Turning Inwards

At the beginning of this current conflict overseas, I bought in. I thought it was the burden of the American public to "liberate" foreign people from the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussain.

Over time (not to mention a liberal education at Western Michigan University), I began to see that liberation of oppressed was not the number one goal of the administration. Rather, I see the invasion of Iraq as an attempt to create an ally in the Middle East among the Islamic dominated countries. The best case scenario was the quick formation of a stable democracy in Iraq. Looking back, it was foolish to think this was even possible.

In fact, the first three to four years of the war most likely could not have gone any worse. There was a fundamental shift in American policy in 2006 that placed an increased value on the well being of the public the troops were fighting over. When this happened, America started to turn the tides of the war. For a more in-depth look at this change, I would suggest reading The Gamble. I really enjoyed the admissions of mistakes made in the book by active and recently retired officers; those admission gave the book a sense of legitimacy.

What does bother me is the attitude taken towards the war since the recent economic crisis. Prior to the economic downturn, the major negative news story had to be the war. However, once the bubble burst in the economy, suddenly all coverage of Iraq became secondary. The media coverage may have been biased, but it provided a check on the progress of the war. If George Bush would have realized that the economy caused the focus to shift off of the war, maybe he would have tried to tank the economy sooner.

I understand why this shift has to happen. Domestic policies are much more important because they affect us. There are tangible effects to the economic crisis, such as my father losing his job or I, as a recent college graduate, really has to search for even the most common of jobs ('Would you like fries with that?' suddenly does not sound so bad). I get it, I'm really concerned about the future of the economy as well.

That being said, people are dying and have no clue where they are going to live the next day over in Iraq. People in the States are losing their bonuses due to greed and may have to penny pinch over the next few years. It is not the same.

Worse yet, the economy will bounce back, whether that is a year or two, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to secure victory over the next two or three years. If the US leaves now, the government will collapse and sectarian violence will engulf the entire region. Add to that the fact that major players in the region hold nuclear weapons now, and this is not something Americans can afford to ignore. On the other hand, does anyone really want the United States to be there for the next 15 years?

I'm not saying economy stuff shouldn't be reported or even lead off the evening news, but Americans also need to be concerned about the land where we are sending troops to fight a war. Failure to talk about the war will not make it go away.