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A Three-year-old War
March 19, 2006
by Amanda Hendler-Voss
It is Lydia's third birthday on March
19th. I never forget her birthday; she’s the second
daughter of a dear friend, and it's easy to remember
how my friend went into labor just as the Shock and
Awe campaign of 2003 began raining down bombs in Baghdad.
It was a hard labor, but Lydia did just
fine. And it's hard to believe how much she's grown
in three years. Her blonde curls seem to float as she
does yet another rendition of "Ba, Ba, Black Sheep"
in her hand-me-down cowgirl boots.
Like Lydia, the war in Iraq is three
years old, and I wish I could agree with our President
and say there's been some progress-that we've gone from
crawling to walking.
Instead, Iraq dances along the brink
of civil war, as the cost of the war rises. And I'm
not just talking about the $245 billion taxpayers have
spent on the war, but the 2,318 U.S. soldiers who have
died and the more than 33,500 Iraqi civilians who did
not live to see a "liberated" Iraq.
Scott McClellan has one thing right.
The vision for this war most assuredly belongs to President
Bush. Unfortunately, the American public does not share
his sentiments about a war that shows no sign of an
exit strategy any time soon.
The truth is the American people envision progress differently
than the President. Many of us believe that progress
will be achieved when we no longer resort to pre-emptive
strikes as a solution to conflict around the world.
Progress is smart security-working with the international
community to reduce nuclear weapons, rather than sharing
nuclear technology. Progress is ensuring our ports are
safe and our first responders are fully funded. Progress
is utilizing a wide range of tools to prevent root causes
of terrorism.
American progress is rooted in our values. We value
the future for Lydia's generation more than this war.
We value access to health care and a quality education
for children more than bombs, increasing affordable
housing more than a new generation of nukes. These values
are not shared by the Bush administration, and our nation
is headed in the wrong direction.
To continue waging war without sufficient public support
is a mistake. National consensus says let's create a
path out of Iraq. That's progress.
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