Grand Delusions of the Iraq War

They gave us weapons of mass destruction, connections to Al Qaeda, poor and misleading intelligence, a crusade for democracy, and the ultimate non sequitur: We have to fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them here.

Now that the White House has forbidden use of the term "Stay the Course" and abandoned the old delusions, they have introduced a fresh set of delusions that they hope will stand long enough to prevail in the midterm elections.

1. If we pull out now, terrorists will take control of Iraq and its vast oil resources to finance terrorism around the world.

By all accounts, foreign fighters in Iraq comprise no more than five percent of the forces fighting the occupation. In a nation where a strong majority of the general populace believes that attacking occupying forces is justified, the foreign fighters are tolerated only as an ally in the resistance. The moment the occupation is ended, they will no longer be tolerated.

Make no mistake, unlike the occupiers, the Iraqis know who the foreign fighters are. As soon as the cover of resistance is removed, they will be evicted or routed.

2. We can still "win" the war.

We notice that the new definition of victory rarely includes the concept of a functioning democracy. The administration has retreated to the goal of a relatively stable and independent state that is not allied with our enemies. (Forgive us for pointing out that this new "victory" looks a lot like Iraq under Saddam Hussein.)

From a strictly military point of view, if you are waging a losing battle on two fronts, the only sane strategy is to pull back to one. That front and the one in which Al Qaeda is still headquartered is not in Iraq; it is in Afghanistan.

We have already sacrificed thousands of lives and billions of dollars while watching hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die in a steadily deteriorating war. There is no single independent analyst who can describe what victory would look like now – no less make the claim that it is achievable.

The cost of maintaining the delusion of victory in Vietnam beyond the Tet Offensive was some 30,000 American lives and an unconscionable number of Vietnamese lives. What will be the cost of maintaining the same delusion in Iraq?

3. Withdrawal will encourage our enemies.

It is truly difficult to imagine our adversaries being any more encouraged than they are today by the continued disaster of our occupation, by the fact that our military is bogged down and overextended, by the enormous waste of our resources, and by the loss of our influence, credibility and prestige in the world.

Far from encouraging our enemies, withdrawal would end the drain on our resources (enriching only Halliburton and other war profiteers), the strain on our military, and the decline of our reputation. It would end the distraction from our campaign against Al Qaeda and bolster our position in negotiations with North Korea and Iran.

Moreover, an end to our disaster in Iraq would end what is universally regarded as Al Qaeda’s leading recruitment platform.

The world stood with us before we began this immoral war. Only our enemies are emboldened by its continued prosecution.

The Iraq war, in the name of the war on terror, is a tragedy on the scale of Shakespeare’s Mac Beth and not all the waters of the Tigres and Euphrates will wash the blood from the hands of those who led us blindly into it.

The rationale for staying the course (by any other term) in this debacle is devoid of reason and bereft of morality. More and more, the bombastic pronouncements of our president and the neocon vision of American glory in Iraq resembles "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

The war is over. All that remains is the resolution.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE, COUNTERPUNCH AND LEFTWARD.