I guess it‘s just too strong an image, even after all these years, even after Korea, Vietnam and Gulf War I. It’s an image we desperately want to see in our minds eye when we hear President Bush say we must “stay the course”; it has been burned into our brains for 60 years as how war is resolved.

The image I speak of was taken on the morning of Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered to the United States. It was taken on board the USS Missouri and we see the Japanese delegation, eyes downward cast, defeated, looking uncomfortably strange in top hats and tails. General McArthur looks almost regal as he oversees the ceremonies that mark the end of the “Good War.”

The logic behind the letters of Mr. Ragan and Mr. Linville (The Citizen, Oct. 12, 2005) at their root, seem to suppose that we can somehow reproduce that image in the current “Global War on Terrorism.” Perhaps with President Bush in full military regalia, and Karl Rove in a suit (like Gobbels used to wear) and Condi looking sharp in a starched white Navy skirt. On the other side of the table stand a shackled Osama bin Laden flanked by Saddam who are given a shove towards the Surrender Document. Ah, what an image.

But “pushing (the fish hook) through,” as Mr. Linville suggests, or “totally supporting“ our troops (by remaining silent), as Mr. Ragan suggests, will neither support the troops or push through to the mirage of a surrender ceremony on board a 21st-century USS Missouri.

Unfortunately for our GIs, the “push through“ and “support our troops by staying quiet” crowd seem to be in the majority.

They are either willfully ignorant of how this war started, because even a slightly curious mind can by now see the lies of Bush and Co., or they have no understanding of our history, specifically the how’s and why’s of Vietnam, or maybe they have just drunk too much from Uncle Karl’s Kool-Aid stand and have fallen victim to the greatest bait and switch in the history of the United States.

Remember? It was Osama who was behind 9-11, not Saddam. We attacked the wrong guy and 1,981 GIs, and uncounted Iraqi civilians, have died for that mistake.

Most Americans don’t know the difference between Arabs, Persians, Kurds, or a Sunni, Shiite, Druze, or a Wahhabi, and could care less. Most Americans continue to see Iraq, and the greater Mideast, through the frame of a Western Civilization, rule-of-law, life has value, Judeo-Christian lens and for the life of them can’t understand all the fuss.

They don’t want to believe that this war was built on a raft of outrageous lies just like Vietnam. They don’t want to believe that Bush and Co. are really un-Christian liars.

It was the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” then, and the WMD and a connection to Al Qaeda now. And most importantly, they don’t want to take the time or expend the energy to educate themselves.

Why should they? It’s not their kids who are dying and they might miss the World Series or “Desperate Housewives.” If there was a draft I’ll bet they’d study up; if there had been a draft, we wouldn’t be in Iraq now. We may be lazy about the care and feeding of our democracy, but we’re not going to risk our own kids.

If we compare Iraq to Vietnam, and 2003 to 1965 (the year we really got involved in Vietnam), than we can expect 1000 more GIs to die in 2006 and for us to be taking causalities there until 2010.

Vietnam apologists say our withdrawal and ultimate loss there was caused by the anti-war movement in the U.S. and that is why they oppose any public protest now, a la Mr. Garlock. Well, if the anti-war movement had caused our withdrawal from Vietnam in 1967 instead of 1975 then 37,000 more GIs would have come home. And the communists would still rule the county. Was it worth 37,000 then or any number of additional dead GIs now?

The Iraqis have voted on their constitution, elected a parliament and prime minister. Good for them. Now is the time, as Kevin King in his letter (The Citizen, Oct. 12, 2005) said, to “declare victory” and pull out.

Let’s not get involved with supporting one corrupt prime minister or political group after another in a cycle of failure. If they are going to succeed in building a democracy, it will be formed from within their culture and society, not ours.

If we’re really interested in spreading democracy, and not just Iraqi oil, we’ll take our leave of the place and let them get at it. Whether we stay or go, we’d better be prepared for something we don’t like.

Democracy is messy, and has a way of turning out different than planned. Iraq may well turn out to be a theocracy like Iran; what of self determination then?

I certainly hope that some number of generations in the future, this war will be but one chapter in the long history of a peaceful and democratic Iraq. But they will be the authors of that story, not us. The fewer dead American GIs it takes to write that chapter, the better.

With privilege comes responsibility. Democracy isn’t something that we can put on auto-pilot after each election.

We have a responsibility to stay involved, informed, vote, seek information from various sources, ask questions, demand answers and accountability, and if circumstances dictate, to exercise civil disobedience.

That’s the history of our country, our duty as citizens and the life-blood of our republic. Too many of us are shirking that responsibility.

Thomas Finnegan
Fayetteville, Ga.

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