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We hear George Bush, others in Washington, and many right wing columnists and radio icons constantly tell us we must win the war in Iraq, and that by doing so we will be that much closer to winning the war on terrorism. Each time I hear a statement like that I can't help but ponder the same question. How will we know when we have won the war? What reasonable yardstick will be used to tell us the war is over? Will it again be a man in a flight suit standing on the deck of a U.S. Navy carrier telling us mission accomplished? Probably not, since we all remember how that turned out the last time. Will there be a formal signing of surrender, with American generals in dress uniforms and terrorists in their finest formal robes (as the Japanese did at the end of World War II, in their frock coats and top hats)? Again, that probably won't happen either, nor am I sure the terrorists leaders even own fine formal robes. Or will it be the United States simply loading all our troops and equipment onto ships and planes (a gargantuan job, to be sure) and bringing them home? Will that be the way we know we've won? When Bush and others talk about winning, do they mean the terrorist will say, "It's over. You win." If not that, then exactly what do they mean?

The above questions have no easy answers. Yes, some are asked tongue in cheek, while others are deadly serious. I think deep down we all know there will be no winning the war in Iraq, in the accepted manner. We may again declare victory, but that won't make it so. There have been over 1,300 years of turmoil in the Islamic faith in which they have fought each other, as well as any outsider who didn't believe Islam was the one true religion. That age old conflict will not stop because of one misguided war in Iraq. It's interesting to remember that our invasion of Iraq was based almost entirely on the premise of finding and destroying Iraq's stockpile of WMDs. It's also interesting to remember that none were ever found. Of course the majority of Islamic people are not in favor of terrorism, and are in no way, terrorists. Still, there are many millions of Muslims in the world, and from that group there are a significant number of radical Islamists who do support, and/or actively carry out acts of terrorism. Past that, there are some very strange beliefs held by some non-terrorist Muslims that defy explanation. The public call to execute a teacher merely because her class decided to name a teddy bear, Muhammad was as crazy a news item as I have seen in quite some time.

Terrorism is a major threat, and will continue to be so for decades to come. Iraq is part of what is called the war on terrorism. We will not win the war on terrorism because in reality there is no war to win, as it is not, and has never been, a war in the conventional sense. With more reliable intelligence and prudent local and federal police work we can contain world-wide terrorism to some degree (hopefully, better than we do now), but to look upon it as a war which we will win in the same way we have won past wars is sheer folly. This is not a war between nations, there are no clearly defined frontlines, and there is no factual way to declare it to be over, or that we have won. Calling it a war sounds nice, as the neo-cons try to galvanize the American people into a frenzy over winning in Iraq, but the word rings hollow when examined more closely in regards to terrorism, and the history of terrorism.

The Religious right in this country will also try to tell you it's a war, but a religious war of Christianity versus Islam. That is pure hogwash. All religions think theirs is the only true religion and that their God is the only true God. And all religions contain factions capable of horrific acts in the name of whatever God they worship. This is not to say all religious people, regardless of their faith, condone these acts, as of course, the majority of them do not.

The next question we have to ask ourselves is this…. if the war on terrorism is not war, as we know it, what is it? That's one question with a fairly simple answer. It is a deadly clash of ideologies, as fanatical Muslim jehadists from many different countries, try to impose their will on the world and particularly the United States. It is a war of freedom of religion (and, yes, freedom from religion, if that is what a person chooses) vs. dogmatic religious oppression that controls every part of a person's life. Some Muslim run countries are prime examples of the evils of a religious state. They are the poster boys for the need for strict enforcement of the separation of church and state. Admittedly, the dogma of our own religious right is quite mild, compared to the Muslim terrorists. It's not even in the same league. However, oppressive Muslim countries are a reminder of what could happen to any country, including our own, if the forces of religion are free to govern, while running unchecked. Again, the religious right in our country does not run the government, but that doesn't mean that some of them wouldn't like to.

Please understand, terrorists are despicable, miserable, and evil human beings, for which I have no sympathy, whatsoever. However, like most issues, the coin always has two sides and in this case evil begets evil. There are powerful people in this country who believe their will and their ideas take precedence over the constitution. So in the name of fighting terrorism, they have weakened the very constitutional rights which have formed the basis for our democratic society, and strangely enough, the very rights for which they claim we are fighting to preserve in Iraq. What if fifteen years ago you had been told our phone messages and email could be gathered and monitored without due process; that the books we read and/or purchase would be monitored by our government; that our bank accounts, credit cards, and home mortgages would also be subject to federal surveillance; that some of our government officials (elected and appointed) would actively condone the torture of suspected and/or proven terrorists; that we would put men in prison and virtually throw away the key, with no charges (see below) against these men forthcoming, and that we would withhold (for years, in many cases) any contact with legal counsel for most of these men; that we would have attacked a country in retaliation for 9/11, even though that country played no part in the attack (yet, a recent poll showed that 41% of our citizens still believe they did); that in this invasion of another country we would lose the lives of so many thousand U.S. troops and injure and maim tens of thousands more; that over 100,000 citizens of Iraq the large majority of them (including women and children) non combatants would be killed as victims of the Iraq debacle, and that we would now suffer, as a nation, the lowest world esteem our country has faced in many, many years. The year 1984 is long gone. However, the oppressive political climate, detailed in the book by the same name, grows ever near.

Try this idea on for size, as painful as it may be to think about. Short of destroying this country, the terrorists have vowed to change our way of life and the freedoms we enjoy. The terrorists believe the freedoms, which western country citizens cherish, to be needless and wasteful, and they want to curtail them as much as they possibly can. By their involvement in the above-mentioned actions, the neo-cons and their supporters have done exactly that by bringing about an assault on our civil rights. In essence they have helped the terrorists succeed in some of their goals. They have adversely changed our way of life and abridged some of our constitutional freedoms. Simply put, law-abiding citizens in this country have the right to be left alone. This legal right to privacy is now being violated on a daily basis, by elements of our own government. They claim these violations are necessary to fight terrorism. What they are really saying is that they only have to obey the parts of our constitution, which they choose to obey. They further claim that any dissent against our involvement in Iraq is the same as supporting terrorism, when in fact, speaking out in dissent is one of the strong principals on which our nation was founded, that being our citizen's constitutional right to free speech.

We are a nation that believes in fair and open trials with punishment for the guilty and the release of the innocent, but only after such guilt or innocence has been proven in a court of law. As I stated before, I have absolutely no sympathy for any terrorist. If they are suspected of any type of terrorist act or offering aid to those who carry out such acts, they should be tried and, if found guilty, be given long prison sentences or the death penalty, depending on the severity of their crime. On the other hand, if they are found to be innocent, they should be released. That is the way justice has always worked (with the exception of Southern justice for many years, when it came to blacks) in this nation. Holding men in prison (some of which are secret prisons) with no charges being filed against them and/or torturing them, flies in the face of everything for which our country stands.

We have the documented participation of U.S. government agencies, actively spiriting prisoners in the dead of night onto secret corporate style jets and delivering them to officials in foreign nations (such as Syria and Egypt), who have a history of brutal torture and sometimes the murder of prisoners in their custody. The 2007 Acadamy Award winner for best documentary, Taxi To The Dark Side, details just such an incident. Additionally, there is growing evidence that the torture of prisoners is also being carried out by some members of the our own government agencies, as well as government contract employees in prisons on foreign soil, and at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba. This has been revealed in the graphic tales of some detainees at Guantanamo who were finally released, as well as in the public confessions of some military prison personnel at the detention camp, who carried out such torture.

Vice president Dick Cheney is on record as actively seeking to exempt government agency employees from prosecution if they are brought up on charges of torturing prisoners. Why would he seek this exemption if no torture was going on? I have often wondered just what type of psychopathic, warped human being (foreign or domestic) could willfully torture another, but that is an entirely separate topic, which is better left to be explored another day.

The moving of prisoners to foreign government control is known as rendition, and our government knows exactly what will happen to the prisoners once they have been delivered. By these actions, the United States has become an active participant in torture or worse. Some of these men, after months of torture, are released (with no charges having ever been brought against them), and are left as innocent men trying to put their broken lives back together. I can only speak for myself, but this is not the type of activities I want my government involved in, and I want the moral compass of my country to be well above such actions. Before you tell me that terrorists also torture people, I would ask you to stop and consider this. Do we want to be like them? Either we are a nation of high ideals (and we conduct the business of our country in that manner), or we have lost our way and have become just like many other countries, which are controlled by officials who think the citizens are there to serve them, instead of the other way around.

Our country is now in the most woeful condition it had been in for a very long time. Yes, we must never lose sight of the fact that the terrorists are the worst of the bad guys, nor should forget we have our own form of bad guys, and unfortunately some of them are running the country. To compound this fact, many of us seem not to care. As long as we have our gas guzzling SUVs, iPods and other cell phone devices, big screen HDTV, mindless video games, fine restaurants, plush vacation resorts, and all the other perks we have become so used to in this nation, we couldn't care less. Regardless of your stance on the situation in Iraq, we have men and women dying in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and that should trouble us all. Yet, for all its publicity, Iraq seems far away to many of us (and I don't mean just in actual distance), as unlike past conflicts in which American troops have died, the American public (with the exception of those who have lost loved ones) has sacrificed nothing. We have no draft, no rationing, and no personal hardships. If we did, perhaps less of us would condone, or be indifferent to what is happening in Iraq. Yes, we complain about high gasoline prices, but compared to the loss of your husband or father, that pales in comparison. Insulated in our cocoon of creature comforts and sporting "Support Our Troops" decals on our automobiles, many of us sail merrily through life, unaware, or worse, apathetic, to what is happening to our world and to our country.

The manner in which the United States, its constitution, and its citizens are being manhandled by some of our leaders is bad enough, but there are other events and conditions in our world for which we should all have great concern. Genocide is being practiced in some countries in the world, but do we care? Worldwide, thousands of people starve to death every day, but do we care? Slavery is still condoned and practiced in parts of the world, but do we care? In some countries women are second-class citizens (not allowed to do even the simplest of tasks, like drive an automobile), and wives and daughters can be openly beaten and even murdered by relatives because of some idiotic perceived dishonor to the family name, but do we care? The answer to those questions is, yes, some do care, but it's not nearly enough of us. Many of us seem more interested in the latest antics of Britney, Paris or other headline seeking bimbos, or in the multitudes of inane television reality shows, than we are in current events and the condition of our nation and world.

Wake up folks, pay attention, look around you, be concerned, and the next time you hear someone talk about winning the wars in Iraq or against terrorism, perhaps you will stop for just a moment and ask them exactly how we will know when we have won. If enough of us do that, as well as question the competency, wisdom, and honesty of our nation's leaders, there may yet be hope for our country to rise again as an example of democracy and decency in the world. We must vote the bad guys out of office and make every effort to insure their replacements are better stewards of our country. If it turns out they are not, we need to vote them out as well. If we do not question the so-called wars in which we are engaged (and see them in the true light of what they really are), as well as question the suspect decisions of our leaders, there will be no better days ahead for our country. There will be no future. This used to be a country run by and for the people. Perhaps one day it will be again.

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©2007, 2008 by Ken Kreps This article may not be re-published in electronic or print media without the express written permission of the author. All rights reserved. However, links to this website may be included on any website without the permission of the author.

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