Operation Iraqi Freedom is Over, or, What Makes The Right Mad is That We're Winning

August 18, 2010: combat troop withdrawal from Iraq began ahead of schedule. There are now 50,000 soldiers left behind in Iraq to oversee general security. By winning, I don't mean we won this war. I mean it's a victory for those who opposed the war that we elected a new president who did what he promised.

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I'm still dazed that the cause that burned so fiercely in me for the past seven years--fury that inspired me to become a political blogger, rage that pushed me out into the streets along with hundreds of thousands of other people despite news organs slavishly devoted to pushing Bush's message, a white hot resolve that kept me fired up to elect a president who would respect rule of law and reject the Bush doctrine--now has suddenly come to an anti-climactic end.

Millions mobilized around the world to protest this unjust war.

Now it ends not with a bang, but a whimper.

It's caught me up short. Mingled with my despair over the needless deaths, American and Iraqi, or over the tatters left in our social fabric and political institutions is ...relief. Relief at no longer having to be angry, because it's been exhausting to sustain almost a decade of outrage. And some regret too that it seems President George W. Bush, his crony Vice President Dick Cheney and fellow warmongers Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Rice, and others, will never receive justice for the war crimes they committed.

What's consolation in all of this is the joy that so many servicemen and women will experience upon being united with their families. I'm thrilled for them. I really am. The overwhelming majority of our military served with great honor. They were tireless in carrying out the mission they were given. Some even objected to the war's justification with enormous personal courage--not from the sidelines, after the heat of battle, but as they were called to serve.

They paid an enormous price...and how can I say this honestly? They did so while many of the rest of us obligingly went shopping when asked.

We as a nation took a long time to decide we'd collectively made a mistake in listening to George W. Bush. We seem to be arriving at a similar conclusion about the wisdom of our objectives in Afghanistan. It took a long time to get people ginned up for war. It'll take a long time for us to untangle its seismic meaning, put the furniture right, and clean up the broken pieces.

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The broader significance, as I look back over just the past few weeks is this: we have a new president who did what he said he'd do.

• Operation Iraqi Freedom is officially over.
• Elena Kagan is now the second stellar woman President Obama has nominated successfully to the US Supreme Court.
• Green economic investment is up. (There was a 230% growth of private investment since 2005 worldwide; the US funded $400 million from the Recovery Act and was urged by private business to increase that from $5 billion to $16 billion per year for the next several years.)

Proposition 8 is one step closer to being struck down as unconstitutional. If the DOJ doesn't act to pursue its appeal of DOMA in the next 60 days, the judge's ruling that portions Defense of Marriage Act are unconstitutional will stand and that anti-marriage equality law may also be a relic.

GM, that wreck of a car manufacturer that was about to evaporate just 18 months ago? Is now poised to present an (IPO) Initial Public Offering--sell its stock to re-capitalize--after finally turning its business around and successfully building electric and other cars that run on alternative fuels.

This past year we had a major health bill and a major financial regulation bill passed. We may yet get our climate/energy bill, and perhaps immigration reform.

Ripping up the blank check that was Operation Iraqi Freedom will help our bottom line. (It won't be free, but it won't cost what it did previously. Next, Afghanistan.) Domestically, we could let the Bush tax cuts expire in January. This is helpful because 18% of us want to either let all Bush tax cuts expire or 51% say let them expire on the people making $300,000 a year and higher--again reducing our deficits.

There's more of that kind of laundry list here.

Is it nearly impossible for us to believe that we're winning? As progressives are we by nature unable to revel in our successes? Have we been taught too well to amend, qualify, hedge? A useful reflex when we're the opposition, but not so helpful when we're the party in the White House.

I understand the impulse to be cautious about doing an end zone dance. Look who declared "mission accomplished" too soon, and has looked like a fool ever since.

But if we can't believe we're winning because we lack faith in our little steps forward, we should know we're winning because the disloyal opposition is throwing everything it has at us to slow us down. If not stop us outright. If it can demoralize us it will. If it can drive us nuts from the illogic, it will. If it can split us off from a united purpose, it will.

The opposition is terrified, and you know why? Because we must be making progress. In spite of the difficulty of what we have to achieve. (It's lonely out here in this uphill optimism, but apparently I'm joined by sister MOMocrat Karoli and... Eugene Robinson. So be it.)

Here's an example of why reaching beyond the status quo is hard:

The GOP: war without end is a jobs program.

The Democrats: a green economy puts people back to work.

See how easy it is to unite behind the GOP's proposition? Plenty find it amenable for religious or war profiteering reasons, or maybe because it's the way it's always been. Status quo. Past experience shows us this is true. It's an easy track to follow because the skids have been greased by a well-entrenched military-industrial complex. It's also easy to unite in opposition to endless war. Being anti-war is easy. When it stops with a whimper, the sound of crickets is loud. Being pro-peace is harder.

But not only do we have to prove the Democratic proposition true, we have to build the bridge there first before we can cross it and plant the victory flag on the other side. If we lack faith or resolve, how will we convince a fickle and scared public to follow us? The green economy is the one sector that's growing, but those shoots are fragile and need watering. Already Europe and China outpace us on green economic investment.

What is our united purpose? Rescusitating the American middle class and making sure there's a safety net for the most vulnerable. To do that we'll need more and better Democrats in the House and Senate.

We were powered by outrage before. We must be powered by an unshakeable commitment to rebuilding our country now.

All this hysterical vitriol, this poisoned political atmosphere? They're scared we're winning. Let's put some earplugs in and win some more.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. Her garden of 22 tiny little watermelons are the only things keeping her going on some days. She plans on enjoying every single one, if it takes til Halloween.

Comments

[libhomo]

You have forgotten the 100,000 plus mercenaries Obama has left in Iraq.

[Cynematic]

@Libhomo, thanks for reading. I have *not* forgotten the mercenaries; that's what Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's H.R. 4640 Stop Outsourcing Security Act is for. I discuss it in this piece, Women Can End the War in Afghanistan (http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2010/03/women-can-end-the-war-in-afghanistan-we-know-the-cost-of-war.html). To read about it directly, go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jan-schakowsky/stop-outsourcing-our-secu_b_473886.html

I think it endangers national security to rely on mercenaries. Blackwater/Xe is currently for sale; at the same time they provide security for the State Department and high level elected officials. What if a hostile nation were to purchase Blackwater/Xe? You and I both see the difficulty; I'm guessing we both oppose the use of mercenaries on principle.

Also, when the president first announced the plans to drawdown troops from Iraq, it was clear that drawdown would commence by August 31, 2010, and be complete by the same time in 2011. There's nothing deceptive going on here.

Finally, as of March 2010, there were about 370,000 US troops stationed worldwide (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/deploy.htm). Reduction of combat troops just recently in Iraq has not been factored into this number, from what I can tell. Nations where we have troops include Germany and Japan. Are you concerned about them as well? Those two nations have had US troops since the end of WWII, from what I understand.

Overall, I'm saying: This is what it looks like to have won the 2008 election. We voted to get out of Iraq, and in substance we have. As opposed to John McCain, who probably would've added more troops plus "bomb bomb bombed Iran" by now.

[Lawyer Mama]

Not every contractor in Iraq - or any war zone - is a mercenary. There are not 100,000 mercenaries in Iraq. Can't say I agree with having companies assume inherently governmental functions, don't get me wrong. Contractors should not be fighting, or even performing "security" in my opinion. (I've written extensively about Circular A-76 and the outsourcing trend.) But there are a large number of contractors in non-combat supporting roles because we're fighting two wars with an all volunteer force that is more than stressed to capacity. We can't do it without contractors. We can't even come close.

While it's great to be happy that President Obama has done what he said and "ended" OIF, in reality, this isn't some sort of huge homecoming. Every month, thousands of soldiers go home to their families, but every month, thousands of soldiers leave their families as well. Many are on their 4th, 5th, or even more, deployment. Instead of going to Iraq, they're going to Afghanistan. If they're lucky, they'll spend a year at home before they go back again, not counting the months of training time when they'll be separated in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan. For another year or even more. I have friends who have spent half of their marriages separated from their spouse, with small children who sometimes forget what their mommy or daddy looks like.

I certainly don't have a solution; I wish I did. Nor do I blame Obama for a situation he didn't create. It's a celebration, yes. But let's not celebrate too hard.

[Cynematic]

@LawyerMama, thanks for the clarification. It's true, not all contractors are mercenaries--plenty of contractors, like those profiled in the ProPublica series Disposable Army (http://www.propublica.org/series/disposable-army), work in food service or other necessary non-combat-related jobs. Many of those aren't even citizens of the U.S., but foreign nationals. And of course there are lots of high level contractor jobs with varying degrees of sensitivity that are not combat-related.

Stop Outsourcing Security seems dormant right now, but as it was written here's what it would do:

"The Stop Outsourcing Security Act would restore the responsibility of the American military to train troops and police, guard convoys, repair weapons, administer military prisons, and perform military intelligence. The bill also would require that all diplomatic security be undertaken by U.S. government personnel. The White House could seek exceptions, but those contracts would be subject to congressional oversight."

(http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/23-1)

I'd really like to see people already in the military be trained and paid to do sensitive tasks, not private sector people being paid 10x to do the same thing. Culpability, chain of command, fairness in pay--all these lines get blurred uncomfortably for me and become opportunities for war profiteering. We've all seen the atrocious KBR/Halliburton/Blackwater stories. The Bush administration wrote blank checks to these private security forces and it's no exaggeration that billions are unaccounted for. I don't want to see the Obama administration go down the same path.

And I understand that the military we have is stretched to its limits, as you rightly say. But there's the rub (that Obama inherited): thanks to Bush we entered into two wars we were inadequately prepared to wage, and never required that the costs appear on our national balance sheet (until Obama) and never required the American public to share equally in the sacrifice whether it was through higher taxes to actually pay for the wars or through a draft.

"Instead of going to Iraq, they're going to Afghanistan." <-- Yup. Horrible shell game. And why I want us to get out of Afghanistan too. On top of questionable goal-post moving and what's achievable there, also so the endless rotations can stop.

It's like the 80/20 rule...get 80% right and let the remaining 20% go for now til you can fix 80% of that 20% bit. Winding down in Iraq to the extent that we have feels about 80% of what we can do now. If we can wind down Afghanistan 80%, then it'll be the long, laborious task of working on the parts that are left. And surprisingly, this is where I'm really "conservative" (as in the bar is super-high for me before I'm willing to spend blood and treasure)--in the future, I don't think we should wage wars if we can't pay for it or make sure it's adequately manned/womanned.

Regarding "celebration"--it's ambivalent for me because while I voted for Obama to get us out of Iraq, which he did, I also helped elect into office Obama who said he'd step up operations in Afghanistan, which he did. And which I've always disagreed with.

But I do know Obama keeping his word on Iraq pisses off the hawkish right, AND THAT GIVES ME PLEASURE. :)

[Cynematic]

More on war profiteering/dubious use of American taxpayer money to pay military subcontractors: http://www.alternet.org/world/148019/military_subcontractors_bribing_u.s._personnel_with_prostitutes_the_shady_world_of_war_contracting_in_afghanistan_and_iraq/

:(

Take care of our military first. Then clean up this mess! I want to know who in the Pentagon is accountable for keeping track of these expenses.

[VA Home Loans]

It is far from over. The depleted uranium will increase the death rate and infant mortality for hundreds of generations to come. Hooray we won. Humanity has been lost.