My career in the news media began shortly before the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003, when I was working as a producer at a public radio station in Boston. During my time in news radio, I was involved in producing programs in which analysts and pundits discussed and debated the run-up to the war, the invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the post-invasion chaos and the shame of Abu Ghraib, the bloody descent into quagmire, the surge, and ultimately the withdrawal of U.S. troops. I spoke with soldiers who were proud of what they had achieved in Iraq, and those who felt like it had been a waste. I heard from listeners who were furious about the decisions made by the Bush administration, and those who applauded them.
Though it did not divide the nation the way the Vietnam War did, for several years the Iraq War dominated political discourse in America. But by the time Obama came into office and the war dragged to a close, the public had grown weary of Iraq. Most people, it seemed, wanted move on. There was a recession, and another war, to deal with.
But the news that's come out of Iraq in recent weeks, and the recent scandal at VA hospitals, are reminders that the Iraq War never really went away. For many Americans who fought there, it has continued, in the form of shattered bodies and shattered minds. For Iraqis, the disruption and chaos of the war has remained. The tribal and sectarian hatreds unleashed by the U.S. invasion have only grown stronger. Whether you're inclined to blame this reality on the Bush administration for invading Iraq, the Obama administration for leaving Iraq, or the Sykes Picot Agreement, depends on where you sit on the political spectrum. And yesterday's announcement by the President indicates that Iraq, for the foreseeable future, will remain an American problem.
I just recently finished reading Richard Ford's "Canada," a novel set in 1960 about a teenage boy in Montana named Dell Parsons. The lives of Dell and his twin sister, Berner, are torn apart when their parents decide to rob a bank in North Dakota. The mastermind behind the ill-conceived plot is Dell's father, a recently discharged air force bombardier whose life hasn't turned out as well as he had hoped, despite his good looks and southern charm. Dell's mother, a quiet, intense woman who aspires to be a poet, reluctantly goes along with the plot, making adjustments that ultimately lead to their capture.
The entire second half of the novel, told by Dell as he verges on retirement from a teaching career, revolves around the consequences of that act. After their parents are arrested, Dell and his sister are thrust out into an uncaring world, both taking distinct paths that will shape who they become. While we are given first-hand account of the trials that Dell has to face on his own, we only get a sense of how poorly life has treated Berner. And while we're led to believe that Dell has had a fulfilling life, it's clear that the decisions made by his parents have haunted him, and will do so for the remainder of his life. Dell says of his parents:
"The past was cruelly ended, the future jeopardized. Though this may also be what joined them: an unexpected mutual awareness of consequence. Neither of them had been richly imbued with that. Lacking an awareness of consequence might've been their greatest flaw. Though each of them had reasons to know that acts had results."
Reading this passage, and contemplating what has happened in Iraq over the last few weeks, makes me think of Donald Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns," which he translated to mean "the ones we don't know we don't know." In telling the story of his parents, Dell can see clearly the terrible choices they made, but understands their lack of awareness. While Rumsfeld should have had some awareness of what could go wrong in Iraq, as many others did, I'm not sure if he could have envisioned the rise of an organization even more violent and intolerant than al qaeda. And while President Obama likely had reservations about leaving Iraq in the hands of Nouri al-Maliki, as many others did, he clearly did not foresee the country verging on collapse less than three years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
But clearly, these acts have had results. How long we will have to live with these results is another question.
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