The Surge
To the Editor, The Gazette:
Sir,
Through unchallenged repetition, it is becoming the general view that "the surge" in the Iraq war has succeeded.
The implication is that those of us who oppose this war do so because we thought the United States might lose, and have therefore been shown to be in error about our position opposing the surge and the war itself. This was never true.
My opposition to this war has nothing to do with whether we could "win" it or not. Of course the USA has superior military strength compared to Iraq, which can only be considered an impoverished third-world state.
We cannot "win" an unprovoked attack on another nation. The world is full of nations ruled by despots; we have not previously felt obliged to invade them for that reason alone. Our policy in the past has been to support internal forces of democracy and oppose such states on every front diplomatically, economically, and politically; we have rightly struck without mercy if we or our allies were attacked. For this reason, I supported the first Gulf War.
We have abandoned that honorable policy, which George H.W. Bush followed in the first Gulf War, with a new policy of unprovoked, pre-emptive war. The damage to Iraq and its citizenry has been appalling, but of far more concern to me is the damage to our own nation's honor, character, and self-respect.
In hopes of heading off the inevitable claim that I do not support the troops, I feel our military has done a superb job, fulfilling their only obligation, which is to execute our nation's civilian leaders' orders completely and professionally. I am myself a veteran of the Viet Nam war; I volunteered and served with honor in spite of my personal feelings about that conflict. It is our leadership's ill-conceived adventurism to which I object.
No military success brought about by the "surge" can redeem the immoral impulse of our unprovoked invasion of Iraq.
J. Michael Riley
1136 Chambers Dr.
Colorado Springs CO 80904
jmyke2000@comcast.net
719-632-9853
posted by Mique @ 8:11 PM
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