More Dead Marines: But the Beat Goes On ...

Ten marines died in Iraq today in the latest of what has become a commonplace act of violence in a country teetering on the brink of _________. Go ahead and fill in the blank with any word that you believe describes the current day-after-tomorrow scenario: anarchy, civil war, dissolution.

It wasn’t too long ago that the architects of this off-course steamship-into-an-iceberg war proclaimed the certainty of victory and roundly condemned those who warned against the potential for disaster that now not only looms but seems inevitable. These days they are scrambling to define the “unconditional victory” that is just around the corner, and “standing tall” not only against the enemy they still cannot fathom but the opposition at home they slander as somehow unpatriotic.

I consider myself a patriot. And I consider war an option that is sometimes the best or the only alternative. This Iraqi adventure was never more than a series of lies peddled to a frightened audience in the wake of 9-11, and those of us who did not buy into these lies have always been somehow suspect, on one level or another.

On the Bush-Cheney planet, if you are not with them you are a terrorist, a supporter of terrorism or unpatriotic. If you are famous, or a combat veteran, then you might get away with simply being “misled”. In any case, your position is not really legitimate. And just badmouthing this Iraqi debacle is actually a betrayal of those ten dead marines, a five-time-deferment guy like Cheney might pointedly insist. Instead of speaking out against it, you should “support the troops” and be sure to affix your yellow ribbon sticker to the back of your SUV.

Bullshit.

Those dead marines are hanging by the yellow ribbons of our collective national soul, where people who know better are afraid to open their mouths and yell: “I protest!”

This kind of war is a betrayal of America and the young men and women we have sent there to die for some kind of ivory tower white paper neo-cons like Paul Wolfowitz and “Scooter” Libby prepared when they were exiled in the political wilderness a decade ago. Once in power, they ignored geopolitical realities in order to advance their ideology, and this hubris has not only cost American lives but jeopardized our position as a global power for years to come.

If you dare to point out the calamity of their misguided foreign policy debacle they would have you crucified as abetting the enemy. And as we go forward we gradually become the enemy we claim to oppose. Over two thousand Americans – including those ten marines today – (and who knows how many thousands of Iraqis) have given their lives for faulty intelligence, faulty ideology, faulty strategy and faulty leadership on our side – I can’t imagine that will be much consolation for the families of those who lay cold and dead in the wake of our stubborn campaign to christen this disaster with any other name than the debacle it has proved to be.

(PS: A bit of recent history: -- From the New York Times 9/20/01:”Some senior administration officials, led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, and I. Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, are pressing for the earliest and broadest military campaign against not only the Osama bin Laden network in Afghanistan, but also against other suspected terrorist bases in Iraq … These officials are seeking to include Iraq on the target list with the aim of toppling President Saddam Hussein, a step long advocated by conservatives who support Mr. Bush. A number of conservatives circulated a new letter today calling on the president to "make a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power" even if he cannot be linked to the terrorists who struck New York and Washington last week.”)