For crying out loud, Valentine’s Day was Wednesday. Where’s the love? Where’s the cooperation, bipartisanship, kindness, collaboration, etc?
I’d say it’s there, deep down. Yet, so deep that I wonder whether it’ll ever come up and surface again.
We’ve seen reports about possible sniping between Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates over who should serve in Iraq and what they should be doing. Mr. Gates wants civilians to pull more weight while Ms. Rice admits that finding non-military folks willing to put themselves in harm’s way is a bit challenging.
How does this squabbling inform us besides exposing frustrations about inadequate communication and coordination regarding who should be doing what, where, how, and when?
Recent reports say that there are nearly as many (100,000) contractor personnel in Iraq as there are troops (130,000) pre-surge. Who’s war is it anyway?
Congress is debating a non-binding Resolution that would tell President Bush that he’s misguided at best and nuts at worst to send more soldiers into Baghdad.
Where’s the love? People are strongly for this or strongly against that. War will do that to you, especially if folks can’t clearly see a nexus between the country and people we are fighting vis-à-vis the harm heaped upon the U.S.A.
Many believe that sectarian killings in Iraq are as much a reaction to U.S. presence as they are about anything else. Leave Iraq, and the situation will improve, one scenario goes. Leave Iraq, and watch the carnage multiply, the other side believes.
Some suggest the heavy mix of contractors makes for commercialization of the conflict. As war increases, employment booms and the economy grows. How’s that for cynical?
Even prominent public figures authoring the Iraq Study Group (ISG) Report recommend that more civilian government employees – like the folks at the State Department – get involved, go to Iraq, and help cobble together a free and democratic Mesopotamia.
Where’s the love? As if we weren’t exposed to enough craziness already, our politicians have begun campaigning to be President of the United States in January, 2009. The give-and-take, ying-and-yang of political posturing and debate filled with invectives, accusations, and recriminations ill serve our national interest as we try to succeed in (or just work through) Iraq.
But is anyone really trying to succeed in Iraq? Our Executive Branch employees, working for the President, are charged with following his orders. He believes his way will produce positive results before our inevitable departure from the country.
Talk about cognitive dissonance. Government employees are challenged now more than ever to pursue one course of action with hope and promise, while background noise volume calling for a turnabout grows louder daily.
Our country is stuck about Iraq. We wish it would go away tomorrow as if it never happened. Yet, even acknowledging that’s impossible, our corporate country culture appears to be doing a lot of talking and gnashing of teeth with little concrete traction for debating, analyzing, accepting, and executing unflinchingly and unfailingly a policy in Iraq that will work.
Problem is, we can’t do that until we cooperate with one another. We can’t do it without some degree of love and respect for others. We can’t do it if we deny the real complications and desperations that Iraq represents for itself and the whole of the Middle East.
We can’t do it without love.
Where’s the love?
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Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 560 words.
© February, 2007