Iraq - Hope Springs Eternal

It is September 8th, 2007. Next week General David Petraeus will give a report to President George Bush and Congress on the status of the "surge effort."

I do not intend to make light of the grief and sorrow of the Iraq war under the presidency of George W Bush. Nor do I want to make light of the seriousness of the outcome, whether we succeed or fail. For some reason, as I listened to the build up of this upcoming report, I'm tense and anxious. I have been thinking and thinking all week of the fictitious fans of Mudville, with "Casey at the Bat. It is the words of Ernest Lawrence Thayer, " Hope springs eternal" that I believe are getting to me.

As much as I think it was a colossal mistake to start this war, I hope so very much that this outstanding military general can report our efforts are not in vain. I hope he can report there has been enough success, that the military and security efforts there are beginning to make some type of internal strategic sense. At least that much.

At the time of the request for "more troops for a surge," I was not doubting. I was beyond doubting - I thought it was just more senseless bloodshed. A better description is that I thought it was just completely foolish - dumb. But the surge went forward.

When the benchmarks were set I was dumbfounded. Numbed. Reversing de-Baathification? In this sectarian country of pre-dark age thinking? National re-conciliation? Agreement on the status of Kirkuk? Benchmarks of "increasing annual economic growth" in a country which is at least at a low level of civil war with its infrastructure badly damaged? How does one even get an economic measure (sounds like the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman wrote this benchmark) with a dysfunctional government in place?

I decided that these were completely unrealistic benchmarks, that the democrats, republicans and the George W Bush administration were agreeing on this surge for different reasons. But as the surge went on, I thought - if there is at least enough success so General Petraeus can report, "there are enough benchmarks met or partially met and enough progress that stability and some form of democratic republic will develop much sooner than later." That is all I need to hear.

Whatever is reported, I still believe it was uninformed, inadequate intellect and an absence of understanding of history that caused this mistake. Al-quida and terrorism from a faceless enemy was a problem for the U.S. and the world, not Saddam Hussein. All this administration needed to understand were two things: 1) The history of the middle east, their people, religion and culture 2) that the idea of human liberty as pondered and written by men like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and distilled into that single document by Thomas Jefferson called the Declaration of Independence will always prevail. Understand that human liberty is not just a trend, it is the inexorable movement of history. Some day every country in the world will be a democracy. All we have to do is encourage it and help those who have it in some form, protect it. We don't have to drop bombs and do shock and awe and break things and kill people to force it.

Hope springs eternal.

Aime Casavant