All opinions posted. None too pathetic or contrived. Everyone gets their say.

"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Saturday, May 15, 2004

MLK on Pulling out of Iraq vs Vietnam
DB wrote to me saying:

"I think you may learn something if you were to read this masterful speech from MLK. Everything he says here applies to the situation in Iraq.
Here is the link: MLK speech

Respectfully,
DB"

This is a serious critique of the war and deserves a serious response.

Many with a greater grasp of history than myself have completely shattered the facile comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam (moral purpose - liberation & democracy vs colonial oppression based on the refusal to allow elections; nature of the enemy - a true revolutionary people's movement vs the remnants of a totalitarian elite & a fascist theocratic movement; etc.)

Let me only speak of practical matters. When MLK gave this speech he was referring to a war fought by a reluctant draft army that had been fighting for six (6) brutal years. By the moment of this timely, brilliant and most appropriate speech, America had suffered combat casualties of 16,250 killed and 93,342 wounded. Our current combat casualties in Iraq are 658 killed and 4,327 wounded.

If we assume that the American public could only bear with 10% of those casualty figures (and I think that for a war such as this one, which was started by an attack on American soil, the public would be far more steadfast than that), that would still mean we are less than half way to the breaking point. Also, we have at least 2-3 more years before we reach an equivalent chronological point in the two conflicts (somewhere around the spring of 2006). You must also take into account that King was far ahead of the public. The public approval of the war did not reach less than 50% until 1968 after the Tet Offensive, in which we lost 1,536 killed and 7,764 wounded in a 2 week period. At this time, if you ask the public the straight question - "Do you still support the war in Iraq?"; then according to the latest polls (last week), the public is responding with a 67% approval rating.

Before you ask yourself "How can he be so callous with the lives of others?", I assure you I am not. I am a veteran of the first Gulf War, but I do not expect that this gives me some special right to argue this way. I say that Americans realize that this must be done because we would not want others to die in our place.

The war must be won because we owe the Iraqi people a moral debt that must be paid. If we sacrifice the lives and future well-being of tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, just to protect ourselves from the sacrifice required by our own actions, then we will be rightly condemned as moral lepers.

We must not think of our own national interest, but the interest of Iraqi citizens. We owe a debt to the Iraqi people and we must pay it.

In any case, your despair is premature. This mission can still succeed. What would success look like? A democratically elected anti-American government. That would be victory.

Posted by: Zayphar / 5/15/2004 01:06:00 PM
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