April 30, 2008 10:26 pm
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By MIKE COURTNEY
Like another puppet on stage, our own Mike Pence was in Iraq for his 15-second sound and video bite and talk show tour a few weeks ago. In this fairy-tale episode, surrounded by at least 100 of our own elite forces and covered by various weaponry in the air, Mike Pence, in his designer flak jacket, assured us things were going well; at least the Iraqis he talked to had the nerve to complain about lack of water, heat and electricity.
If you start adding up the cost of this video, I am sure it exceeds the most expensive of Super Bowl commercials. Maybe this is good for the troops; I hope so. But there is something terribly wrong with this picture. The video is one of the unintended consequences of our people fighting and dying and there is no end game strategy to bring them home. If Mike Pence applied the same principles to the Iraqis he states apply to us, it seems he would tell them to go dig a well, rely on the mosque and the family, go to work and work harder, fix it yourself, let the free market prevail and so on. But Republican principles apparently do not apply in Iraq.
Iraq, the Republicans say, is part of what is called the “war on terror.” The invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq was a change in strategy, from pursuing our attackers to occupying oil fields. It is not a war on terror, but rather an occupation and war on Iraq. In addition to this war, we must still hunt the al-Qaida enemy that attacked us, now presumably in Pakistan.
Our strategy includes a payroll of $250 million estimated last year alone, paying Iraqi citizens not to shoot at us, their protectors. What happens when the money dries up? They were never friends, just armed employees. The whole mess is packaged for delivery through TV, radio and print media, in a version doctored for most favorable ratings. Mike Pence, for his own reasons, chooses to be part of the problem, encouraging it to go on.
Can we at least define victory? In the beginning, victory was ousting Saddam Hussein. But after the lies that led to invasion were more widely accepted, victory became putting democracy, western Texas style, in the region. With the president dancing with the most brutal dictatorship in the region, Saudi Arabia, and kissing the king there, clearly this democracy thing needed downplayed. Then victory was bringing order to all of Iraq, but maybe not democracy as we know it. But the Iraqi government let us down, and even went on vacation without getting the job done.
One voice can do as great a good as it can bad. Through the ballot box let us do the greatest honor we can to our military and go forward with an end game, including ending Mr. Pence’s tenure in Congress. It is long past time. Our military is the best in the world. To squander this resource occupying Iraq in the face of endless tribal war there is wrong.
Mike Courtney is a Pendleton resident.
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