Divide and Conquer

The United States, under the leadership of George W. Bush, is showing the world a new way of destroying itself. Given the background of the past three years, it should be no surprise that our leaders don’t know how to operate our government. Mr. Bush’s idea that a big, well trained and equipped army could destroy the government of another nation and install in its place a democratic government like ours went well until a group of unorganized, ill equipped guerrillas demonstrated the fallacy of that idea.

It was ironic that the President embarked on a serious job of nation building after he had taken a firm stand against the idea of nation building in his campaign for election. The President demonstrated his ignorance of history when he attempted to design and install a government for Iraq. Paying attention in history class would have taught him that governments are designed and established by people who want a new government and are willing to sacrifice everything to achieve their wish.

Just a small amount of studying the history, religions and traditions and of the people of Iraq would have alerted the President to the hazards associated with the radical changes he attempted to bring about in their government. Common sense would have alerted him to the difficulties of attempting to use the tools of war to bring about changes in cultural and religious attitudes.

The irony of the situation is made more dramatic by Mr. Bush’s unusual efforts to convince the nation and the world that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was necessary to avoid his use of weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States. He used his Cabinet and congressional leaders to help convince us that immediate action was necessary to prevent the appearance of a mushroom cloud overhead. His assurances of a short and successful war served to ease our concerns associated with war.

The impasse in which we find ourselves at the end of 2006 forces us to face the consequences of starting a war without a plan for its execution and managing its aftermath. Our leader doesn’t know how to get out of the confused mess created by the mistakes, misstatements and alibis of the last three years. From all sides we hear different opinions. Send in more troops; tell the leaders of Iraq that we will pull out unless they disarm the local militias; talk to Iran and Syria to see if they will help reach a peaceful settlement; hold a regional conference. Only small groups of people hold beliefs that these ideas will solve the problem.

At this juncture Mr. Bush is faced with the sobering fact that his actions--from the start of the war to this date, have brought the nation to the embarrassing notion that the mess he has created may have no satisfactory solution. Adopting any of the suggestions might only make the situation worse.

At a time when we need a President to step forward with a plan that is acceptable to all persons involved—a plan that will solve the problem, we hear Mr. Bush stating that he will listen to any suggestions. Yet, he hasn’t given any indication that he is serious about adopting any plan to solve the problem.

The leaders, elected and appointed, have now begun attacking one another about what course to take. Thus, we see a new weakness growing out of this senseless war:: a nation divided against itself.

Jerry Clements 12/8/06