The Word We Dare Not Speak

God forbid that I defend John McCain. But he recently spoke the truth about the Iraq war. Because the war in Iraq has been mismanaged and bungled, McCain said that American lives–“our most precious treasure”–were “wasted”. He quickly changed his wording to “sacrificed” and insisted that more “sacrifice” is in order in order to protect America from an “even greater danger if we are defeated there”. Amazingly, McCain’s new wording came after howls of protest from–are you ready for this?–Democrats who, of course faced a similar contretemps when Barak Obama used the waste word to characterize the failed war and occupation.

So let me get this right. Democrats are unwilling to admit that the United States has wasted lives in Iraq? A war that should have never been launched? A war that has been characterized by failed vision, poor planning and distorted intelligence? A war that has cost this nation the sympathy and understanding of the entire world since 9-11? A war that has given new life and opportunity to the small scale but lethal terrorists who have pledged their enmity toward this nation, its allies and interests? Even the fucking DEMOCRATS won’t call this catastrophe a waste?

With leaders like this America will never escape Iraq and begin to repair the self-inflicted damage caused by what is arguably the greatest strategic blunder in American history. Vietnam was bad but at least the policy makers of that era had not previous example of a horrible waste that did us no good. Hell, I knew invading Iraq in 2003 was a bad move and I’m just a schmuck who knows a little history. Our so-called leaders just assumed it would be a piece of cake and walked into it. And they are SO unable to control the chaos and violence they unleashed. Why isn’t this considered a waste? What perverted and distorted values keep Americans from recognizing a truly bad deal when they see it? A bad deal that kills and maims daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers.

John McCain was right. Iraq is a waste. He claims that those lives will only be sacrificed–not wasted–if we are not defeated. No, John, they are wasted no matter what the outcome because Iraq never threatened the United States in a manner that called for an unilateral invasion. None of the brave Americans who have been killed and wounded need have given their lives, limbs and peace of mind to protect America from any danger that could not have been addressed diplomatically and with international cooperation. That, John, is my definition of waste.

An even greater waste is to send more lives into the meat grinder in the vain hope of creating a result that will any way benefit America. Much of the world, our neighbors on this small planet, probably don’t think we are have earned the right to expect a favorable outcome. We have squandered American lives and treasure and will reap only more animosity and terror from a world that only five years ago stood with us against Al-Qaeda.

What I find so infuriating about this whole thing is the waste. That’s why I agree with your original wording. What is wasted along with the lives and treasure is Americans patriotism. Patriotic Americans are sacrificing, performing heroically to NO END. All that sacrifice and heroism goes for naught. You want to believe that America can somehow manage Iraq to a satisfactory conclusion but it won’t happen until Iraqis can come to their own agreement. In the meantime we are simply creating more instability and chaos.

Americans want out. Iraqis want us out. A growing number of the soldiers you ask to sacrifice yet again question their purpose and mission, especially returning for a third or fourth time only to see a more deteriorated, violent “nation” than the one they left a year or 18 months before. IT’S NOT WORKING! IT’S A WASTE!

John Kerry has made two statements in his life that are unassailable. In 1971 he asked How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake? More recently he noted that half of the names on the Vietnam Memorial came after Americans had decided that war was not in our interest. I served with the men who were among the last few of the 58,000 dead. It sucked. Big time. It was a waste. I knew that even as I served. If someone was killed, we said he’d been “wasted”. We knew what our lives were worth.

But at least the danger was limited. Failure in Vietnam was embarrassing but hardly catastrophic. Iraq is already a catastrophic failure. It has broken the Army in a way not seen since Vietnam. It bleeds our treasury and distracts us from the real job of building an economy that can serve America and the world in the 21st century. It even distracts us from combating the terrorists who threaten us. Yes, they do threaten us. I acknowledge that but I don’t believe we need to occupy and destroy other nations and peoples in order to effectively fight that terrorism. In fact, I believe our ill-advised war and occupation strengthens our adversaries

So, John, for once I will defend your words as correct. I also support your restatement because you don’t really think it’s a waste. You are willing to send more lives into harm’s way. But it’s a waste, John. An obscene, fucking waste.