The Smugness of Hindsight

Five years ago yesterday, the U.S. invaded Iraq. It's an important event to remember. We can all learn lessons from it, that's for sure. We need to talk about it.

But come on--enough with the minute examination of the invasion, already. Could we now focus on what the U.S. doing there now and how to get out ASAP? You know, kind of like what Canadians should be discussing about Afghanistan, instead of blindly allowing their MPs to vote to stay until 2011?

As an American, I may be hypersensitive to the finger-pointing up here, all aimed at "Americans." We apparently all lay down and allowed ourselves to be steamrolled into a war. However, as an American who was against the Iraq war from since before Bush got the gleam in his eye (and before that, I was opposed to bombing Afghanistan after 9/11), and who at the time lived in a community that was hostile to my views on human rights, let alone war, I'm impatient with all the focus on the past. "Yeah, yeah, I was there in 2001 and 2002, forget about 2003," I feel like saying. "Now what do we do?"

Iraq coverage up here feels like that dreaded teenager's discussion you have with the parents after you've done something colossally stupid, have tried to make amends, are continuing to work on ongoing solutions and preventing it from happening again, and are trying to survive the fallout in your own life. But those 'rents just can't stop going over and over the fact that you had the party and kids you didn't know showed up and they broke into the liquor cabinet and puked everywhere and there are damages. Yeah, I know.

Here's a brief taste of what I'm talking about.

First, the CBC's discussion of border issues (a special two-part series on its nightly news that allowed the host to travel to green and balmy BC at a particularly snowy time of the year back in Ontario, hmm) focused on "changes since 9/11." To be fair, they also asked if Canada depends too much on the U.S. border patrol instead of beefing up the Canadian border services. The Candian answer to that question, which of course I read between the lines from my paranoid state, was "they're the ones paranoid about national security; let them hire 4000 people and patrol the damn thing." There were interviews with people who actually have to carry ID now. Wow.

Second, The Fifth Estate (CBC's investigative journalism program, think "60 Minutes" except devoted to one topic all hour) last night re-ran its year-four look at the war. Its breathless title: "The Lies that Led to War." They updated it a bit for the fifth anniversary, but it's mostly a rehash of what we all already know about the Iraq war--begun under false pretenses and mismanaged ever since, consequences ignored and spun falsely to this day. Et cetera.

It's old news, people. The terrorist attacks seven years ago changed how the U.S. views its security. As an example, U.S. paranoia allowed its commander-in-chief to start a war without checking facts, much less debating moral issues surrounding war, much less debating the relative likelihood of success against entrenched opposition in the Middle East. Stop the presses.

How about this: how about a show on CBC that focuses on both Afghanistan and Iraq, on the advisablity of meddling in what amounts to tribal warfare--about setting goals for getting out of that briar patch?

Now that's a Fifth Estate program I would watch. I'd even park my paranoia at the door.