Date posted: August 26, 2007 - Sunday
Title: The National Mentality as it Applies to War
Current mood: frustrated
I have been trying to avoid news about Iraq. Having lived through the Vietnam Era, and been in the military at that time, I feel an incredible sense of Deja Vu with every story. It has become especially strong in the last few weeks.
So yesterday I read an article that talked about the possible consequences of withdrawal. It talked about how the religious factions can't get along and that makes the government weak, how other countries are interfering with the Iraqis in the hopes of expanding their own influence in the region and how there is little hope the feuding groups in the country will reconcile.
Shades of Vietnam all over again.
I'm not here to debate the "pull out-don't pull out" issue or discuss timetables or the consequences of any scenario. I don't say I have any claim to expertise, or the desire to become embroiled in an argument.
But something struck me today about our approach as a society to this whole issue. And I am not talking about our exit strategy, I'm talking about our entrance strategy -- or the lack thereof.
Nope, I'm not here to debate the "weapons of mass destruction" controversy or whether or not the effort in Iraq is actually doing anything to help the "war on terrorism."
What struck me today was the influence of television. Ah, you say, how coverage of the war has caused the public to be disenchanted. No, remember, I said entrance strategy.
We have become a nation with a short attention span. We have become a nation with lack of patience. And it may be an odd way to look at it, but I think we can attribute at least part of it to television.
Day after day television presents us with dramas where all the problems are solved in one hour (45 or less minutes if you take out the commercials). And while television commercials used to be a full minute long, these days the standard is something like 20 seconds. I propose we have become so conditioned to the idea problems can be solved in an hour or that any message can be delivered in 20 seconds it has become a part of the national consciousness.
And while no one thought the problems of Iraq could be solved in an hour, I suspect the people who committed us to the effort believed they could just walk into the country, whip a little democracy and organization on them and walk out again in a few months. Whatever the motives for our involvement by Washington, be they noble or base, I suspect the consequences of involvement were not considered at any length or with any great wisdom.
No one in Washington, or the citizens in the country who support them, seems to have learned the lessons of Vietnam; it's a whole lot easier to get in than it is to get out. They are so conditioned to believe things can be solved quickly, it was beyond their capability to realize how difficult it would be to correct things in that country and just peacefully walk away. Our politicians, who supposedly are a reflection of the people they represent, have shown they are just as short-sighted and lacking in patience as anyone else. And while we might expect them to operate at a higher standard, it just hasn't worked out that way for a long time.
All they had to do was look at some of the problems we have in this country which they can't seem to solve in a timely manner and realize it was not going to be any different when we were traveling several thousand miles away and dealing with a culture completely different from our own.
So, the people on either side of the withdrawal debate can blather on until some conclusion is reached. People will go on dying and being maimed and injured and eventually we will be out of Iraq like we finally got out of Vietnam. And we will probably suffer the same public vilification from other countries like we suffered after Vietnam.
My hope is we will finally come to realize large problems can't be solved quickly. I hope we develop a
