No doubt there will be those who, in remembering Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, will draw parallels to 9/11. But there is at least one important difference: After Pearl Harbor, we declared war on the right country. We fought and won the right war. After 9/11, we invaded a country that had nothing to do with the attack. We fought the wrong war and are paying dearly for it today. While the result of our war against Japan was a solid democracy in the Far East, the endgame in Iraq probably won’t be victory, but defeat.
Democracy did not suddenly spring up in Japan after World War II. After all, we had dropped atomic bombs on the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — our postwar task was hardly an easy one. We could have gotten rid of Emperor Hirohito and tried to shove democracy down the throats of the Japanese, but such actions would likely have led the country toward communism. Instead, we treated their emperor with respect, left him as a revered figurehead and went about rebuilding Japanese society. We installed the right man to oversee it, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who is still a hero to many of the Japanese who lived through those times. We had a marvelous postwar plan in Japan; There is no postwar plan for Iraq.
Americans made tremendous sacrifices not only to wage a successful war, but for peace in Europe and Japan. In Iraq, when the looting began, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, "Stuff happens." Today we are about to give up on the province of Al Anbar. We have yet to secure Baghdad. Outside of our green zone, there is still inadequate water and electricity.
Japan was a blueprint for how to win the peace; Iraq has been one for disaster.
There is a surrealistic air in Washington these days. The president wants more time to study the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Commission, as if there is more time to be had. The media speculates whether the Republicans and Democrats can unite on an exit strategy, as if we are in control of a situation that is deteriorating at an ever-rapid pace. The president praises the Maliki government even when a memo from his own national security advisor reveals it may not last more than a couple of months. Mr. Bush is waging a quaint debate over whether Iraq has descended into civil war, while each day brings revelations of a new horror. In the meantime, Sen. John McCain calls for more troops and is willing to send in our reserves and guard for a third time. There was a time when more troops would have helped and, to be fair, the senator has been calling for them all along. But surely he knows such a time has long passed.
Moderates among the Republicans and Democrats have called for a regional political solution. I like that idea because it stopped the slaughter in Eastern Europe. Realistically, with every day that passes, even that attempt seems a small nod to what might have been.
Neo-conservatives are scrambling to find a rationale for quitting Iraq without making it look like we will be responsible for the chaos left in our wake. More and more, those respected neo-cons once so certain of victory in Iraq are now blaming the Iraqis themselves. "We fought a noble war for democracy," is their refrain. We deposed Saddam Hussein. We gave them a chance and they blew it. Theirs is the opposite of the Colin Powell "Pottery Barn" theory, which says once you break Iraq, you own it. The neo-cons seem to be saying, It wasn’t our fault we broke it; Blame the store that put the pottery too close to the edge of the shelf. In other words: Stuff is still happening.
We know where this is all heading. We just can’t get ourselves to accept that, for the second time in about 30 years, we are going to lose a war. We are heading for that God-awful rerun of Vietnam when the helicopters airlifted some folks out while others were left to the whim of H� Chi Minh. We owe it to those Iraqis who supported our idea of democracy to get them out safely. As many as we can. Damn the anti-immigration sentiment and bring them to America before they are slaughtered, before they are part of a new national nightmare.
I remember what we accomplished after Pearl Harbor and, sadly, this is not it.
