Monday felt like an appropriately dreary day here in D.C. Perhaps the same was true throughout the Northeast and around the country. It was the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and I found myself feeling pretty uninspired by the political discourse taking place in our country. I have a sinking suspicion that I am not the only one feeling this angst. Meanwhile, the president was doing his best on this somber anniversary to rouse a skeptical public that grows more and more weary of this misguided war with every passing day.
It's easy to see why this is happening, though it admittedly took a good deal of introspection before I was able to pinpoint the cause of my own personal gloom. I watched the president's primetime address and found myself listening to the same bombastic, fantasy-laden rhetoric that has been foisted on the American people for the past five years. An editorial in Tuesday's New York Times touched on how seemingly out-of-touch President Bush is with reality given the nature of his pretentious proclamations and spurious speeches. For instance:
The fantasy: Bush tells us that "we must not leave our children to face a Middle East overrun with terrorists," and on Sept. 11, "we resolved to go on the offensive against the terrorists."
The reality: The Middle East, specifically Iraq, is arguably more overrun by terrorists after our invasion of Iraq. We made Iraq the frontline on the war on terrorism; it was not that way before. Furthermore, Bush asserted not too long ago that he would be passing the buck to future administrations to make the tough decisions about what to do with our stagnating occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention the huge spending deficits we've accrued thanks to the neo-conservative war machine that has been driven by the public dollar since Sept. 11. So much for not passing burdens on to our children. And no, Mr. President, you and your war cabinet decided to go on the offensive against a vague concept (terrorism), which resulted in the murder of thousands of innocent civilians. Despite what our floundering Democratic leaders have failed to do in terms of posing a strong opposition, do not pretend that everyone is behind you in your arrogant quest for perpetual hegemony.
The fantasy: "One of the strongest weapons in our arsenal is freedom," and "terrorists fear an old man pulling an election lever and girls going to school." This is "not a clash of civilizations, but a struggle for civilization." He asks, "can the forces of moderation prevail?" And finally, the cherry on top, "Do we have the confidence to do in the Middle East what our fathers and grandfathers did in Europe?"
The reality: The president has taken our strongest weapon, bent its barrel back at us and shot us in the face with it through his illegal wiretapping programs, unjustified renditions and detentions in secret CIA prisons and Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act's numerous intrusions on everything from library selections to private e-mails. Freedom begins at home, Mr. President. And in terms of what the terrorists fear, I'd say that they take issue with the decades-old Israeli occupation of Palestine, Israel's brutal vengeance-driven bombardment of innocents in Lebanon and western troops remaining in the holy lands of the Arabian Peninsula long after the first Gulf War slightly more than they do about John Q. Public in Ohio casting his vote for Steubenville City Council or Jessica Taylor stepping into Wilson High School in Northwest D.C. on Tuesday mornings for biology class.
To a degree, Islam and the regimes that purport to represent it in the Middle East need to modernize. They need to tackle unemployment, wealth disparities, unequal educational opportunities and the array of social ills that produce extremists who in turn threaten our country. But that message cannot get through over the cacophony of bunker busters, Apaches and tomahawks that are pounding the region on behalf of the good ol' U.S. of A. Unfortunately, this is not World War II (or World War III, for that matter) and no dictator is marching thousands of troops across the Middle East knocking down sovereign regimes in an effort to claim fascist domination. Anyone with an iota of sense about historical analogies can see through the president's attempts to juxtapose two different struggles as being similar in nature. Stop wishing you were Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman, Mr. President, and start being the leader that the world desperately needs you to be.
To be fair, the president has gotten one thing right. He meant it differently than most progressives would prefer, but he was close. He said that "this war is unlike any we have fought before." Despite this recognition, he has chosen to fight this unique war employing the same blistering, reactionary methods that he has employed over the past five years. The result: the Taliban (after five years) is lethally resurgent in Afghanistan and Iraq is one suicide mosque bombing away from all-out civil war. This concept of a "war on terrorism" as our leaders have perpetuated it is a farce. There will never be a day when we will kill off the last person who harbors ill-will toward our country and say, "We got 'em all! Everyone loves us again!" It just will not happen.
So let us dispense with the dreamy rhetoric, the kind that proved false about flowers being thrown at the feet of our invading troops in Baghdad and the minimal costs (in both time and money) of the effort in Iraq. From day one in 2003, our presence in Iraq has, in the aggregate, caused more harm than good to the Iraqi people, the United States, and the world. History will not look kindly on the blunders of this administration nor the complicity of the so-called opposition leaders.
It's no wonder we've been feeling so uninspired. Our leaders not only lack the vision necessary to create a more progressive post-Sept. 11 future but they are foolishly pursuing policies that end only in more violence, less freedom and new fears everyday.
Paul Perry is a senior in the School of International Service and a liberal columnist for The Eagle.
