Writing History

Posted on November 16, 2005 | Filed Under Iraq, Politics

Here is an excerpt of a letter to the President:

¢â‚¬Å“I wonder how well you have been sleeping these last nights? Mothers and fathers all over our beloved land are spending sleepless nights worrying again over their boys being sent to fight wars on foreign soil¢â‚¬â€wars that are no concern of ours.¯¿½?

¢â‚¬â€Letter to the President from the parent of a U.S. soldier

Some comments to consider on this letter, and the political evironment:

Talk about discouraging. All year long the negative numbers about the war rolled in like the tide. The President¢â‚¬â„¢s approval rating in the Gallup poll bottomed out at 23 percent. Another poll showed that 43 percent of Americans thought it was a mistake to have entered the war. The enthusiasm from early victories quickly evaporated.

Opposition party members spared no effort in blasting the President and his Administration. One senator called the Secretary of Defense a ¢â‚¬Å“living lie,¯¿½? and another called for the Secretary¢â‚¬â„¢s resignation. The most bombastic senator went so far as to call the Secretary a traitor. Another senator began using the President¢â‚¬â„¢s name when referring to the war, and his intention wasn¢â‚¬â„¢t to honor the Commander in Chief.

Newspapers and magazines also joined the frenzy. A New York Times editorial characterized the Administration¢â‚¬â„¢s war misjudgments ¢â‚¬Å“a colossal military blunder.¯¿½? A front-page editorial in the Chicago Tribune called for immediate impeachment proceedings against the President. Time said he was ¢â‚¬Å“responsible for one of the worst military disasters in history.¯¿½?

The pessimism was not confined to the opposition. Members of the President¢â‚¬â„¢s own Administration shared the negative mood. His Secretary of Defense conceded, ¢â‚¬Å“We were at our lowest point.¯¿½? The British Prime Minister believed that the conflict should be abandoned in order to focus resources on protecting Europe. The British leader flew to Washington to lecture the American leader on how to run the conflict after the President performed badly at a news conference.

This was not President Bush and war in Iraq. It was President Truman and the war was Korea. It is from David McCullough¢â‚¬â„¢s masterful biography, Truman.

Korea was an unpopular conflict at the time, and it was general opinion that anyone could have done a better job than Truman. A popular saying at the time was “To err is Truman.” Truman was not appreciated while in office, but much later, when the history books were written, we realized his courage to contain Communist aggression was masterful.

The books are not closed on George Bush yet. Decades from now, when history is written on the Iraq conflict, our children may see this differently. Ted Kennedy and others see this as George Bush’s Vietnam. But if Bush is successful, and a functioning and sustained democracy can be upheld in Iraq, this will be seen as his Korea.

[ Inspiration for this article came from "A Clear View of the Past" by Dave Cloud ]


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