U.S. must end its unilateralism in dealing with foreign threats
Friday, March 19, is the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It will also mark 920 days since September 11, 2001. Like so many others in our region, I and my family were directly impacted by the events of September 11. I had worked with people at company on the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center. My colleagues at that company perished when the hijackers rammed that floor with a 767 jet plane. The company where I had been employed at the time of the attacks had its first layoffs less than a month after the tragedy. I have many friends and colleagues whose jobs and livelihoods were impacted by the economic ripples of the terrorist attacks.
I had never seen the country so unified as we were immediately after September 11. I supported the invasion of Afghanistan and the removal of the Taliban and Al Queda. I also supported the 1991 invasion of Iraq. Both of theses actions were highly justified by terrible wrong-doings. In 1991, America joined our coalition partners in the Gulf War to justly expel Iraq from Kuwait and to end Saddam Hussein’s future designs on the region. In 2001, we rightly attacked the Taliban who were protecting Osama Bin Laden and other Al Queda who were directly threatening Americans and American interests.
I also supported the build-up of military forces in 2002 and 2003 in the mid-East which were successfully being used to make Saddam comply with international mandates, including the reintroduction of international weapons inspectors. The world had Saddam Hussein contained. Saddam was not going anywhere and he and his regime were no direct threats to the United States. We could have chosen to continue to work with our international allies to both maintain the Iraq regime in its box and aggressively pursue anti-terrorism world wide.
Unfortunately George W. Bush and others in the administration took their “eye off the prize” goal of making America safer to pursue some ideological goal of bringing democracy to the Arab world. To follow that wrong-headed ideology, the Administration turned to unilateralism and walked away from strong relationships with America’s long-standing allies.
After spending nearly $125 Billion in the first year of the Iraq war (which is surely only an initial down payment), what do we have to show for it? Every week American soldiers are still being killed in Iraq. Terrorist threats in America and worldwide have not abated. America is LESS trusted, not only by our enemies but even by a majority of people in the countries that we consider to be our best allies.
For the good of all Americans, it is time to change course. We could have chosen a year ago to use some of those billions of American dollars to contain rather than invade Iraq. The remainder of the money could have been used: 1) to work together with our allies to pursue more aggressively the REAL terrorist threats and networks and 2) to better enhance Homeland Security, including our firefighter, police, and emergency services.
We cannot change the past but we can admit our mistakes and move forward. Our unilateralism must end. It is time to rejoin our allies around the world to seek coordinated solutions for the future of Iraq and the end to world terrorism.
Stephen Nodvin
This writing was published in the March 19, 2004 issue of the Nashua Telegraph.