On the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Pres. Bush said that "the security of America is tied to the Iraqi people." This is a profound delusion -- surely the reverse is true: the Iraqi people have no hope of security in the foreseeable future without a U.S. presence. Many illusions are dying in this war, and when we emerge from it, they will probably not be revived. Soldiers entered WW I believing in chivalry and honor on the battlefield; afterwards, however, those ideals perished in unparalleled carnage. The illusions dying right now in Iraq have to do with two things: America's moral superiority and the role of a superpower. This week the newly elected president of Belarus, who was branded a dictator by the U.S., called George Bush the #1 terrorist in the world. Britain's Tony Blair is about to hand over the reins of power, exhausted and besmirched by his association with the Iraq war. No other major ally believes in our cause enough to send more than a token handful of troops. But the real erosion of America's moral standing is at home. With real bitterness over 42% of people polled recently were willing to apply words like "idiot, liar, and incompetent" to the president. Half believe that Saddam wasn't worth overthrowing. The U.S. has always relied on its confidence in doing the right thing, and by causing that confidence to crumble, the administration may be ushering the biggest illusion of all to its grave. It was remarked this week that very few protesters rallied against the war on its third anniversary. This is probably due to a general heartsick sense that we are trapped in Iraq no matter what we want to do. Even if by some miracle of human resilience the Iraqis form a viable government and reduce their sectarian conflicts (using oil to bribe the various warring parties), the country's borders will be completely open to Iran and Syria, and we know from the sad spectacle of a fallen Lebanon what that means. When illusions die reality can take their place, and reality is healthy. In this case, the reality is that the U.S. cannot wantonly exercise military power wherever and whenever it desires. This war proves the utter failure of unilateralism, and if we are lucky, this country's crushed idealism will resurface to solve the global problems that a true superpower might be able to solve. For the moment, though, it takes a powerful dose of idealism to believe that we will even get out without disgrace.
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