Duty, Honor, Courage, and Withdrawl

On April 8, 2008, President Bush awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously to Navy Seal Michael A. Monsoor, who sacrificed his life and saved the lives of his buddies by falling on a live grenade in Iraq. There are no words sufficient to commend such courage. Now that there are so many calls for us to pull-out of Iraq, the question arises: was Michael Monsoor’s death in vain? If we withdraw suddenly from Iraq, will the deaths of all the American soldiers who have died there have no meaning?

You cannot tie the meaning of soldiers’ deaths to the wisdom or righteousness of the wars in which they perished. We make a mistake when we ask such a question. We like to think that soldiers who die in war must have died for some noble cause in order for their deaths to have meaning. But no soldier who dies fighting for America in a war ever dies in vain.

I wish we could give a Medal of Honor to every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have all shown their commitment to duty, honor, and courage, fighting a deadly war against a nasty, invisible enemy, in hot, hostile lands far from America.

Soldiers’ lives are not lost in vain, but wars are fought in vain. Soldiers bring honor to themselves when they die for their country even when the war they fight in is the mistaken enormity of wicked politicians. We have had several such wars. Vietnam was such a war. Iraq is such a war. If we were to say that soldiers who died in wrongful, mistaken, or misguided wars have died in vain, then many thousands of Americans throughout history would have died in vain. The heroism and dedication of soldiers is what gives their lives and deaths meaning, not the rectitude of the wars they fought.

We do not dishonor the lives of soldiers lost in Iraq if we withdraw our forces. We save the lives of other soldiers who might die in this vain and useless war. There is no way we can justify this waste of human life and treasure by continuing to fight on.

In his testimony before Congress on April 8, 2008, the US Commander in Iraq, General Petraeus, could not speculate as to when American participation in the conflict would end. While he was able to describe some progress, he acknowledged: “We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.”

General Petraeus testified that he intended by the end of July to withdraw the troops that were sent to Iraq in the current “Surge” That would leave the remaining 140,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely. That testimony, by itself, was a tacit acknowledgement that the “Surge” was unsuccessful. If the “Surge” had been a success, he would have been able to withdraw far more than the number of troops sent-in to solve the problem. While the “Surge” may have diminished some of the violence, all we need to do is read the daily papers to see that fighting there continues to rage.

In his testimony before Congress on April 2, 2008, Lt General William E. Odom, a retired U.S. Army 3-star general, former Director of the NSA under President Reagan, and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, stated: “The surge is prolonging instability, not creating the conditions for unity as the president claims….Violence has been temporarily reduced, but today there is credible evidence that the political situation is far more fragmented.”

General Odom discussed the fact that some Sunni tribal leaders have started cooperating with us against Al Qaeda: “The decline in violence reflects a dispersion of power to dozens of local strong men who …insist on being paid for their loyalty.” He offered an estimate that the cost in one small area of keeping the Sunni tribal leaders happy is $250,000 per day. The tribal leaders fight with one another, and their treatment of women is often no more liberal than was that of Al Qaeda.

President Bush has said that we will not leave Iraq until there is political stability and democracy there. Such a goal is obviously out of reach. The Administration originally set certain benchmarks as the basis for continued American presence in Iraq. It has now abandoned the benchmarks as a standard of progress.

General Odom testified: “The only sensible strategy is to withdraw rapidly but in good order.”

Michael Monsoor did not die in vain. He covered himself with glory. But the politicians who persist in conducting this hideous war have steeped themselves in ignominy.