Reflections Before War, March 18, 2003
As the grim determination of our nation’s leadership brings us to the brink of war with Iraq, almost certainly within this very week, I wonder what kind of a world my peace-loving child will inherit. I wish and pray for an eleventh-hour reprieve, some way to avert this war, yet I watch helplessly as the sense of inevitability of war, calculated for months by our leaders, becomes war itself.
Not that this war will likely be among the bloodiest in history--Iraq has little means to resist U.S. forces, and a smashing U.S. victory will likely be declared soon, with some regret for a few mishaps and more civilian casualties than we would have liked. Each American life lost will be valued within our nation more than each thousand Iraqis killed in the conflict. This distortion in our valuing of human life, so painfully obvious to the rest of the world, especially to the Arab world, will be invisible to most of us in this country. Invisible, too, in our celebrations, will be the true cost of this war.
Saddam Hussein will soon be captured, dead or in hiding, no longer in power in Iraq, and many will be glad for this, not only in our country, but in much of the rest of the world, too. I will not lament the fall of Saddam, for he is indeed a bloody tyrant, who in his lust for power has committed many atrocities and done great harm to his nation. If there were any justification to take action against him, it would be this. Instead of seeking to undermine the international court, our leaders should be strengthening it, and ideally, Saddam Hussein would end up in trial for crimes against humanity.
But this has not been the primary justification for war against Iraq, only a minor side theme. Instead, the focus has been on a flimsy link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, and on a threat to the United States from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In other words, the focus has been on our own safety and self-interest. (The aspect of self-interest involving oil is not even whispered, even though it surely factors into the equation, too.) From this standpoint, our actions are utter folly. I do not deny that there is some risk Iraq could develop nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, and that these could end up in the hands of terrorists or perhaps being used by Iraq itself against Israel or the United States in some kind of death-wish attack by Saddam Hussein. These are the nightmare scenarios that have been used to justify preemptive war. Yet ongoing intensive observation and inspection of Iraq by the U.N. may be our best defense against these nightmare scenarios. And to focus only on this strand of danger is to miss the entire fabric of what is going on.
To much of the rest of the world, the U.S. is looking less and less like a benevolent power, and more and more like an arrogant bully, willing to use its power for its perceived self-interest however it pleases. What President Bush intends to be heard as confidence, resolve and moral authority is in fact heard by many others, even many among our allies, as arrogance, sneering, simple-mindedness and inflexibility. He does not realize that to show evidence of inner struggle and deep reluctance to go to war would make him look stronger, not weaker. In much of the Arab world, he looks even worse--even among those who are not blind to Saddam’s evil, Bush can look more like a tyrant than Saddam. (I do not begin to equate Bush with Saddam, but we are foolish if we do not try to understand how we are seen by others and why.) Even those who may rejoice at Saddam’s fall will have to feel uneasy at how it happened. How many Arabs (and others) feel deeply resentful, unheard, dishonored, unsafe and angry in a world dominated by the United States? Who else will we choose to preempt, they wonder? It is a grave decision for a superpower which has prided itself on not being the aggressor in the world to decide it is OK to strike first, with or without global support. As much as I love America, America is increasingly unloved by the rest of the world. Somehow our leaders have squandered the goodwill toward America after September 11 in an amazingly short time. Unless we try to understand why from the perspective of the rest of the world, we will be shocked by the anti-Americanism that will continue to grow.
How many young men around the globe this very day are narrowing their eyes, forming a deep resolve to destroy the United States some how, some day, by any means possible? How many new terrorists are we breeding with each bomb we drop, giving them reason to feel righteous in their cause? For they do not count the cost of war only in American lives. It is all too easy for them to return the favor, seeing thousands of American dead as not only worth less than one Arab life, but something to celebrate in its own right. This distortion of the value of human life will bring evil far into the future. It may be only a matter of time before our nightmare scenarios come true, by any of a hundred means more plausible than the one we fear at this moment.
Only by seeking to see, hear and understand the world outside our borders can we hope to bring about a better result. Only by being more humble, more generous, more restrained than we have to be can America remain a superpower for long in the world, or at least a superpower that it is worthwhile to be. For just as we can be too blind to evil elsewhere in the world (easily characterized as a "liberal" fault), we can all too easily overestimate our rightness and become blind to our own nation’s potential for evil (perhaps a more "conservative" fault). The true cost of this war, ironic coming from an administration which prides itself on moral rightness, is the loss of America’s moral standing in the world, the polarization of the global community with serious damage to international institutions, and the feeding of a cycle of violence, destruction and danger which will undermine our safety and our freedoms far into the future. Military might alone will not save us from this fate--we will need a true moral authority evident not only to ourselves but to others, built patiently with restraint and good will.
Unfortunately, patience is not a common American virtue. Typically, when war is over, Americans quickly lose interest in the rest of the world. We tend to think of war more like a football game than as part of an endlessly unfolding story. Our leaders do have a dream for the future--a dream of democracy in Iraq, peace in the Middle East, the elimination of terrorists and tyrants, and a benevolent Pax Americana brought about by our invincible resolve and military might. I’m sure we will not forget the part about military might, but how long will we be willing to follow through on the costly and complex work of building peace, democracy, justice, and global well-being (a task in which a unilateral, military-based, self-interested and self-righteous approach is surely more of a hindrance than a help)? Will we really do what it takes to rebuild Iraq, or, having cast out the demon of Saddam, will we leave a void into which seven more demons will arise? Will we help rebuild meaningful institutions of global governance, or just rest on our own power? Will we really listen to the painful stories of the people of the world, and be willing to enter the realm of uncertainty, complexity, and soul-searching about our role in that pain and what possible paths there can be to a better world? Unless that world is one in which a sense of global citizenship begins to take root, in which all human beings are seen as having value and in which we respect our connections to each other and to the global environment upon which we all depend, I believe our hope for a peaceful future is in vain.
That is, unless President Bush and his advisors are really right. Perhaps there is some truly devastating and immediate threat from Iraq that they know about but for some reason they cannot share. Perhaps they have a far better plan and strategy for the future after this war than I can realize. Perhaps the Iraqis themselves will truly feel liberated from Saddam and persuade the rest of the Arab world that the war was a just cause. Perhaps war really will usher in opportunities for peace and democracy in the Middle East and the world. Though I am afraid we are making a huge mistake, I would much rather be wrong than to have all I fear come true and be able to say, "I told you so."
Just as there are almost certainly errors in President Bush’s perspective, there are almost certainly errors in mine. I can only pray that my errors are the greater ones, for I see nothing that can stop this war from occurring. I pray for our troops, and I pray for all people who will be affected by this war, that their sacrifices will not be in vain. In the final analysis, no matter what the truth may be about the best path we can take to bring about a better world, I wish to remain open to that truth. For the sake of my own child and all the other people of the world, I can only hope our leaders have the courage and humility to wish for the same.
OK, George W. Bush, I'll say it once, with deep sadness for our nation and with anger at your craven lies: I told you so. You didn't deserve the trust so many people gave you then, or even the credit and hope I tried to give you. Five years, four thousand American lives, perhaps a million Iraqi lives, and at least half a trillion dollars later, with no end in sight, I say, Shame on you.
We must not forget; we must shine light on the horrid legacy of this administration, and put an end to war by lies.
