The Heart of the Matter

When I went into the army in 1943 I knew that I was doing the right thing, I knew that President Roosevelt was a good president who would lead the country in an honest courageous manner. The enemy was Hitler who had demonstrated his hateful, aggressive nature and was determined to conquer all of Europe. It was not in my nature to hurt or kill people but in my heart I knew that the war was a just war and that I could do no less than perform to be best of my ability every task assigned to me.

From the day I reported to the induction station, through Africa, France and Germany there was never a time when I doubted the rightness of our cause or the integrity of our generals in the drive to win the war. I felt that the men in my unit believed in the cause as strongly as I did. That is the way it is supposed to be; that is the key to winning a war.

Things appear to be different in the war we are fighting in Iraq. Many soldiers are expressing doubts about several aspect of this war that did not appear in the war I knew. It is not surprising to learn that individual citizens also are questioning the manner of our starting the war and of its execution.

The ability of the leaders in the Pentagon is being questioned as shortages of equipment is reported and ineffective training of local fighting units become evident. News of no-bid reconstruction contracts and huge losses due to poor workmanship and fraud contribute to doubts in the minds of soldiers as well as honest citizens.

Adding to the increasing volume of demoralizing news from the fighting front we read newspaper reports that President Bush ignored advice from the National Intelligence Council regarding the probability of an insurgency eruption and clashes between religious sects. Fighting men will surely lose respect for the president’s leadership as they see the local fighting growing more intense in Iraq. No amount of propaganda will offset such distressful news.

When a soldier loses faith in the President, his Commander-in-chief, he begins to question the whole idea of the war. It doesn’t take much bad news like that to make him wonder why he is enduring the terrible discomforts and dangers of war in a foreign country instead of being at home with his loved ones. He wonders who he is fighting and why. He may even wonder if the insurgents might be right in wanting to drive the foreigners out of Iraq. After a while the soldier loses his incentive to fight and the war becomes a big burden instead of a worthy cause.

The war is over when the soldiers lose the will to fight, when the cause is not in their hearts. You can’t push a rope. You can’t make an army win a battle. It may well be that we are now ready to declare our war is over. We appear ready to acknowledge the end of a war that should never have started. It was a war entered into on false premises without justification or reason. Maybe this is the time to de-classify the documents, to persuade the President and his staff to come clean about the faulty intelligence and their poor judgment.

No matter how close to the truth we come we cannot cover up the shameful facts of the war. Nothing can restore the lost limbs, demented minds and painful hours suffered by the well purposed men and women who answered the call to serve their country. There is no way to un-do the funerals of those who died in this big mistake.

Jerry Clements 5/28/07

Damage from Ignored Intelligence

It is difficult to keep a secret from the people. There are simply too many people using too many computers and cell-phones and too many people looking for opportunities to swap a little information for a few dollars. Of course we know there are things which executives should keep secret for the good of the company or of the government. For this purpose we have the Classified Document system.

When the government classifies a document the reason should be to protect the interest of the nation, not to protect any individual or political party. Care must be exercised to preserve the idea that the government is established by the people and for the people to promote and protect the interests of all the people.

When President Bush was considering the invasion of Iraq it was his duty to gather all of the facts regarding the entire operation and discuss with his cabinet all of the ramifications, consequences and possible rewards associated with the venture.

The people were led into a state of confusion when the President gave incomplete [sometimes dishonest] reasons for embarking on his plan to attack Iraq. Instead of asking his associates for factual information about the situation in Iraq he asked them to find evidence to justify the attack to overthrow the government. Information in records now being declassified makes it clear that Mr. Bush and his associates chose to feed congress and the people information that supported his plan to attack, while withholding information indicating it would be bad policy to attack.

Trouble arose when people began to ask why we were having so much trouble managing the occupation of Iraq. People began asking why we didn’t anticipate the difficulty with the Insurgents and why the conflicts between the religious sects are making the operation of the new government so difficult. They also asked why the officials sent so few soldiers compared to the hundreds of thousands recommended by knowledgeable officials. Also questions were raised as to why personal and vehicle protective armor was not provided in advance to the frontline units.

Bits of data started creeping into the news some months ago. Emergence of previously classified information supplied in reports of the National Intelligence Council confirms the fact that prior to the invasion President Bush was informed that we could expect serious trouble from insurgents and competing religious sects in the occupation procedure. Yet, ignoring the reports, the President [Commander-in-Chief] sent the troops in without notice of these anticipated troubles and without a plan for handling them.

We have suffered thousands of casualties because of our failure to heed the advice of the Intelligence Council. Our troops have learned by bitter experience what they would have learned prior to the invasion if the president had not ignored the Intelligence Council’s reports. We are still in the process of learning how this neglect is hindering the organization and operation of the new government in Iraq. Further, the predicted activity and growth of the Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups has become evident along with the predicted growth of unrest among the populations of the other nations in the region.

President Bush says “we were warned about a lot of things, some of which happened, some of which didn’t happen.” Much earlier he said the pre-invasion intelligence he was furnished was flawed. Neither of these statements will relieve the hurt of the losses we have suffered. Neither will they mend the damage to our standing in the world community resulting from this lost war that should never have started.

Jerry Clements 5/26/07