Approaching Iraq with caution

It is with deep regret that I have learned our nation, only recently extricated from one war and about to be extricated from another, is now forced to carefully watch as violence in another part of the world – the one we recently vacated – teases us into the potential of a new militarism.

As extremists in Iraq beat a path toward Baghdad, or seemingly so, the homegrown political extremists in the US area already beating their partisan drums, both for and against the idea of US involvement.

The fault in how many of them accomplish this lies not in their holding of one opinion or another, but the predictability of their statements, which exposes their true roots.

What has the slips of both the right and the left showing is that so much of what is bantered about by voices on the radio talk shows and even in print – not to mention the ubiquitous talking heads on 24-hour cycling television – is largely presented in a posture of hindsight.

This all goes back to George Bush, some say, determining that Iraq’s current woes area directly related to the former president’s urging that we invade Iraq, the willingness of the nation’s people to do so, and the acquiescence of Congress, Democrats included, whose members agreed to foot the bill.

I stress here that the people themselves supported this idea of invading Iraq, affected as they were by the disastrous deeds of a handful of cowards.

Then there are those who point at the current president, Barack Obama, and his decision to leave an untenable situation and get our fighting men and women out of harm’s way.

The withdrawal was too soon, the critics say. The action was reckless, say others.

Some, all or part of these assessments likely have elements of truth to them, and some, all or part likely have elements of convenient statements.

History will be the judge and the ink is not laid on the page yet, let alone dried.

Like Bush’s entrance, Obama’s exit was supported for the most part by the American people.

In determining whether this nation should again directly involve itself in Iraqi affairs, I am using my own hindsight, what I personally know from covering the home front during the time of engagement in Iraq.

Mostly I think of the people I met and the things that I have seen.

I remember 200 National Guardsmen, the Black Sheep Charlie Company boys, on yellow busses leaving the armory on Williams Avenue as 300 school children, gathered from nearby St. Gregory’s to see them off, recited the Hail Mary.

And I remember learning on a cold morning that some of them had died horribly.

I spoke to mothers and wives and girlfriends during the war, here and in North Carolina near Camp Lejeune, and fathers and grandparents.

In Chackbay I met a young Marine home on leave, who found that the shadow made by his welcome-home balloons on the blinds and their slight movement in the breeze, at night, made him jumpy and unable to sleep.

I then learned of the work he did during the war, descending in one of several helicopters to the field of battle, rescuing the wounded and retrieving the dead under a cover of swirling dust like some mythical angel. I hear that he’s out of the service now and doing okay. But a lot of them are not doing okay.

At Camp Lejeune I met a Marine whose skull had been removed after parts of it were blown to bits, resulting in the disappearance of what had been a brow, and a head turned into something resembling an anvil. Nonetheless he was happy that new program, would allow him to remain a Marine, even if his newly acquired disabilities would keep him from combat.

A few days later on the streets of a small city near there Quakers had gathered with some of their friends. They read the names of all who had died in Iraq, ringing a bell with the mention of each.

Most people passed on by and didn’t even take notice.

In Vacherie, I saw a little boy cry as his hero father’s flag-draped casket entered a church. Later, when the casket was brought to the grace site, a man in an Army uniform got down on one knee, and after speaking soft words handed the flag to the boy, who blankly stared.

So now, again, we are on the precipice of something bad. We’re not sure what. It appears that care is being taken before any moves area made, which I suppose is a good thing.

But whatever we decide to do, it is my hope that the decisions are made not on the basis of what has been done, what version of history will result from it, what election might be won or lost, but rather, where we see, using the most honest and non-partisan glasses available to us, any action or lack of it will take us in the years to come.