Iraq Fatigue

[Firespirit]

I am really hesitant to post this, especially here, but it's been a long time coming and has finally been brought to a head. This post is likely to offend people, perhaps a good many people. That is not my intention. None of the members of this group are whom I'm referring to when I complain about things.

The thing is, I am sick of Iraq. Sick of hearing about it, sick of the obsession that our politicians have with it, sick of it dominating the news and our national debate.

Maybe I have just been deadened and desensitized utterly by the constant stream of bad news about it. I don't know. But it's actually reached the point where I will hear about whatever latest incident has happened, and... I can't muster much concern about it. That sounds callous, I know, but I'm just being honest. "Oh, another bombing in Iraq. What else is new?"

Although I want out as much as the rest of us, I can't bring myself to become that vocal about it. It's not the issue that's on the top of my radar now, but rather, an irritation that is always in the background.

I've become increasingly aware, though, of global climate change. The trigger, I guess, was experiencing Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath firsthand, and seeing what happened to my state and the neighboring states. It's not in the news anymore, except in the context of articles that attack Katrina survivors for "defrauding" the federal government of chump change. (These are people who have lost their houses.) The death toll is easily 2,000+ people, many of them still unidentified, but you never hear that. Fortunately, a number of coastal homeowners did win a lawsuit against the insurance industry recently, but for many others, they remain displaced, everything they owned gone without hope of recovery or compensation. The reconstruction effort has sidelined local businesses in favor of the usual crowd. Small businesses that were thriving before the storm have often failed to return, now that the "recovery" effort is underway, because they didn't have the money to compete with the big industries that were buying up storm-ravaged land to turn the Coast into a tourist extravaganza.

The Gulf Coast has been forgotten by our media, our Congress, and with it, much of the nation. Iraq has taken its place. This is deeply, personally angering to me. I know Lieberman isn't a real Democrat, but his refusal even to investigate it -- to say nothing of other Democrats who should be using their newfound power to address the disgusting socioeconomic inequality that has tainted the recovery -- is symbolic, to me, of what the tragedy has been used for. I had hoped that the uproar over the Katrina aftermath really wasn't political grandstanding on our party's part, but it is looking increasingly likely that it was. "Our people" took advantage of a deadly, devastating Bush weakness -- and then dropped it, for the most part. The new majority quite possibly owes its existence to those 2,000 people who were killed by the gross incompetence and negligence on the Gulf Coast, and they've been forgotten. Their surviving loved ones have been forgotten. And since they are poor, powerless, and voiceless in the national noise machine that is our media, who ever knows it?

I mentioned global climate change, though. This ties in with the Katrina recovery because I have deep misgivings about how it is being conducted. The coastal recovery plan does not address global warming properly. It's just more of the same: Hurricane Camille wiped off part of the coast in 1969, and it was built back with a vengeance. Hurricane Frederic wiped off parts of the same coast in 1979, and it was built back with a vengeance. Hurricane Katrina has wiped it clear, and... more of the same. There's no learning from past mistakes. And with the advent of global warming, and the increased risk that the coast will experience from both flooding (from rising seas) and intense hurricanes, I am concerned and apprehensive about the utter lack of planning for this contingency.

Now, maybe it sounds like I am expecting the worst. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I am. I think that reducing carbon emissions is a fine and worthy goal, a necessary one in fact, but I think we also need to start making plans for the worst-case scenario. We need to look into what we will do if and when the coasts flood, or get hit repeatedly by Katrina-type hurricanes, or if drought strikes our farming heartland. I don't think that this is being properly addressed by anyone. The Repubs are in full-bore denial mode. The Dems seem focused on hoping against all hope that it can still be held back. Neither side seems interested in preparation for a truly devastating series of natural disasters. The entire nation could be caught with its pants down, like FEMA was with Hurricane Katrina.

Iraq is a sticky, bloody mess that we need to get out of. But it is not the end-all and be-all of national policy. Congress is capable of multi-tasking. Our presence in Iraq isn't keeping us from looking into preparatory measures against additional global warming-induced natural disasters, or doing something about continued mismanagement of the recovery of past ones. And if a national obsession with Iraq has replaced the moral imperative to take care of our own country, well, something is seriously amiss.

[Mass]

1. The problem is that Iraq is such a quagmire that it will block everything

until it gets on a more reasonnable track. It is unfortunately sad, but true. The money that is spent there cannot be spent on all the important issues that you quote.

Solving Iraq is part of taking care of our own country because people are dying there every day, and, unfortunately, our pols do not care!

[Democrafty]

2. Yes, money is a big issue.

I also think that the same lack of debate we have over Iraq would translate to other issues. The president and much of the Congress have proven to be extremely reluctant to make any kind of policy. Iraq is a huge issue because voters have finally made it an issue.

[ginnyinWI]

3. I feel less alarmed now that the Dems have Congress.

I mean, it's still a tragedy, but at least the voters have sent a strong message and we have a Congress with the potential to do something about it, so I feel more hopeful. But this is a runaway train that will take a while to stop, and we need to be patient. Sigh.

But it's so true about global warming. It's like Popeye and Bluto are in a rowboat punching each other out (the Coalition v.s. the insurgents in Iraq) as it is going over a waterfall (global warming). People have only so much capacity for concern, I guess, and the war seems more immediate.

[rox63]

4. Unfortunately, all the money is getting sucked into Iraq

Even if the * admin had any interest in helping the Gulf Coast recover, so much of the budget is being sunk into their wars and the the military buildup.

[beachmom]

5. I think it's because we have come to "an important moment"

where the American people are overwhelmingly against the war, and the president has completely defied the people by sending more troops in. That is news and it shows an absolute defiance of democracy. I think that's why it's at the top of the news.

I agree with you, however, that global warming is a larger threat long term, whereas Iraq by that point will be less important (especially if we're out of there).

[TayTay]

6. I think it's good that we have folks to concentrate on all the issues

I agree that the environment and the impending global catastrophe on climate change are critically important. I also agree that this needs constant attention and a huge effort to galvanize people both inside and outside of government to do things. It's wonderful that this is one of 'your issues' because we need good people to focus on this and take action.

I think Iraq is sort of my issue because it just rips my soul out when I think about it. Part of that is due to extreme confusion about it on my part. When I was growing up, just about every male relative I had, and several female ones, had served in the military. Most had served during WWII, but I knew a lot of people who served in the massive clusterf*ck that was Vietnam. I was taught to honor that service. (Dear Lord, if anything was ever drilled into me as a kid, it was to honor that service because for some people it had altered their lives.) I knew people who were seriously wounded, in mind or body or both, because of the conflicts they had been in. This was ingrained into me that this was something you don't walk away from and don't ever, ever, ever dishonor with neglect.

The Iraq War, like the Vietnam War before it, confuses the hell out of me. On the one hand, I know people whose kids are entering the service, primarily the Marine Corp, and that just tears me apart inside. I know people who have served honorably in the Corp and who loved the Corp because their service really helped them focus their lives. I once attended a wedding where the groom was a young Marine who had had a rough start in life. He and his girlfriend had had a baby and he had taken off and left the young lady to raise their son on his own. This kid entered the Marine Corp and it really focused him and he changed so much for the better. The wedding was amazing, the groom was in full dress uniform and the Bride and Groom were welcomed into the Marine Corp family by walking under the swords of other Marines from the platoon. (God, even the officiator at the ceremony was a Marine Chaplain.) That was such a happy day. There really was a Marine Corp family to be welcomed into and this guy had worked his heart out to support that cause.

What of them now? Damn, what of them now? This issue gets me so confused. On the one hand, I honor that committment, on the other hand, the civilian commanders of this war do not deserve that kind of committment from these people who are enlisting. They flat out don't deserve it. They have broken faith with the people who have volunteered to serve this country and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so. The President and his cronies have abandoned these people, and are not doing what they should to support them during deployment or to care for them and their families when they come home. This infuriates me.

I still see kids enlisting and I don't know what to think. Again, this is honorable service and it should be taken as such. But to enlist now? To serve now for people who are betraying them? Gawd, how terrible. It just eats at me. I hear stories from people I know who live around me about parents being deployed for the 3rd or 4th time. I hear of people wounded who have gaps in their health care coverage. (This is beyond awful. I just can't wrap my head around this.) My daughter's Community College has a desk set up every damn day for recruiters to come in and talk to the kids there and get them to enlist. What the hell to make of this?

Anyway, Iraq is, to my sorrow, my issue I guess. It is 'my issue' because I see it affecting people in the community around me. It brings up deep emotions and conflicts in me. It's like finding yourself in some sort of nightmare that you can't wake up from and that just bothers the hell out of me.

I am lucky in one sense though and freely admit it. I am very, very lucky to have two good Senators who are really fighting to help end this immoral and unjust war. I remember years and years ago, during a Senate election, having this ongoing discussion with relatives about the value of service and the value of protest and how one could honorably do both. That was not an easy discussion, not even in Massachusetts. (We had echoes of it in 2004.) It is still not an easy discussion, sigh!