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WEEKLY COLUMN:
JDM vs the WORLD

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FINE PRINT

As legions of freed Iraqis stomped the face of a fallen statue in tune to Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead last Wednesday, one thing became perfectly clear: Terrorist connections and weapons of mass destruction were awfully selfish reasons for us to wage the Second Gulf War. If liberation wasn’t our top priority headed into Operation Iraqi Freedom, it should’ve been.

How could you not appreciate the historic metaphorical handshake which took place last week between this oppressed population and freedom itself? What happened in Baghdad on April 9, 2003, will be remembered alongside dates like July 4, 1776, and September 11, 2001, for it was on this day when freedom once again prevailed as the only choice of righteous men—an end to fit crimson means.

It wasn’t just a victory in the War on Terror but in the War of Liberty in its fight against the past.

No matter how many times in your life you’ve been picked on, or told to shut up or what have you, it couldn’t’ve possibly compared to the systematic evils the Iraqis have lived under. Rape. Torture. Oppression. Genocide. You name it and the Iraqis have likely endured it. They don’t know what it’s like to be born into freedom, to live free as if by instinct. That’s about to change.

Anyone who still insists this war wasn’t worth fighting is as much a prisoner of their own stubborn logic as the Iraqis were of Saddam’s regime.

Don’t get me wrong: My gut wrenches whenever I see an Iraqi child in a hospital bed. That was the case before the war, when Saddam’s goons were responsible for putting them there, and it continues now that some of them are there on account of this war. I feel awful about it. I won’t try to justify it. I won’t say it’s right. It’s not. But on the other hand, it’s reality. It’s war.

These are not the first innocent civilians to die thanks in part to a conflict of nations. Those who died in this war, however, did not die in vain.

Though he said it for the wrong reasons, Jacques Chirac wasn’t wrong when he said war is failure. It’s the very same failure mankind’s been living with since the dawn of time, like a line in the sand that our species can’t seem to cross. But when you see what our soldiers stand for and how hard they’ve tried not to harm a single human being—up to and including enemy soldiers—you start to realize that, while we didn’t ask for this war, it’s one from which we’d dare not turn away.

And you start to realize, once and for all, that freedom really is worth fighting for.

Of course, there are those who’ll say, “That depends on your definition of freedom.” And, indeed, it’s easy to criticize what we call freedom from behind our computer screens. But when you look at things objectively, you’ll notice that what we have, while imperfect, is the closest thing to perfection yet. Look how far mankind’s come since the start of the last millennium. Look at what we’ve achieved in the last hundred years alone. We’re a work-in-progress, working towards a common goal of peace and civility for women and men of all backgrounds all over the world. We’re in this for the long haul and we’re in it together.

That’s what seeing all those Iraqis shouting with joy at the thought of free speech made me realize—that they really are our brothers and sisters in this fraternal order Earth, that their victory is also ours instead of the other way around.

Will the new Iraq be perfect right from the start? Will it be ready for an influx of American tourists just itching to support the fledging economy of fellow free people? Most likely not. It’ll take some time. Things like this always do. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know, and Iraq won’t break with tradition. Even the United States and United Kingdom are far from perfect, hundreds of years past their founding. But we’re working on it.

The people in the streets of Baghdad aren’t just Iraqis now. They’re Americans. They’re moved no longer by the spirit of fear but the spirit of freedom, the same spirit that’s transformed this world the last 200 years.

Think about what our men and women have done in Iraq. Think about the courageous British and American soldiers who beat back the most wicked tyrants in history less than a century ago. Think about the recent patience and restraint we’ve shown for an enemy positioned all over the globe, an enemy who couldn’t carry America’s jockstrap.

Think about that which resides within America’s heart, which surfaced one September morning and yet again in Baghdad on a recent April day.

Our enemy knew it couldn’t beat us militarily, but it thought for sure it could crush our heart. It thought wrong.

We are making a real difference in this world. We shouldn’t kid ourselves by suggesting otherwise. We’re far from perfect, make no mistake, but it’s clear now—as it’s been at other key moments in American history—that we’ve got the guts to try. Not just on our behalf, either, but on behalf of every human soul who is, was, or ever will be a part of the shared struggle we so affectionately call life.

For the first time in three decades, the Iraqi people are envisioning the same kind of future that our forefathers envisioned eleven score and seven years ago.

Liberty isn’t much but it’s all that we’ve got. We ought not keep it to ourselves.

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