A Crisis Of Expectations

Owen West, Iraq war veteran,  major in the Marine Reserves and founder of Vets for Freedom, writes an op-ed in today's New York Times that is really a must read.

We are at the outset of a long war, and not just in Iraq. Yet it is being led politically by the short-sighted, from both sides of the aisle. The deterioration of American support for the mission in Iraq is indicative not so much of our military conduct there, where real gains are coming slowly but steadily, but of chaotic leadership.

Somehow Operation Iraqi Freedom, not a large war by America's historical standards, has blossomed into a crisis of expectations that threatens our ability to react to future threats with a fist instead of five fingers. Instead of rallying we are squabbling, even as the slow fuse burns.

West says the same thing I have said around here many times. We are fighting among ourselves and showing disarray to the world. That emboldens our enemies while dismaying our friends.

In the past, the American public could turn to its sons for martial perspective. Soldiers have historically been perhaps the country's truest reflection, a socio-economic cross-section borne from common ideals. The problem is, this war is not being fought by World War II's citizen-soldiers. Nor is it fought by Vietnam's draftees. Its wages are paid by a small cadre of volunteers that composes about one-tenth of 1 percent of the population — America's warrior class.

The insular nature of this group — and a war that has spiraled into politicization — has left the Americans disconnected and confused. It's as if they have been invited into the owner's box to settle a first-quarter disagreement on the coach's play-calling. Not only are they unprepared to talk play selection, most have never even seen a football game.

Here he's really hit upon something. Even with the advent of milbloggers, it is very hard indeed to get the word out to the general public. It is hard to get past a media that has chosen sides and decided how it wishes to spin stories. The American military is the best the world has ever seen and yet it is also very small in proportion to it's lethality. That works against those of us who want the entire story out there, not just the media selected slant.

This confusion, in turn, affects our warriors, who are frustrated by the country's lack of cohesion and the depiction of their war. Iraq hasn't been easy on the military, either. But the strength of our warriors is their ability to adapt.

First, in battle you move forward from where you are, not where you want to be. No one was more surprised that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction than the soldiers who rolled into Iraq in full chemical protective gear. But it is time for the rest of the country to do what the military was forced to: get over it.

If we can put 2003's debates behind us, there is a swath of common ground on which to focus. Both Republicans and Democrats agree we cannot lose Iraq. The general insurgency in Iraq imperils our national interest and the hardcore insurgents are our mortal enemies. Talking of troop reductions is to lose sight of the goal.

Second, America's conscience is one of its greatest strengths. But self-flagellation, especially in the early stages of a war against an enemy whose worldview is uncompromising, is absolutely hazardous. Three years gone and Iraq's most famous soldiers are Jessica Lynch and Lynndie England, a victim and a criminal, respectively. Abu Ghraib remains the most famous battle of the war.

Soldiers are sick of apologizing for a sliver of malcontents who are not at all representative of the new breed. But they are also sick of being pitied. Our warriors are the hunters, not the hunted, and we should celebrate them as we did in the past, for while our tastes have changed, warfare — and the need to cultivate national guardians — has not. As Kipling wrote, "The strength of the pack is the wolf."

I hear this from my son. He was deployed in Iraq when the Abu Ghraib hysteria in this country was at it's greatest. Now he's over there when the latest rush to judgment on Haditha is taking place. We can, and we absolutely must, make sure no soldiers commit crimes and are fully accountable if they do so. We must also keep from blaming all soldiers for the acts of a tiny minority. We can require that accountability without requiring self-flagellation. We can do so in a manner that does not expose our men and women deployed over there to additional danger.

We must do this as much for ourselves as for our troops.