The perils of righteousness

When asked during the presidential debates of 2000, to define his vision of America’s… When asked during the presidential debates of 2000, to define his vision of America’s role as the world’s sole superpower, President Bush replied, “If we’re a humble nation but strong, they’ll welcome us. We’ve got to be humble yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom.”

Eleven days into the war in Iraq — 11 days too late, some would say — we’re learning something about humility. The carefully-planned but fundamentally-flawed shock-and-awe campaign — the term and strategy from the German blitzkriegs of World War II — has had none of its intended effect: Iraqi soldiers are not laying down their arms in the face of American air power, but drawing upon their own righteousness in repelling what they see as an invading army. As one senior government official, quoted in this week’s New Yorker, said, “They’re not scared. Ain’t it something? They’re not scared.” The battle for control of Iraq has taken on the tone of a religious crusade, complete with suicide bombers and “martyrdom operations.” Iraqi exiles are returning to defend their country — not Saddam Hussein — along with would-be-martyrs from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Algeria.

Meanwhile, American troops hang at the end of overextended supply lines, with no reinforcements, trying to keep their armored vehicles running in the heat and sand of Iraq. Missile batteries are running low and will remain effective only if resupplied soon. Most troops aren’t even in place yet, deployed from their home bases only after the march to Baghdad failed to progress as quickly as planned. Many top brass are predicting a war months in duration, if they dare to make any predictions at all.

On the home front, combat fatigue is already setting in. A poll taken by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds a greater number of Americans feeling depressed, tired or sad concerning the 24-7 war coverage. In the first 11 days of a campaign that could take months, the number of people depressed by the war has increased 10 percent. Another poll showed Americans increasingly less tolerant of any anti-war sentiment. A Cincinnati truck driver attempted to run down a group of anti-war protesters, among them a Vietnam veteran. With more than 50 allied casualties thus far, yet another poll shows American support for the war dropping to less than 50 percent should 1,000 U.S. troops die. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

The American public was sold on a quick war for the highest ideals. High on our own righteous cause, we allowed ourselves to be convinced the Iraqi people would lay down their arms, take up democracy and welcome our great liberating force. If only it were so simple; if only every war could be so fairy tale pure. If only we weren’t hearing how Donald Rumsfeld micromanaged this war — despite the warnings of his best advisers and military planners — in order to sell it politically. We might not be so shocked to hear the plan isn’t working; that a quick and clean war exists only on paper and in the hearts of those true believers in the government. If only the propaganda hadn’t been so well-scripted to pull the emotional strings of patriotism.

What if we’d been told the truth? What if we’d gotten the full story, plain, so that we the people could make a rational, informed decision? Would more people be depressed, wrestling with the uneasy conscience war should provoke in every citizen whose dollars fund bombs dropped on foreign soil? Maybe we wouldn’t be so worried about the motives of a government who gives it to us straight, without spin or the cloak of righteousness. Of course, that government dwells right across the street from the antiseptic war, in the land of make-believe.

That’s the thing about crusades — they play well in the abstract, away from human complexity. Righteousness brings with it the touch of madness, and needs blindness to persevere. Right now, we’re in the middle of this nauseous triumvirate: emotional madness over the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, fueling a righteous war against a convenient enemy, orchestrated by a government whose power depends on our blindness. History is turning around us, and if history is the nightmare from which we are all trying to awake, how long will it be? How long before we all wake up?

Jesse Hicks is a columnist for The Pitt News. Contact him at jhicks@pittnews.com.