The people have spoken, and the official word is that we are all tired of the Iraq War. Even President Bush acknowledges that now. Presidents Bush and Clinton, in his time, probably both wanted to do the same thing, fight ‘the terrorists,? ‘Islamo-fascism,? ‘radical Muslims,? or whatever one wants to call them, but both have had to deal with an electorate that hasn’t been into it enough to see it through. Clinton used to pay attention to the polls, so he didn’t do as much as he might have liked, while Bush waited for the ‘official word? of a November election before he got the message. If we the public are confused, I don’t blame us. The history of Islam, as a religion and culture, versus the West is more than 1,000 years old. But even in my time, it has been confusing.
I’m 37, so my earliest memory of a problem between America and terrorism was the hostage crisis in Iran. I was in the third grade, so all those pictures of the revolutionary crowds and Ayatollah Khomeini’s stern face made Iran the ‘bad guy.? Then, in the 80’s, the Gulf War started between Iran and Iraq. So Iran, mostly equipped with American and Western Bloc weapons and equipment, was the villain, and Iraq, equipped with Soviet and East Bloc weapons and equipment, was the ‘good guy.? I remember reading in Time magazine about Iraq launching Soviet-built Scud missiles at Iranian cities and pulverizing neighborhoods, and thinking something like, ‘yeah, give it to them!?
Also during that time, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The Muslim insurgents fighting against the Soviet (bad guy) occupation were the ‘good guys.? Then the Gulf War and the fighting in Afghanistan ended. But with the coming of the 1990s, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and suddenly they were the ‘bad guys.? I was a soldier in the U.S. Army by then, and most of us were sent off to war against them (that was called the Gulf War, too). We camped out next to King Fahd International Airport north of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, so I found myself at the receiving end of some of those Scud missiles (what goes around, comes around). That war ended, but then our former allies in Afghanistan started attacking us, so now they were the ‘bad guys? too. They hit us overseas and in New York twice, so we went to war with Afghanistan and back to war with Iraq (Gulf War II?). Now, Iraqis are supposed to be the ‘good guys? again. They’re even wearing the ‘chocolate chip? desert-camouflage fatigues we wore when we were fighting them in 1991.
Who knows what will happen now. Unless the Democrats want to really anger their supporters, the war in Iraq will be over soon. Reading history books, major actions and events like this seem preordained, like they were supposed to happen. In the 1991 Gulf War, I worked mostly as a clerk in an infantry brigade headquarters. One thing I’ve learned while watching the senior officers hammer out a plan is that people make these things up as they go along, military commanders, both presidents Bush, the terrorists, Iraqi insurgents (whether they are the same thing or not), and everyone else. Maybe the fundamentalists, both Christian and Muslim, have it right ? it’s Inshala, God’s Will.