Ahhhhhhh...Shuuuuuudddduuuuuupppppppp!!!!
Posted on 04/10/2003 6:06:09 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
It's a strange feeling to be so out of step with the rest of the country on a matter of such great importance.
I don't remember it ever happening to me previously, even though being a liberal means that I've been in the minority of American political opinion most of my adult life.
It's just never seemed like such a small minority as it has since we started this war--either that, or not as important a dispute.
That hit home again Wednesday as I watched the scene of the Saddam Hussein statue being toppled in Baghdad and realized that instead of being uplifted along with the majority of my countrymen, I was conflicted.
Like most everybody else, I was happy to see Iraqi people celebrating their newfound freedom from Saddam's oppression, and I was relieved to see some of our soldiers at least temporarily out of harm's way.
But I was troubled by the realization that this partial outcome, never really in doubt in my mind, will now be viewed as justification for our military aggression while the more complicated challenges of establishing a truly free and peaceful society in Iraq still lie before us.
At the same time, seeing the celebration, I have to face the possibility that I've been wrong, a concession that you won't get out of me until this has played itself out for a couple of years.
You may have noticed that I've avoided writing about the war since getting back to town, even though it's by far the most important subject to be addressed.
There are a couple of reasons for that.
First, the action is over there, and I'm not. I don't know about you, but at this point, I'm more interested in real information about the war than in opinions, and I don't have any real information to offer.
In the second place, I made my opposition to the war pretty clear, and after that, what can you say? Once the shooting started, it became apparent that there was no turning back for the country. If we were going to fight this war, I certainly didn't want us to lose it.
I've been hammered pretty hard for opposing the war publicly. I don't mind the criticism. It goes with the territory.
What's more bothersome is the sense of isolation you get when you realize your reaction to events is skewed to the periphery.
For instance, am I the only person who finds Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, with her assertions that it doesn't matter whether Saddam Hussein is dead or alive, to be nearly as irritating a propagandist as Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose preposterous daily lies at least provided some comic relief?
I certainly couldn't have been the only person in America stunned over the weekend to hear a CNN correspondent inquire of an American tank commander, "Let me get the score here. It was at least 24 for the U.S. Army, zero for the Iraqis. Are they that bad?" referring to the body count after a successful battle that he made sound like a football game. But it seems like I am.
That's the way it has been for me for three weeks: Looking at that huge bomb crater where Saddam was supposed to meet his end and wondering why it didn't seem to matter to anyone in power here that the only thing of which we were certain is that we'd killed some more civilians.
It's a big country, so I know that I'm not really the only one who thinks this way, and a number of people have actually written in an effort to balance out the hate mail.
But I also know that we're all supposed to get into the rah-rah spirit of things, as has the normally evenhanded but now totally embedded Ted Koppel, usually one of my favorite journalists.
The Associated Press authored a sobering story Wednesday about how occupying armies often are greeted with cheers but invariably wear out their welcomes when drawn into the business of keeping the peace.
The story reminded us that the Somalis who paraded with joy when U.S. troops marched into Mogadishu were just as jubilant months later when the butchered remains of American soldiers were dragged through the streets.
In Chicago, we've seen people riot over the favorable outcome of NBA basketball games, so we ought to be at least a little wary of making broad judgments about public opinion based on the actions of a street mob.
But that sounds petty.
I hope this is the beginning of a great new era for Iraq and the Middle East. I hope that the rest of the Iraqi army lays down its arms before another American or British soldier, or any more Iraqis, are killed.
I also hope President Bush doesn't think Syria or Iran are the next stops on the regime-change express.
E-mail: markbrown@suntimes.com
Ahhhhhhh...Shuuuuuudddduuuuuupppppppp!!!!
Dubya says, "if this was Dasshole's head, I'd sqeeze it like a cantaloupe."
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