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Grim Moral Challenge
If
the United States is going to fully accept its coveted role as world
leader, it has to take that role seriously. Our national decisions often
have international ramifications. As a democracy, we often place short-term
political gains ahead of long-term responsibilities, both here and abroad.
Our position as pre-eminent world leader has
become questionable since the invasion of Iraq. While it is true that
we proved the irresistible power of our military might, that failed logic
of the bully resulted in less respect worldwide than we enjoyed previously.
Allies drifted away as enemies multiplied and collaborated.
It's not that our allies dislike us. They no
longer trust our judgment. They did their best to warn us. Instead of
listening to their combined wisdom, we slapped them in the face and made
it clear we don't need them. We don't need anyone. We have smart bombs
and the means to deploy them. It's that kind of attitude that made them
shrug their shoulders and relectantly turn away.
The United States is still the military and economic
giant in the world, the only nation that has the wherewithal to maintain
international stability. They know it, and we know it. But guns and money
aren't enough. They know it, and hopefully we are learning that now.
To reassert our position in the world, our moral
position, we have to face a grim challenge that almost none of our leaders
care to think about.
The Bush administration brought us into an unforgiving
war by misleading legislators and citizens alike. This misadventure has
led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and shows no sign
of coming to an end. It has drained our tax dollars, which the administration
was so concerned about lowering in the first place. It has ruined what
tenuous reputation we had in the Middle East, and opened a recruitment
flood of potential terrorists. Al Qaeda is more widespread and powerful
than ever now that we seemingly proved their allegations of imperialism.
By refusing to talk with nations that are problematically threatening,
such as Iran, Syria and North Korea, we have thrown away what diplomatic
solutions might have otherwise been found, even as they point to the possibility
of future wars.
These
indictments are uncontestable. We witness them unfold on the news every
night—to the anesthetizing point that we've lost our outrage of all
the death and turmoil this administration has caused, in our name.
What's
missing in all this is accountability. There has to be a political consequence
for all this willfully consistent blundering.
With that in mind, I pose three important questions that will decide the moral future of our nation:
-
If we do not hold this administration severely accountable for its misdeeds,
what message does it convey to future administrations? We need leaders
who will not rush into war, arms filled with pride and ignorance.
-
What message does it tell the world, who look to us for leadership,
if we do not hold them accountable?
- How will we ever regain the trust of our allies if they conclude that the United States puts up with such disastrous results without swift justice and moral reform?
No
matter what your party affiliation, no matter if you're conservative or
liberal or anything in between, we have to recognize how seriously wrong
it is to bring the nation into war under knowingly false pretenses. What
greater crime could a free nation make? (Global warming, perhaps, but
that's another topic.)
Only those who are completely enamored by the
name of America, and not its meaning, would think otherwise.
We are morally attached to the tragedy of Iraq
which we instigated. As Colin Powell warned, but the president ignored,
"you break it, you own it." The invasion was an arrogant, ignorant
mistake that most of us ignored because… because why? Because
a terrorist group from another country successfully attacked us. Our pride
was so bruised that only a triumphant parade in Baghdad could possibly
compensate.
Our pride became so effusive that we completely
ignored the stated reason why Al Qaeda attacked us in the first place.
It was not an attempt to bring down western civilization. It was to get
American soldiers out of Saudi Arabia, which they consider a religious
mandate. They saw our presence on Arab territory as a cultural threat.
Our subsequent incursion into Iraq, to the eyes of many Arabs, proved
them right.
And so now the problems become more ingrained
every day. The administration believes that if we just send more soldiers,
kill more of the enemy, things will eventually iron out. In other words,
despite everything, they still have no clue as to the real problems and
mindset of the enemy. What we have is a faith-based policy of war—faith
in guns and the strange hope for eventual success by doing everything
wrong.
The American people, they conclude, want a president
with inflexible resolve. Right and wrong are no longer part of the equation.
We have sat back too long as a people and let
incompetent leaders make a mess of everything they touch. This is a democracy
after all, they are supposed to represent us.
It's time to hold the Bush administration accountable
for the moral outrage of an unjust war. We have impeached presidents for
infinitely less. This one needs to be impeached, along with his vice-president.
Only by doing so will we show future administrations
what we expect from them.
Only then will the world look to us as a nation
of moral leadership.
Only then will we earn the trust of our allies,
as we face the uncertainties of the future.
If we don't hold the guilty accountable, we might
as well close all our prisons and let all the criminals go free.
Criminal charges should be looked into as well,
to make sure that presidential candidates of the future take their vocational
goal seriously. It's not about ego. It's not about playing to one's base.
It's not about kissing babies and waving at a crowd. Its not even about
effective oratory, or religious affiliation.
If we've learned anything from the Bush administration,
we've learned that it is about competence, intelligence, new, inspired
vision, not vision from a can. It's about long term planning, telling
the truth in no uncertain terms, respecting the American people enough
to listen to them.
The Bush administration has left us with two
dismal choices that should never have been ours. The first is to continue
to stay and die in Iraq to avoid the proverbial bloodbath that we would
then be responsible for. The second is to leave, and let the bloodbath
that we endure escalate. Either way, we hold the burden of this administration's
half-baked plan to transform the Middle East. The deaths and suffering
of hundreds of thousands of people are on our heads.
Is this what people wanted when they voted for
President Bush? Is that what we want now? No? Then they had better screen
this next array of candidates more seriously, because we're hearing some
of the same old garbage.
We don't need celebrities or cowboys in the oval
office. We need that rare breed of American leader that our nation was
founded on.
