Honorable Warriors in a Dishonorable War

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No one could fail to notice how honorable a soldier Gen. David Petraeus is, and that includes committed opponents of the Iraq War. What made his latest testimony on Capitol Hill so moving was its reminder that a warrior's best qualities -- valor, coolness under fire, loyalty, and patriotism -- are no small thing. In fact, they used to be the test of manhood, and for centuries armies have served as the initiation and training ground for civil society.

That changed when war became a field for mechanized death and the push of a button could annihilate the enemy, with little regard for individual valor. But to forget that valor still exists is just as immoral.

War is where illusions go to die, but Gen. Petraeus and his troops aren't responsible for the falseness that threw America into an unjust, indefensible war. If only the soldiers could win and the war could be made just in retrospect. It can't, and the honor displayed by Petraeus and, in his own way, Sen. John McCain can't efface the pointlessness of the conflict they keep defending. One ugly side to this "free" war is that critics and supporters alike sit in warm, feathered comfort while a distant land is ravaged to the bare bones. Talk about "progress" seems almost obscene in such a situation, where the annihilation of a country is all but complete already.

In psychotherapy, it's well known that a patient can't be urged to take steps two, three, or four in his treatment if he doesn't accept step one. In the case of this war, we are asked to forget step one, but millions can't. Step one was choosing Iraq as a battleground under totally false pretenses, a preconceived agenda with no regard for justice and the well-being of the American people. Dark prophets who predicted that Islamic extremism would be strengthened by our invasion have proved to be right. Al-Qaida is a heroic cause throughout the Islamic world.

For policy wonks, there's a lot to argue about over the "success of the surge." If you clear out the underbrush, however, it's obvious that Shia fundamentalists are in the driver's seat. Iran is steadily turning the Mahdi army into another form of Hezbollah, a grass-roots armed militia that will hold power outside the reach of the official government. Tribal factions will feud; central control will dissolve. Within a decade the hegemony of Iran and Iraq over a third of the world's oil will belong to Shiite clerics behind the scenes. It's a terrible outcome to a doomed war, and one of the coldest comforts we can derive is that honorable men like David Petraeus soldier on without blame or recrimination.

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Comments

[Luckyamerican]

Just like Viet Nam----Right????? Democrats got us in that one!!!! I'm a 24 year veteran and just wonder how many of the loudest voices ARE???? Viet Nam veterans were thrown away and the Iraq veterans WILL join the pile after this is over!!!!!!!!

[S1m0n]

I think being an honorable soldier in a dishonorable war might be possible at the enlisted level, or even for junior officers, but for a soldier of field rank considerably more is expected.

[Rescisco]

Honor cannot be a shield for horror or a cover for failure. Every protracted military engagement we have had since 1945 has endangered and weakened the country far more than any foreign threat or enemy might be able to do on its own. In addition to protracted engagements, there have been about 400 military "operations" since 1945. Not a single one of them has contributed to our national security or to a definable "success" in foreign policy. We may be long on honor but we seem to be incredibly short on intelligent leadership and wise policy. What is honor in service to fools? What is loyalty and patriotism to a fools errand?

[Nommo]

Sir, you have a bizarre sense of honor.

[nerakami]

It will forever be our grave error in judgment regardless of whatever endeavor we choose to undertake whether militarily or diplomatically, if we first do not thoroughly and completely understand the psychological profile of whomever it is we want to engage. We were born in a country where we are relatively free therefore, assume that everyone else automatically understands this sense of personal freedom as the most ideal state for the human spirit. Unfortunately, this is far from reality. Many who have never tasted such individual freedom think and believe only what they know. There in lies America's biggest problem. We do not understand the psychological make-up of other cultures therefore, make the mistake of assuming they know the freedom or democracy of which we speak.
Because we have never lived their history, we in the free world do not know or understand the intensity that drive their religious or cultural passions and fervor. What seems crystal clear to the Americans may appear extremely muddled through the eyes of the Iraqis. We Americans need a crash course into the psyche of the Iraqi and Iranian people.

[grendl]

Maybe next time we decide to liberate a country from tyranny, and deliver them democracy we might want to do a demographic breakdown on the people who we'll be handing power to. If the majority are, as in Iraq, fundamentally Islamic, who harbor a hatred and mistrust for us, and our perceived connection to their subjugation ( real or imagined ) we might want to think twice.

Democracy is a great form of government, but we've opened Pandora's box in Iraq. We don't have a lot of credibility with the Shiite majority, and it wanes even more every day we stay in their country. They tolerate us because, well they have to. We have the gun power. The minute we leave, they can decide for themselves whether they want to embrace their neighbor Iran. My thinking is they won't. There's still a lot of black gold in them thar sand dunes, and greed will be the ultimate arbiter of that relationship.

But the longer we stay, the longer resentment grows, and Iran as ally looks more and more like a viable solution. We need to leave ASAP, and let Iraq decide its own fate. After all, following the WMD excuse debunkment, and the failure to link Al Qaeda to their nation, this was the third reason we went to war. To deliver democracy. The least we can do is allow them to practice it.

[LeftRight]

As a veteran, I will definitely agree with you on one point: The Honor of the individual soldiers is still there. However, I must disagree with you on two points. General Petraeus has shown no honor. He is still sending his troops to die for an illegal war, still using false pretenses, with his only regard being to the politics that he espoused in public before this war even started.

And as for John McCain, he lost any honor he had (which is a considerable feat, since he had so much Honor at the beginning!) when he agreed with the president that torture is a good thing, in spite of being tortured for five years himself!!