Complex Political Issues in 400 Words or Less, Part I

Sometimes, I get to write tiny columns for my campus newspaper. In order to fill this space, I'm posting them here. BE AMAZED as I try to assess current events and social issues in 1/10 of a tabloid page! STAND IN AWE as I use such space limitations to completely ignore the facets of my arguments that are utterly indefensible!


Bush’s Last Stand (8/27/07)

In a couple of weeks we’ll hear Gen. Petraeus, commander of US troops in Iraq, give a much-anticipated report to Congress on the state of the Iraq war and the successes/failures of the Bush administration’s “troop surge.” One would think that with Democratic majorities in Congress, public opinion shifting steadily against the war, and prominent Republicans such as Senators Chuck Hagel and John Warner calling for a withdrawal of American troops, this major re-assessment of our presence in the country will mark the beginning of the end of US military involvement in Iraq. However, the White House has already begun what will likely become a last stand in the battle to prolong the war.

The Administration is utilizing now-familiar strategies to convince Congress and the American public to “wait a little longer, there’ll be progress by next time, I swear.” At a VFW convention in Kansas, Bush used a classic equivocation of the current war with more popular wars in US history such as World War II to stress the importance of not “retreating;” he even brought in the ever-taboo Vietnam War, claiming that the conflict would have been a great success if only we’d given that “surge” more time (hopefully, he won’t propose a Middle Eastern version of bombing Cambodia). The Administration has also used the fact that the report will be given by Gen. Petraeus instead of a White House official to argue that it merely follows the words of the commanders on the ground without concern for political implications; in reality, though, the report is being written by the White House based on “input” from commanders, leaving Petraeus to simply read what Bush submits to him. And as a final touch, the report to Congress is scheduled for September 11; the Administration claims the timing was coincidental, but I’m sure I’m not alone in suspecting another attempt by the White House to exploit that tragic event and link it to the unrelated Iraqi campaign.

But whoever wins this final battle over the future of American troops in Iraq, the true losers will be the Iraqi people, who will probably spend the coming years in a semi-anarchic state of sectarian slaughter regardless of whether US forces leave their country. Hopefully, we won’t hear some president in thirty years defend a failed occupation by pointing to the “Iraq example,” but unfortunately, history has a habit of becoming skewed, as Bush’s views on Vietnam show us.


Little did I know at the time that, rather than make any meaningful decisions regarding Iraq, Congress would waste everyone's time by passing resolutions about a fucking rhyming pun in the New York Times. I hope MoveOn.org learned a lesson about accusing generals who bend to the will of political leaders instead of giving honest military assessments of betraying their forces!