leader of the free world be? If they do indeed “bring it on”, it’s not the president whose butt is going to be on the firing line. How gallant of the president to have other people’s sons and daughters back up his tough guy bluster!

But perhaps I should say WHEN they bring it on, not if. Because the risks faced by American troops won’t go away any time soon. Empires have a lot of unpleasantries associated with them. The Brits and French learned how hard and complicated they were to maintain. The Brits and French didn’t give up their empires because they were militarily defeated in India, Algeria or sub-Saharan Africa; they did so because their publics back home wouldn’t support prolonged wars of attrition. Eventually, both discovered that empires just weren’t worth the hassle. But it took the deaths of countless people in far away lands before they had this epiphany. If President “Bring It On” doesn’t see this light, I hope he at least maintains enough prudence to keep his mouth shut when doing otherwise involves risking the lives of other people’s sons and daughters.