How We Got Into This Unjust War

"A president who has no self-doubt, no ability to question his own mistakes, is a very dangerous man."


Published on Friday, April 30, 2004 by the Chicago Sun-Times

How We Got Into This Unjust War
by Andrew Greeley


*...The president's personality and religious faith -- in combination -- make it impossible for him to have serious second thoughts or even to admit any ambiguity. If a decision is ''right,'' then it is right no matter what. Many Americans, perhaps a slight majority, think this is ''strong'' leadership. My feeling is that it edges toward religious fanaticism and is not altogether different from the ''rightness'' of Osama bin Laden's faith. If there is a mistake, it is not the president's mistake. It's God's mistake because God told him he had made the right decision.

*A president serves the nation better if he admits at least to himself how problematic all political decisions are. President John F. Kennedy, for example took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, even though he inherited the project from his predecessor. During the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy's stubborn resistance to those who wanted war prevented a nuclear holocaust. A president who has no self-doubt, no ability to question his own mistakes, is a very dangerous man.

Finally, besides some outlines of responsibilities, there was very little in the plan of attack that took seriously the problems of postwar Iraq -- problems that last week caused Rumsfeld at least to admit some uncertainty. There is not the slightest indication that anyone knew about or considered seriously the difficulties Britain encountered in Mesopotamia (as it was then called) in the early 1920s -- or the cruelty necessary for Britain's victory.

The war is a stupid, unjust and criminal war. It is a quagmire from which no immediate escape seems possible. Many more Americans are going to die so that American ''democracy and freedom'' can be imposed on the Iraqis -- whether they want them or not. Many more Iraqis will die, too. Americans who support the war share in its criminality. --- http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0430-13.htm