Happy Holidays

The United Nations has released a report claiming that 3,709 Iraqis were killed in October, making it the deadliest month for Iraqis since the US invasion of their country in March of 2003. Also in October some 110 “coalition” troops were killed, including 106 Americans – the highest monthly count in 2006 and the 4th highest monthly total since the invasion. My question – especially to my Congressional delegation – is this: If a “pre-mature (?)” withdrawal from Iraq will only make matters worse, how many more innocent Iraqis will have to die so we can say we stayed “long enough”?

Just as in the time of the Vietnam debacle, our government finds itself floundering for answers and options. Bush says ‘Stay the Course’, Democrats say ‘Year of Transition’, Murtha says ‘Regional Redeployment’, and McCain and Lieberman say ‘More Troops’. All the while, more and more Americans say ‘Bring them home’. And don’t discount the Iraqis who more and more say ‘Yankee go Home’. The slogans are as offensive today as they were in 1968 – “Standing them up so that we may stand down”, “Putting a Vietnamese/Iraqi face on the effort”, “If Vietnam/Iraq falls, so too will the rest of the region”. We now have a new one from the military, “Go Big, Go Long, or Go Home”.

In January, after American troops have spent yet another Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s Day away from their loved ones; after more families receive word that their soldier will be coming home in a box; and after thousands more Iraqi women and children have proven their “resilience to violence”, there will be a new Congress. What course will they set? Who will lead? Who will say this must stop? We know from one of the “real” lessons from Vietnam that the only way to stop an administration bent on war is to pull in the purse strings. Will this new Congress have that courage? Senators Murray and Cantwell and Representatives Inslee and Larsen will you lead or simply repeat the tired line, ‘It’s more complex than you know’?

Will more Iraqis die when we leave? Yes, absolutely. Will they eventually become stable and self-governing? Yes, as much as they ever have. Will we have learned from this experience? Only time will tell.

Peace (if you want it),
Chad (The Left) Shue