A Pilgrim’s Digression

The Washington Times headline reads, “Joy Explodes Across Iraq.” Presumably the headline did not refer to the detonation of an International Red Cross relief worker named Joy.

Both on-line and other print media were scarcely less adulatory. It was almost as if by mutual agreement, all of the nation’s media resources decided to suspend disbelief for a day. Perhaps for good.

Meanwhile, apparently reflecting its depressed, leftist readership, the third most-emailed story from the New York Times was a lengthy review of Jared Diamond’s new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, in which Diamond claims that societies like our own here in America usually collapse soon after reaching their peak in population and achievement. The reasons for collapse are multitudinous, but Diamond believes eco-catastrophe and the exhaustion of natural resources are primary reasons that societies decline and die.

Pssst. Mr. Diamond? Pessimism is out of fashion. Joy exploded across Iraq today.

On his radio program, Rush Limbaugh declared that it was as if “Wolfowitz’s” prediction about the Iraqis greeting us with flowers had come true after all. Actually, it was Vice-President Cheney who made the now infamous comment that the Iraqis would greet us with flowers. But we’ll give Limbaugh the benefit of the doubt; after awhile, all these right-wingers start to sound alike, don’t they?

What was perhaps more startling was that after stating perfunctorily that yesterday was a great day for the Iraqis, Limbaugh went on to say that yesterday was also a great day for the President, a great day for the soldiers serving in Iraq, and finally, and most important, a great day for the families of those soldiers who had given their lives defending freedom, Mom, and apple pie.

Yes, in case you missed it, the election in Iraq was all about US. And more specifically, of course, it was all about validating the President’s choice in invading Iraq and proving that, as a columnist for the Washington Times, Mark Steyn, noted, “the ‘realists’ have it wrong.”

What, exactly, do the ‘realists’ have wrong? Oh, just the same old stuff about Islam and democracy being incompatible, a total straw man, by the way. I have not read about nor heard a ‘realist’ (Conservative code for “Lib’ral Bush-Hater”) anywhere in the world state that Islam and Democracy are incompatible. That argument is a fabrication that allows Conservatives to do what they do best: define those who oppose them as racist, anti-religious, anti-American, anti-freedom bigots.

I remember a day when it was Lib’rals who defined Conservatives as racist, anti-religious, anti-American, anti-freedom bigots. Oh, how the shoe hurts when it’s on the wrong foot.

Well, I am still a pessimist or a realist or a malcontent or a Lib’ral, or whatever Rush Limbaugh wants to call me. I’m a naysayer, a doom-monger, a Cassandra, a carping critic of complacency. If an optimist is wrong, he is discredited in the eyes of the world. If a pessimist is wrong, the world counts itself lucky and moves on to its next hopeful venture.

The election in Iraq may well prove the elusive turning point the Bush Administration has sought since invading Iraq two years ago. I don’t necessarily mean that the insurgency will cease, though it very well might. I mean that from now on, I expect the coverage of Iraq in the media to be increasingly favorable to the Bush Administration. Limbaugh suggested as much today, stating his belief that stories of death and “prisoner abuse” in Iraq would now be removed from the front pages.

The danger of success is that too often as a result, we forget how close we were to failure before we succeeded. With a vindication as seemingly unequivocal as yesterday’s election, will the Bush Administration feel even more emboldened to try its nation building strategies on a new stage?

Despite what Limbaugh and his Conservative Myrmidons believe about us Lib’rals, no one but the terrorists hope for the failure of Democracy in Iraq. What we Lib’rals keep expecting, if not hoping for, is for an Administration we view as violent, repressive, jingoistic, simple-minded, and dangerous to reap the rotten harvest of its misguided policies. We expect some kind of harsh reality check to keep their egos within the confines of their stuffed shirts. Days like today, such an expectation seems in vain.

The Psalmist says, “The LORD is known by his justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.” Whether by luck or pluck, so far, our President has escaped every snare in which he has entangled himself. And so we ask, where is justice?

Is being proven right more important than Iraqis founding a democracy in the heart of Mesopotamia? Of course not. But the one of whom that question ought to be asked first is George Bush. Ultimately, as he has made clear from the beginning, the war in Iraq, the occupation of Iraq, and now the fostering of a nascent Democracy in Iraq, have never been about Iraq. Iraq has always been about US, no matter whether the rationale was Weapons of Mass Destruction, or the absolutely idiotic non sequitor of “we are fighting terrorists in Iraq, so we don’t have to fight them here.” It has always been our interests, not those of the Iraqis, which have been of paramount importance.

As Christians living in a country that is led by a Christian leader, how do we take any satisfaction whatsoever in the “gift” of democracy which is “given” with the expectation of a palpable return at a steep rate of interest? Erecting a statue of George Bush in Baghdad will be the least the now-suddenly-grateful Iraqis can do for us. Perhaps for some who still retain their sense of irony in this day and age, such a statue will be a subtle reminder of another statue toppled in another Baghdad square two years ago.

Others of us, we would not deny the Iraqi people their perfect right to freedom and self-governance. Personally, my sincere hope is that as their first act of official business, the new Iraqi government asks us to leave, thus truly becoming free and self-governing. However, what we’d like for ourselves in America, and for our leadership in particular, is just a little of that “Baghdad justice” witnessed in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. We want the idols torn down.