"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - WilliamFaulkner
A friend of mine who is usually a pretty mellow guy woke me uparound 9 a.m. on September 11 shouting into the phone about howAmerica was under attack.
Like most everyone reading this, I was watching the first towerburn when, unbelievably, another plane collided into the secondtower.
Three years have passed since that day, and roughly half of thattime has been spent in Iraq.
Earlier this week, the 1000th American soldier perished on Iraqisoil.
The 1000th soldier was added to the dead in Afghanistan, not tomention the thousands of Coalition casualties and the civilian deadin both countries.
And for what?
To find Osama Bin Laden, who reportedly lives in the mountainsbetween Afghanistan and Pakistan - neither a country we currentlyoccupy?
Does anyone in the military even remember this guy?
Or was it so that American weapons inspectors could comb thecountry only because it refused to believe United Nations weaponsinspectors?
So far, both groups have found the same thing, nothing.
Oh, I forgot, we went over there to liberate the Iraqi people. Iknow George Bush didn't actually go to Vietnam, but one would hopehe would have learned the lessons from that "police action."
Truth is, before the 2000 election, Donald Rumsfeld, PaulWolfowitz and others banged on then-Governor Bush\'d5s door toconvince the soon-to-be president on a plan of attack for Iraq. Tohis credit, Bush held out until after 9-11 to act.
And we let him.
We let him attack a sovereign nation that, no matter howdespicable its leader, had never attacked the United States. Now wehave deposed that leader, and he will stand trial before his ownpeople, on whom he has visited many atrocities.
But during that trial, or even Osama Bin Laden's (if we evercatch him) will Saddam call those in the United States that fundedhis war against Iran in the 80s?
Those that sold him weapons and even allowed him to fly the oldstars and stripes on Iraqi warships?
Will Bin Laden call on those in the United States governmentthat gave Al Qaeda weapons and expert training during theirstruggles with the Soviets?
My fear is not controlled by color-coded terror alerts that moveup and down with Vice-President Cheney\'d5s blood pressure.
My fear is that the Iraqi conflict will turn into anotherVietnam.
My fear is that the Iraqi people will rise up many years afterthe last Coalition soldier has left and remove whatever puppet weput in to rule.
In neighboring Iran, after removing Prime Minister Mussadegh andimposing the Shah in the 1950s, Iranians answered with theAyatollah Khomeni.
What if a newly democratized Iraqi people elect ananti-American, religious fanatic or another tyrant likeHussein?
Will we spend millions of dollars trying to oppose theirdemocratically elected leader as we did with President Allende inChile in the 1970s?
Where are those WMD?
Where is Osama Bin Laden?
Where does it stop?
How many more thousands of soldiers will have to die before weheed the lessons of history?
