Points of contention highlighted in yellow.
As President Bush has stated, the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is abhorrent and deserves to be punished under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I commend the Secretary of the Army and the Department of Defense for their speedy investigation of this incident, and their follow-up administrative review of prisoner protocol. From all the many young men and women I have spoken with in the military, this kind of behavior is clearly the exception, not the rule. Our mission is to aid the Iraqi people.
The Center for American Progress tracks down all dates and players. If Paul Bremmer, the chief administrator in Iraq, was "kicking and screaming" about this in the Fall of 2003 does is still count as "speedy?"
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) also wondered why Rumsfeld didn't bother to mention anything about the situation when he was briefing Congress. Remember, oversight is what Congress does.
However, we must not allow this incident to overshadow the progress being made on a daily basis in Iraq. There are those in the Arab world and elsewhere who are constantly on the lookout for signs of American weakness in the war on terror.
While there are no obvious points of contention here, it is meant to misdirect us from the fact that prisoner torture is wrong by pointing out that people want to hurt us. There will never be a time in history when somebody, somewhere will not want to hurt the United States or see us fail. In no way does this condone the torture of prisoners. It never has and it never will. Trying to associate the investigation with American weakness is a dirty trick. Compassion and a show of humanity is not weakness, nor is showing concern for a group of people other than ourselves. Also we must not let the fact that good things happen shield us from the horrors that happen in Iraq, they must be dealt with. For those honestly curious about the progress being made in Iraq, USAID has a site with extensive records and archives.
Even in America, there are some who seek less to punish the offenders than to exploit this incident to discredit the war and advance their own political agenda. These actions only serve to further harm our relations with the Iraqi people, and endanger the lives of our soldiers trying to keep the peace.
It's like being at an NFL game, looking at the score board, noticing that you are 14 points behind and telling your friend that, "hey, we better score some points or we will loose." Then your friend asks you why you hate the home team. Not only that, but he encourages the people around you to start throwing things at you. To add insult to injury he then goes to the press booth and has them train the cameras on you and has John Madden start making fun of your shirt.
What is making life more dangerous for our soldiers is enforcing the image of America The Bully. Nobody likes a bully. Ignoring the Geneva Conventions is a fatal mistake for our soldiers made by the people in charge that should have known better. JAG knew this better than anyone, and tried to prevent this. CAP asks the question: Knowing this decision would undermine the U.S. military culture and lead to the abuse of prisoners, why did the Administration ignore the advice of the State Department and JAG lawyers?
In light of this setback, we must, as a nation, push forward to establish a free and democratic Iraq.
It is said that the first step in getting out of a hole is to stop digging.
However, progress and reconstruction is steady, and continues despite these remaining violent elements in Iraq. Schools are being rebuilt, water supplies purified and delivered. Energy is reaching millions of households. The free press is flourishing, and millions of Iraqis are aiding recovery by engaging in their fledgling commercial society. Civil liberties, virtually unknown under Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, are being experienced by the Iraqi people for the first time.
Bechtel is "rebuilding" many of the schools in Iraq, this much we know. What isn't exactly clear is how well are they doing? There are reports of old schools simply being repainted with no actual infrastructure work being done. This should be a matter of "who do you believe, us or them," especially since we know that bad news doesn't move up the chain very well.
The electricity situation is also up for debate. But a CPA memo from March 2004 shows that the PR line may not match what is really happening on the ground. This comes from inside the CPA, the people who we trust to run things. "Despite repeated assurances over the past year from CPA chief L. Paul Bremer that Iraq's electricity situation has vastly improved, the memo says otherwise, reporting that there is "no consistency" in power flows. "Street lights function irregularly and traffic lights not at all ... Electricity in Baghdad fluctuating between three hours, on and off, in rotation, and four hours on and off."
Now to the issue of the "free press." The closing of the Baghdad newspaper Al Hawsa did little to sell the Iraqi people on our intentions of liberating them and installing democracy. Yes, the paper was accused of "inciting violence against coalition forces," but the closing of the paper had that very effect. The "coalition" must stop putting itself in situations where on either side of the coin is a loss.
The idea of "civil liberties" should also be viewed through Executive Order 13303, which some have interpreted as making Iraq a lawless area. Also the revelations that have come to the surface in the Abu Ghraib, which showed that Iraqis were sometimes randomly jailed, without charges. Yes, you can be held without charge in the US for 48 hours. Some prisoners there are just now being released.
Now, more than ever, I believe in the just nature of our mission in Iraq. The construction of a free and democratic society, where previously no freedom existed, is our singular goal; self-determination the precedent we are working to establish. Not without setbacks, Iraq and the larger war on terrorism have the potential to result in more peace, freedom and security in the Middle East and around the world.
While freeing people from a dictator is indeed a noble and just cause, we cannot separate the intention from the implementation. Our implementation has not gone well, as Donald Rumsfeld has finally admitted. It should be noted that this just cause was the third and final attempt to sell this war to the public, with WMD and terror links being the first two that were tried. The administration has always felt this was a product and not a cause.
Some in the United States have questioned exactly what is the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Whether or not their questions are politically motivated, they do deserve answers. Estimated spending on Operation Iraqi Freedom totals about 1% of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - about same as Gulf War in 1990. In comparison to past wars, Vietnam was 12% of GDP, Korea was 15% of GDP and WWII was 130% of GDP. Sensationalist media accounts of soldiers killed in Iraq have led some to make irresponsible comparisons between the death toll in Iraq and that of the Vietnam War. To clarify this misconception, 726 American armed forces have died in Iraq since the beginning of combat operations in March 2003, with over 200 of those listed as non-hostile, or accidental deaths. By comparison, 58,000 soldiers died in Vietnam.
The cost of the war is measured by many metrics, with the tragic loss of life being just one. If the was truly about the safety of the United States then we should see if we are safer. Are there less terrorists in the world now? Has al-Qaeda been dealt a death blow? Does the world hold a better opinion of the United States now? The Whiskey Bar also points out, sarcastically, that Iraq is nothing like Vietnam.
Others have asked whether or not Operation Iraqi Freedom was justified given the discovery that Saddam did not posses weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The question is erroneous. American intelligence thought Saddam had WMD. French, British and Italian intelligence thought Saddam had WMD. We now know that even Saddam thought he was developing WMD, and was hopelessly deceived by his own scientists. In the words of President Bush, Saddam Hussein was a "grave and gathering danger" to the world. Hindsight does not change this fact, nor the urgency of our response.
The question is not erroneous. If we went to war for a reason, and we find out that reason was bogus, how does that make the war justified? It makes it a mistake.
As the war on terrorism progresses the enemies of freedom are slowly but surely losing ground. Afghanistan and Iraq were opening acts, and still require our close attention. But the real issue is whether America will continue to demonstrate our commitment to the longer war. Can we continue to sustain pre-emptive actions against terrorists across nation-state boundaries? Or will we fall victim to appeasement, and standby until the next 9/11?
He really saves the best for last, and by best I mean "most infuriating." It is widely known that the war in Afghanistan is being ignored. Funds and resources were being drained away even before the invasion of Iraq. The "opening acts" statement sounds like it is straight out of the Project For A New American Century paper where world domination is the only solution. Even if we could dominate the world it would not stop terrorist attacks. "The constant realization of dominance results in fear."
The linking of 9/11, or the "next 9/11" with Iraq is really quite astonishing. This is a fight that we don't want to loose. That means we have to do it right. It means we have to fight in the right places. People who criticize the war in Iraq are not saying that we shouldn't fight terrorism, but rather that we should fight it and Iraq is not where it was. Oddly enough because of our attack on Iraq, terrorism against the US is in Iraq. One might make the argument that attacking Iraq was appeasing al Qaeda. It certainly gave them great footage for a recruiting video.
All in all this was a very effective letter. It spent very little time addressing the actual issue, Abu Ghraid, and was filled with enough talking points that it took me three hours to dig up all the information to put into this response. That's my representative!
