The President Told the Truth

He was just a radio sports jock (RSJ), but he was on a political rant so it’s fair to comment on what he said. Paraphrased, it was on the order of: “People want America’s goods and services, but they don’t necessarily want to be like us. Iraq is about 2,000 years old – a lot older than we are – and they’ve always been governed, sadly, by dictators who oppress them. Not only Iraq, but also the broader Middle East. That’s just the way it happens. So when America, well meaning as we are, tries to “spread democracy” like Johnny Appleseed, why should we think it will work?

He was just a radio sports jock (RSJ), but he was on a political rant so it’s fair to comment on what he said. Paraphrased, it was on the order of: “People want America’s goods and services, but they don’t necessarily want to be like us. Iraq is about 2,000 years old – a lot older than we are – and they’ve always been governed, sadly, by dictators who oppress them. Not only Iraq, but also the broader Middle East. That’s just the way it happens. So when America, well meaning as we are, tries to “spread democracy” like Johnny Appleseed, why should we think it will work? Now, three years into the Iraq war, the President says we will be there at least until 2009, so that is the end, the very end of the idea of a quick and complete withdrawal.”

Disregard, for a moment, that while Baghdad is old, Iraq has only been a country since 1932, and disregard the fact that no one in a responsible position has said there would be a quick or complete withdrawal (as opposed to John Murtha or Michael Moore). The RSJ seems to have two actual problems: that the President told the truth about the length of the required American military commitment to Iraq; and that because certain people have been governed through oppression in the past it is, therefore, their future.

The RSJ might consider Korea.

Dictators and/or occupiers had “always” governed Korea, as they did every Asian country. In 1950, the U.S. committed to a war on the peninsula that lasted three years, killed 33,651 American soldiers and injured 103,284. If, at the time of the armistice in 1953, President Truman had told the American people that we would commit our forces to the protection of Korea for at least 53 years in order that the Koreans have an opportunity for political development leading to a first-rate economy and an open democratic system, it is likely the RSJ would have said, “How long?? What makes you think Asian people can have democracy? It’s not in their history; not in their nature.”

This was eight years after a three-and-a-half year (for us) war in which more than 407,000 American soldiers died and nearly 700,000 were wounded. If, in 1945, President Truman had said we would be in Okinawa for at least 66 years and provide the ruins of Imperial Japan the opportunity to develop a first-rate economy and democratic system; or that American troops would stay in Europe for the rest of the century to guard against the shadowy threats of the Cold War and provide cover while the ruins of Nazi Germany created a democratic system, no doubt our RSJ would have said, “How long?? Japan has no prior democratic impulses and Germany’s history is dictatorial kings and fascist parties.”

There are pitfalls galore in Iraq, both for the Iraqis and for us. But in the three years since the fall of Saddam, the majority of the people have moved in a fairly straight line through local and national elections and the construction of a consensual government and a capable police and security force (that protects the people, not some dictator) – even as homegrown and foreign terrorists do their best to foment civil war. The President told the truth about the need for patience in Iraq, and maybe the RSJ should stick to sports where the clock winds down to 0 and the game is over. Real life isn’t that neat.