|
Let
truth lead the way
Recently,
I was one of the House and Senate members asked to go to the
Pentagon for a classified briefing from General Petraeus and
Ambassador Crocker in Baghdad.
As I walked out of the tunnel-like hallways in the basement
of the Pentagon, I was struck by the contrast between the factual
report I had just heard and the debate going on in Congress.
It was truly two different worlds.
Not
that the news from Baghdad was all positive.
It was not. There
were areas where clear, significant progress is being made, and
there were other areas that have been disappointing.
But that report was based on the facts on the ground.
The debate in Congress seems to be based on something else.
Henry
Kissinger recently wrote “Vietnam and Iraq are different conflicts
in different times, but there is an important similarity:
A point was reached during the Vietnam War when the domestic
debate became so bitter as to preclude rational discussion of hard
choices.” My biggest
concern is that we are approaching a point in the debate on Iraq
where facts no longer matter.
Take
a moment to think about what that means.
Political partisanship and passions get so inflamed that
rational decision making is not possible.
Positions get so locked-in that no amount of evidence can
change someone’s mind. Decisions
are based not on truth, but on politics, emotions, and what someone
wants the truth to be.
There
are ominous signs. Once
it became clear last month that there were not enough votes to force
our troops to leave Iraq, the Senate Majority Leader took the entire
Defense Authorization Bill off the floor.
If his position on Iraq was not going to prevail, he would
not permit there to be any defense bill at all for the first time in
45 years. In the House,
staff strains their imaginations to come up with new ways to vote on
the Iraq issue every week. The
impact of these acts on what the troops are trying to accomplish are
brushed aside.
Of
course, the danger of ignoring facts can apply to both sides in the
Iraq debate. Just as
there are those who pronounced the new strategy a failure before it
was ever tried, there may be those who resist change even when a
different course makes sense.
Those of us who believe the strategy should be given a chance
must be willing to objectively consider any evidence that it is not
working. But the key is
to be open to the facts, not locked into a partisan position.
General
Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker reported that all of the troops
needed to implement their new strategy have been in place only since
mid-June. The planned
increase of civilians to help with reconstruction is only about
one-half complete. There has been a remarkable turn-around in some provinces
that had been seen as lost but were now rejecting Al Qaeda foreign
fighters. Sectarian
deaths have been dramatically reduced while the more spectacular
vehicle bombings have gotten most of the attention.
On the other hand, the government of Iraq is moving too
slowly to pass the reforms needed for reconciliation and rebuilding.
Of
course, Al Qaeda is expert at using the media for their own
purposes. It was
recently revealed that the top Iraqi in the organization never
really existed. He was
a fictitious character invented for the media.
Our soldiers have learned that the truck bombs we hear about
are carefully placed in locations where the American media is sure
to cover it. Innocent
lives are expendable to terrorists.
Iraq
is a pivotal piece in the increasingly complex war on terrorism.
General Petraeus will come back to Washington in
mid-September to report on where we are and what the prospects are
for success. We should
all expect that his report will again include some good news, some
not-so-good. Will we be
able to listen to his professional military judgment objectively, or
are the bitterness and divisions too deep?
There
are well-intentioned people on both sides of the debate, and there
are clearly no simple answers.
That is why we must stay focused on the facts, put
partisanship aside, and let the truth lead the way.
|
