Can Americans handle the truth about Iraq? Well, according to President Bush during the State of the Union, not really. “We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our allies have prevented.
President Bush left this quote for us to figure out. By not letting us know the full extent to what is really going on in Iraq, it seems he is trying to save us from the fear we may encounter by knowing what is actually happening. President Bush told the nation at one time that the war in Iraq was difficult but winnable. Winnable, I am not so sure, but difficult is clearly the truth. Despite upbeat encouragement by administration officials, the military situation is unimproved; in fact, it is disintegrating day by day. Just a few weeks ago, a U.S. Military base was attacked in broad daylight. Such bold action does not reassure us that Iraq is stabilizing and that U.S. troops are secure. Clearly, the Iraqi Army shows no signs of being able to control the country without American help for years to come. There are not enough American soldiers to carry out the job they have been sent to do, yet the damage to the current force is taking a terrible toll on the ability of the United States to defend its security on other fronts around the world.
The Bush Administration has been saying that Iraq would be worth American sacrifices, but Americans are really wondering whether our sacrifices could actually produce a democratic Iraq. This War, and make no mistake about the fact that this is a war, has been going on now years, and yes, there has been some progress, but not enough to prove this war is the right thing to do. In the recent House Hearing of 2007 Army War Supplemental, there was much talk about how we entered into Iraq unprepared as well as 56 billion dollars short to fund our Army; we should be prepared for this action. Entering into a war unprepared is just not smart. If the U.S. was not prepared, they should have held off.
Many Americans do not want a disaster in Iraq, and the President’s critics can put aside their anger at the administration for its awful planning and its useless conduct of the war in return for a blunt discussion of where to go from here. The President, who is going to be in office for almost another 2 years, cannot continue by tainting Iraq with the memory of 9/11. The nation does not want it and cannot afford it. It seems as though the truth about Iraq is that we are in over our heads. It seems as though President Bush and his administrators are going by the saying “What we don’t know won’t hurt us.” The truth about the truth is it hurts, so we are told something that will comfort us rather then break us down
Many U.S. newspapers as well as many private citizens are pressing the Bush administration for an explanation of how it could have gotten the question of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq so wrong in the march to war. The Dallas Morning News, in Bush's home state, which had supported the war, has now declared;” We feel deceived by the CIA, which overestimated the threat, and by the White House, which probably stretched the bad estimates to build a case for war." If Bush had found other strategic or humanitarian reasons for the war, "he should have argued the case on that basis," the editorial said. Now if the newspapers do not know the truth about Iraq, what makes anyone think your average American does?
An actual truth about Iraq is that this war has no direct link to September 11th. Now, Americans know that truth. However, how should Americans react when President Bush continues to link the two? I think the President owes this nation an apology, for misleading us about going to war and acting as if we cannot handle the truth. Terrorists did not come and steal our newly regained sense of being Americans. Neither did the Democrats, nor did the media, nor did the people. The President and those around him did that. Therefore, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a lock to turn Americans against Americans.
Katie Cappelloni
Wilkes Communications Studies Major
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