President George W. Bush certainly is not listening to Democrats who want to bring an end to the tragic mistake that is Iraq (I use the word tragic in its original Greek meaning to mean a fall or failure built on hubris and arrogance).
Nor is he listening to the opinion polls that have been pretty clear about public opposition to the war.
Or voters who removed the president’s party from the majority in both houses of Congress.
Or even members of his own party, an increasing number of whom are calling for an end to the Iraqi misadventure.
The question is, will he listen to the men and women forced to fight, kill and die under his orders.
I doubt it.
And that might be the saddest indictment of all against President Bush, a president who continually speaks on behalf of the soldiers, who continually claims to be upholding their honor and pledges to make their sacrifices worthwhile.
Precise numbers are probably difficult to come by, and it is likely that a majority of the military and their families remain loyal to the president’s policy. But there is a growing subset that is questioning the war. Consider today’s story in The New York Times:
Cpl. April Ponce De Leon describes herself and her husband as “gung-ho marines,” and in two weeks she deploys to Iraq, where her husband has been fighting since March.
But she says she stopped believing in the war last month after a telephone conversation with him.
“He started telling me that he doesn’t want me to go and do the things he has been doing,” said Corporal Ponce De Leon, 22, speaking by telephone as she boxed up her belongings in their apartment near Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“He said that ‘we have all decided that it’s time for us to go home.’ I said, ‘You mean go home and rest?’ And he said, ‘I mean go home and not go back.’
“This is from someone who has been training for the past nine years to go to combat and who has spent his whole life wanting to be a marine,” she continued. “That’s when I realized I couldn’t support the war anymore, even though I will follow my orders.”
Comments like this explain this:
Among military members and their immediate families who responded to a national New York Times/CBS News poll in May, two-thirds said things were going badly, compared with just over half, about 53 percent, a year ago. Fewer than half of the families and military members said the United States did the right thing in invading Iraq. A year ago more than half held that view, according to the a similar poll taken last July. The May poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 7 percentage points.
Recruiting efforts are also suffering. Despite granting more waivers for recruits with criminal backgrounds, offering larger cash bonuses, loosening age and weight restrictions, and accepting more high school dropouts, the Army said it had missed its recruiting targets in May and June. Pentagon officials say resistance from families is a major recruiting obstacle. Membership is also increasing among antiwar groups that represent the active military and veterans. Military Families Speak Out, one such group, which was started in the fall of 2002, now has about 3,500 member families. About 500 of them have joined since January.
This stands as a stark contrast to the rhetoric of war supporters like U.S. Sen. John McClain (R-Ariz.) , who ignore the costs the war already is having on the military. McCain offered this Vietnam analogy earlier in the week as the Senate debated war funding:
“I saw a defeated military and I saw how long it took a military that was defeated to recover. And I saw a divided nation beset by assassinations and riots and a breakdown in a civil society.”
Someone should tell Sen. McCain that we reached this point aleady. It is time to be honest with ourselves and do the right thing — for American soldiers and contractors, their families and the Iraqis. It is time to begin bringing the troops home now.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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Hank Kalet 