Maybe I care about politics and this war too much

I was little down this 4th of July.

OK, I was a lot down. I didn't go out with friends that I made plans with. And I didn't even watch fireworks, this year, by the river here in Lawrence, an annual tradition.

The kind of down I was feeling is supposed to happen around Christmas or Thanksgiving for most people, usually due to some unresolved but painful relationship in their families or their lives.

I was down for a different reason. I was down, largely, because I've just been so disappointed with the democratic conversation over the course of this war.

I'm not disappointed because so many people are involved, which I think is a good thing and a promising sign of progress that the internet, especially, has offered so many people a more engaging opportunity to take part in serious, deeply considered thought and discussion and debate on all of the issues of the day, especially the war.

What I've been disappointed with is just how narrow and partisan and fruitlessly vitriolic the discussion has been. How it has focussed on personalities rather than policies. How it has gotten lost in pressure politics rather than more thoughtful discussion. How so many of the even the most responsible people - the activists, the journalists, the politicians, and even too many of the scholars - have gotten lost in partisan or far too homogenous outlooks on the war rather than engaging in more serious thought and discussion about how, if we are going to facilitate a successful transition to democracy for Iraqis, that might be done.

Frederick Kagan, to my mind, has had the most consistently knowledgeable, wise, and thoroughly analyzed political and military perspective that I have encountered, thusfar.

But too much of this all-too-important discussion - which holds in the balance many Iraqi and American lives - has gotten lost in a less thoughtful discussion of how much patience Americans will have for this war rather than the more important discussion of how much patience Americans should have for the sake of the security and democratic future of an Iraqi people who did not ask for an invasion that has seriously disrupted their country.

I hope, I can only hope - and talk, and write, and do everything I can to persuade folks - that we will make our decisions in Iraq based on a genuine commitment to the Iraqis and American soldiers, with a commitment to thoroughly and rigorously and deeply engaged policy thought and discussion, and with a commitment to making good on what we initiated, here (all of us; I didn't even favor this godforesaken war going in, but I know better than to think that just pulling out with solve all the problems we need and want resolved) rather than based on expedience and weariness with the war and with the debate and with the politics and with all of the very strong feelings that everyone legitimately brings to the table on this war.

I've felt that more thoughtful, engaged discussion get overwhelmed, in the last few months, by a war weariness and a pressure politics that seems to blind too many of us to all of the options that we need to explore to handle this situation we've created in Iraq with integrity and not just yet one more political reaction substituted for more serious political thought.

And this 4th of July, I was just feeling kind of discouraged, I suppose, that a more engaged discussion of what might and what needs to happen in Iraq is getting overwhelmed by a much more crass political discussion of what people will support, independent of what the Iraqi people need.

The America I love is bigger than that. And I want it to be bigger than that. But I've been feeling kind of discouraged, lately, that it will be bigger than that, even with so many Iraqis and American soldiers risking and sacraficing their lives for the chance of a democratic, free, and secure Iraq.

I love my country. But it's been disappointing me, here, lately, I've got to admit. People feel overwhelmed, I know, by all of the information and ideas and perspectives and pressure and so much that makes it very difficult to engage this Iraq war discussion without wanting to bow out quickly from the discussion nevertheless the war.

But the stakes are just too high to take our convenience more seriously than our responsibilities and, most importantly, our responsibility to engage in a broad, open-minded, open-hearted, serious discussion of policy alternatives that focus on empirical arguments about what can be done and do not get lost partisan vitriol that has been crippling this discussion, lately.

All of this is evidence that I probably care too much about politics, I suppose. I probably should have been out watching the fireworks and loving America with my friends, this 4th. But I just didn't have the energy, feeling kind of down and disappointed with the state of the democratic discussion about this war and so many issues, this period.

I probably need a better hobby. And to learn to go hang out with friends, even if I'm not in tip-top shape. I didn't even make it down to talk with my uncles who I am sure would be pleased as punch to know that their nephew, who for the bulk of their lives has the been the young liberal kid haranguing them about racism and the environment and every issue that a young liberal kid cares about, is passionately committed to sticking it through in Iraq and getting out the case by the best minds about how and why we must create enough security in Iraq for a political settlement to be reached and for the Iraqi military and law enforcement to feel prepared and confident and comfortable with their role securing the country with minimal American military support.

I promise to have a better 4th of July, next year. But this year, I just needed the time to think and reflect and process it all, I suppose.

Let's hope the next 4th of July brings a lot more news of positive developments in Iraq and an America looking more ready to live up to its ideals and engaging with more honest and genuine concern and appreciation for the efforts of everyone involved - politicians included - rather than live down to its reactions of the moment.

Happy 4th of July, everyone.

Love,
Ben