Operation Iraqi Freedom Plus Five

by Gordon Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, April 4, 2008

Anniversaries of notable events in our lives are always opportunities to glance backward and to gaze forward. This fifth anniversary of military action by the Coalition Forces against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq offers such an opportunity to us today.

First of all, it is important to glance backward and refresh our memories of the situation that led the international community of Australia, Poland, Great Britain and many other allies of the US to deliver a forceful message to Saddam Hussein. His defiance of UN conditions he had previously agreed to, following his surrender in 1990, had to be dealt with. His refusal to allow inspectors in to verify his compliance with UN demands had to be dealt with. His continued support of international terrorist organizations and his willingness to offer safe harbor and aid to suicide bombers had to be dealt with. His known use of biological and chemical weapons upon his own people and the Kurds who lived within his borders had to be dealt with.

These factors and many other “Whereas”–s are listed in the copy of “The Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq” which was read (I assume) and approved of by the majority of our Representatives and Senators, including Senator Clinton.

I admit that the climate that existed within our nation during the months of 2002 was quite different from the climate of today. Our short-term memory is now limited to last season’s American Idol and this week’s political scandal. We seem to have forgotten that there is a cadre of terrorists who have sworn their allegiance to the ideal of a world without a free and sovereign United States of America. The fact that our world changed on that sunny morning in September of 2001must be as real to us as the fact that the world of our forefathers changed on that July morning in 1776. A declaration of war against our way of life, and that of the rest of the free world, demanded a response. To allow any safe harbor or zone of protection for terrorists anywhere was to only forestall the next catastrophic attack upon our citizens and those of our ideological allies.

It is easy for the mainstream media, and commentators such as my fellow columnist, to obfuscate the landscape by repeating half-truths and broad generalizations about the cost/reward ratio of this operation. The money spent and the lives sacrificed for this endeavor are thrown before us daily, as if freedom is only worth a certain dollar amount or a certain amount of blood. The price of freedom has always been inestimable and the price of its loss is equally inestimable. I am grateful to those who picked up their muskets and struggled against unbelievable odds to purchase our freedom over 230 years ago. And today there are children and women walking the streets of Baghdad in freedom, because men and women of the Coalition forces picked up their weapons and struggled against unbelievable odds five years ago.

It is equally easy to see a devil behind our presidential administration and corporations who work for the reconstruction of Iraq’s infrastructure and ignore or belittle the devil who reigned in Iraq. It is a sad commentary of our times when we fail to recognize evil on the side of Hussein and his terrorist allies, while holding our own soldiers to such ridiculous ‘rules of engagement’ that we endanger their own lives.

As we turn our attention away from the past and gaze into the future toward the next five-year anniversary, what landscape may we see after ten years of Iraqi Freedom? Let’s imagine a child was born in Baghdad during the first month of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today she enters her sixth year without the same fears her older sisters and brothers experienced under the regime of Saddam. She grows up with no knowledge of the rape rooms that imperiled her sister and mother. She has the opportunity to attend a modern school and to one day vote and proudly hold up a purple thumb.

War is always painful, costly and deadly and we should be very careful how we celebrate its milestones. I do not look at this anniversary with complete joy and satisfaction. I wish that it had not been necessary. I wish it had been settled quicker and the new Iraqi administration would have been allowed to grow from infancy to adolescence without the bloody bombings from the terrorists who still thrive in its borders. However, the war was necessary (according to the aforementioned resolution) and it has not been as quick as we expected, however we have had many victories. And victories, even small ones, should be celebrated. There is a girl somewhere in Baghdad who walks freely in the streets without fear. There are purple fingers held high. There is a broken cycle of hatred and a new cycle of hope begun.