Mission Accomplished

Saddam Hussein was hung in Iraq today and with him dies my naivety that the world would be safer if it had one less brutal dictator. Several years ago when George Bush began the journey that has led us to this point in history I supported the President’s decisions. The attack on the World Trade Center was brutal and personal and America’s continued safety seemed to warrant a swift and decisive response. As the president led us into Afghanistan to destroy the strongholds of the Taliban (no rhyme intended but enjoy it anyway), I believed he made the correct decision. A year later, I watched Colin Powell argue before the U.N. that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. When neither Biological nor Chemical Weapons were found, I still supported President Bush, because he was correct that Saddam Hussein was an evil man. Even if Americans were not in danger, the thousands of Iraqis whose husbands were killed, wives who were raped, dancers that had their feat broken, and pianists that had their fingers cut off for not supporting the Sunni party line justified the demise of Saddam’s oppressive regime. Some men are worth forcing out of power for the good of the people.

But now, 3 years later, Hussein is gone, Bin Laden is out of power and as an American I’m now more afraid of the current state of the world than I was before. The “Axis of Evil” persists. Iraq prepares to substitute one ruthless dictator for another. Iran and North Korea attempt to stockpile nuclear weapons. In the face of such abject failure with the best of intentions the question must be asked - Where did Bush go wrong? So many Political Commentators have simply blamed America’s disastrous international policy on George Bush’s leading us into a war we had no business being involved in. Yet this argument, to me, is not convincing because Bin Laden and Saddam were criminals that deserved to be brought to justice. Maybe American lives would have been spared if we had not acted, but justice would not have been better served.

I think the better answer is that Bush (and I) underestimated the strength of the forces of evil that Americans were fighting against. Real evil is not simply 19 men with box cutters crashing a plane into a skyscraper. Evil is not that easy to pin down and destroy. It pervades the human spirit in little ways that implicate us all as criminals. The Taliban is a product of human greed. We can destroy the influence of Osama Bin Laden, but unless we can defeat the forces that obligate the primary cash crop in the country to be opium, we will never completely surmount the influence criminals have on the people. Saddam is gone, and still the two differing factions of Muslims in the country tear it apart in an attempt to lead the nation in what they believe to be the right direction for their homeland. Each faction insists that God is on their side and thus they are willing to maim, kill, and die to insure victory for their side. As Americans attempt to help Iraqis navigate this process, the Iraqis (justifiably) distrust our suggestions due to America’s deplorable history of leaving countries they collaborate with worse off than before their presence was established in the country. So where do we go from here if evil turns out to be stronger than we thought and a part of us all? ... Well, you’ll have to read my next blog to find out!!!