Shock and Awful

Five years ago, when the War in Iraq kicked off with the Shock and Awe campaign, I remember sitting on the couch with Aaron in the family room of my parents’ house. I don’t remember us talking that much. Mostly, I remember just sitting in silence and watching bomb after bomb light up the Baghdad skyline.

I remember feeling somewhat okay with the invasion because the world would be a better place without Saddam. I also remember feeling very uneasy and confused about the decision to go into Iraq. There was, in my mind, a massive disconnect. I didn’t have the argument to be a supporter of the war or an opponent of the war. For this reason, I stayed silent about it a long time until I felt I could come out with a somewhat informed opinion.

Searching the archives of this nearly three year old blog for the first mention of the War in Iraq took me back to September 27, 2005. I quote this passage:

The nation's focus for the last month has been on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, but in the time between those hurricanes, 40 more US Soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq. I don't want to be comfortably writing on this blog a year from now while American men and women my age, and people of Iraqi descent, are being killed thousands of miles away in a war that lost its welcome a long time ago.

Here we are, two and half years since I wrote that. I am still comfortably writing. And generations are still dying in the desert. I am reminded of a huge reason my political ideology started to shift. I want this war to end. If America puts a Republican in The White House, I will be here in four years writing the same blog. I believe this to be true because the Republicans currently in power, and the Republican positioned to potentially take over The White House, speak of this war using conventional terms like winning and losing.

Occasionally they will claim that the duration and toughness of this war is due to the unconventional enemy we are fighting. Do they really believe that though? With every day that we are in Iraq; with every Iraqi death; with every bomb; we are raising up younger and younger generations of suicide bombers. It was our presence in the heart of Middle Eastern affairs that brought the terrorists here on 9/11. It is our continued presence in Middle Eastern affairs that is losing this war for us. I truly believe, in a way, that it is as simple as that. But Bush and his predecessor ramble on about victory. They’re old school. Empire is not possible anymore, but peace is. That’s why we need to get out of there.