Iraq Nam Irony

Everyone has an opinion about the Iraq war. I won’t bore you with the full extent of my opposition, but I’d like to share a few observations from a Boomer perspective.

We should have learned something from our experiences in Viet Nam. Like Viet Nam, we had good intentions going into Iraq, such as protecting freedom and American interests. We were afraid of things that could happen if we didn’t go in. In the 60s, it was fear of the spread of Communism. In 2003, it was fear of spreading terrorism and specifically a fear of weapons of mass destruction the President said he thought were in Iraq.

So we go in, bomb the hell out of them, discover there are no WMDs, change the story and the strategy, and now consider sending even more troops before actually withdrawing. The latest Administration strategy has something to do with helping rebuild Iraq, which is probably the right thing to do because we destroyed so much to begin with.

A big difference between now and then is in attitudes towards the American soldiers. During the 1960s and 1970s, anti-war protests were against both the war and the troops who fought the war. Young American military personnel who risked their lives on the battlefield returned home to receive sneers from their peers rather than the heroic welcomes their parents experienced after World War II.

Soldiers returning from Iraq receive praise and respect from the American public. Even those of us who blame the President for getting us into this mess are proud of the job most American soldiers do while serving in the Middle East.

I guess we did learn something from Viet Nam.

As long as I’m out here on a limb talking about sensitive topics, here is an observation on religion and war. We sometimes wonder how cultures can fight wars in the name of God, Allah or some higher power. Yet some of our own soldiers carry Bibles next to their guns while on duty in Iraq.

CNN aired a story this morning showing “good luck” objects some soldiers carry while on duty. One of the troops they interviewed pulled out a Bible page and quoted part of Psalm 91 “You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day.” This line gives that soldier confidence while on patrol at night. I get that. But it doesn’t say anything about killing in the name of God. I looked up the Psalm and some analysis on its message. It says God will protect believers in dangerous situations.

I don’t think belief in a higher power justifies fighting a war with people who believe in a different higher power. Even back in the days when my faith was in line with the established norms of the religious instruction of my youth, I could not understand how guns and God could fit together in any context.