I was going to write a column filled with jubilation today. Indeed, what fun it's been to watch an evil, corrupt empire tumble after lo, these many wretched years. There has been dancing in the street.
But I'm not going to do that. I have celebrated, but I'm not going to further that celebration here.
Instead, I sit here to write a note of apology to the families of the 3,000 soldiers who have died in Iraq and the 22,000 who have suffered grievous injury.
I am so, so sorry.
Over the years, those families have been among the readers who have leveled criticism at my outspoken disgust with George Bush and his warlords. Those families vigorously defended the president who sent their children into harm's way.
Their soldier children were told that freedom was on the march, and that they were sowing the seeds of democracy. And they believed and did their best.
They were told they were fighting the terrorists in Iraq so we wouldn't have to fight them here. And they believed and did their best.
They were told that Osama and Saddam were one and the same. And they believed and did their best.
Their commander in chief smirked as he lied, and then he failed to provide them with armor for protection. But the soldiers believed and did their best.
And their families — of course they believed, too. How could they not? How could they bear to know their children's lives were sacrificed in a fight that had no other purpose than to enrich war profiteers?
Of course those families were angry at war critics. To be otherwise would be to compound their loss. It is one thing to lose a child for a righteous cause. It is another to see him sacrificed for old men's greed.
And so I never argued with them when they called to excoriate me for criticizing Bush and his war. I just listened. And I am so, so sorry for their pain.
I'm sorry those families had to watch the voting last week and learn that their fellow Americans now believe this is a pointless war. And it is over. It's only the details of our departure that need sorting out.
America has lost interest in Iraq — the country where the children of those families bled and died. We barely even noticed that Saddam's trial has ended. With Rumsfeld's resignation, Bush now acknowledges that voters have lost their appetite for war.
I am so, so sorry. I'm sorry we have never even seen the coffins their children came home in. I'm sorry the president never once attended a soldier's funeral in some pretense of respect for these young patriots who died with honor. That is his shame and his terrible, terrible sin.
For many Americans, there is now dancing in the street. There is joy that this country stands a chance of regaining self-respect as we shed the greed and corruption like the torn, filthy, old skin of a snake.
The families of the dead will suffer as the truth comes out, and more and more Americans conclude that we never should have gone into Iraq in the first place. They will suffer.
But we must get the other families' children home quickly, away from the dangerous, pointless chaos that is Iraq. More dead soldiers won't fix this. No mother wants her child to be the last to die for a lie.
I am so, so sorry.
Beth's column appears on Monday. Talk to her at 845-356-3147 or at bquinn@th-record.com.
© 2006 Times Herald-Record
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