Iraq is in the news again. Let me start by saying that September 11, 2001 was a day I will never forget. It was almost 13 years ago. In the aftermath of 9-11 we went to war in Afghanistan. Once we had troops in the Middle East, we quickly turned our sights to Iraq. The arguments for war were passionate. The arguments against war were passionate. Passions all around. Depose Saddam Hussein. Get rid of weapons of mass destruction. Bring democracy to Iraq. Etc. Etc.
My initial thought was that if Saddam was funding terrorism, then it's good to find ways to de-fund terrorism. Terrorism exists in so many facets. A terrorist can be any person seeking to do unwarranted harm. In American society since 9-11 "Terrorist" means "Muslim", and we've become wary of any Muslim. (Be honest) The problem is, there is no Terrorist nation that we can declare war on. Branding the attack on the Taliban, or Al-Qaeda, as the "War on Terror" was a huge mistake, in my opinion. There is no victory condition. Terrorism is a figurative hydra (Hail Hydra). You can't chop it's head off. You have to bleed it out. So, attacking Iraq as a source of funding (hydra blood) was an okay idea for me. My biggest problem was that there was no real exit strategy or victory condition. Sure, we can go in and depose Saddam, but then what? Well, there was proposed Reconstruction, and planting the seeds of democracy. It all sounded very nice at the time, but we knew going in that democracy wouldn't survive over there. Israel is the only democracy, and it is not a peaceful one. They live in a constant state of war readiness. Islam reigns over there, but even then there are two sects of Islam who don't get along. I admit I need to do more research on Sunnis vs. Shi'ites.
There was no concrete reason to go to Iraq. Democrats said it was a war for oil (and complain about gas prices. I do too. I can't believe it really was $.50/gallon at one point!). Republicans said we were going to war to remove weapons of mass destruction. No nuclear weapons were supposedly found; however, there were lots of biological and chemical weapons that could kill a lot of people without destroying physical property (which some would say is better than a nuke laying waste to valuable resource areas for decades). It depends on your definition of "mass destruction". I remember watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart years ago, and Jon had General Georges Sada from Iraq. General Sada was Saddam's commander of the air force. General Sada wrote a book, and testified on The Daily Show, that he had all of Iraq's weaponry airlifted to Syria before the US invasion commenced. That's a testimony from the mouth of the man who oversaw it, and it was conveniently hidden by the media. I was outraged that it didn't get more press. It didn't fit the anti-war narrative that the media championed though. So I was looking at Syria. Syria has a lot of problems right now too, and America is giving them a stern facial expression. Al-Assad is gassing his people, probably with gas he got from Iraq. So, America apparently didn't find anything because it was sent to Syria.
So then we spent many years in Iraq trying to get things set up and figured out. And now, in 2014, with America withdrawn from Iraq, the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS...I'm waiting to see if Archer uses that gem next season.) has blitzkrieged their way into control of Iraq, making things worse than they were under Saddam. Americans of both parties predicted that would happen. If we removed Saddam without putting something in his place, things would get worse. We said we would replace it with democracy. We were wrong. We said we would train the new Iraqi Army to be able to defend Iraq. We were wrong. ISIS came in quickly. They are well-funded, and well-equipped. And now blame is flying everywhere.
I have lived this. I still don't know how to fully explain it! It has been 13 years since 9-11, and I'm not even talking much about Afghanistan in this post! My main thought on Afghanistan was: They've never been conquered because they can hide and wait out any invaders. You can't win a war where the enemy's victory condition is "don't lose". The Taliban could retreat into Pakistan when they needed to, and we couldn't stop them. And then we find Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and nobody is angry with Pakistan?! I won't go into that. I need more time to organize my thoughts.
I have no answers. I just wanted to put my thoughts on paper. I am supremely proud of every American warfighter who answered the call, did their duty, is still over there, and who will be sent back (crap). I support them. I pray for them. I just wish we had more patriotism in this country. I wish we had a government that wouldn't limit your supplies. You're the ones who have to live in the desert and fight a determined enemy while politicians comfortably toss your lives around. We didn't want you to have to go in the first place, we brought you home, and now they're talking about sending you back. I wish I knew what to do.
There will be a lot of blame going around. *sigh*
Let me tie this in with the Bible a bit while I'm thinking about it. Look at the regions and enemies of the Israelites:
Philistines - Palestine
Syrians - Syria (Damascus is mentioned a lot)
Assyrians - Iraq/Syria
Babylonians - Iraq
Persians - Iran
Names written in the Bible thousands of years ago are still very relevant today. They all still want Israel gone. I don't just watch these happenings as an American. I watch them as a Christian too. I can post more later when I have more thoughts.
For the Kingdom,
Stuart L. Kingsley
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