Nationalism isn’t patriotism, and patriotism is more than bald eagles and American flags, sung to the beat of a Toby Keith song. The United States’ response to the tragedy of 9/11, although it appealed to our emotional desire for revenge, was an unmitigated failure. Not only has the government failed to achieve victory, but it has also eroded our freedoms. We exported the American brand, not the American ideal.
The United States did not declare war following 9/11 as it did after attacks by German U-Boats on American ships prior to World War I, or after the bombing of Pearl Harbor before World War II. Rather, the United States chose to engage in a series of extended conflicts for a myriad of changing reasons.
The U.S. set out to destroy Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, only to discover, as President Bush admitted that “Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there.” Then the U.S. sought to create a new democratic government, a government that recently chose to kick out the 20,000 troops we planned on keeping there and is growing closer to Iran than it is to the U.S.
The only war Bush declared was on “terrorism,” a ridiculous personification of a military tactic, creating an enemy to fight. That sounds like something out of an Orwellian novel or the next chapter of Johnson’s absurd War on Poverty. Without a declaration of war, the United States eliminated any chance to achieve a clear military victory. Instead, we continued the post-World War II trend of fighting a war not for the protection of our nation, but rather for helping foreign nations overthrow their governments with the hope of establishing representative government. Iraq is reminiscent of Vietnam, Panama, and Somalia.
The costs have been enormous. First, there is the $3.7 trillion the United States has paid so far for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then, there’s the total cost for the war in Iraq, which is expected to exceed that amount by itself. Finally, there’s the fact that we continue to send billions of dollars of foreign aid to Pakistan every year that its corrupt government squanders.
High monetary bills do not do justice to the costs. There’s also the ironic loss of freedom the American people have suffered as the government has used the threat of war to disregard the Bill of Rights with the passage of the Patriot Act and the creation of the TSA. And we’re supposedly fighting a war for the sake of liberty. Equally great in cost is the government’s decision to abandon that which has made America beautiful and distinct.
The Revolutionary War was fought to provide the American people the ability to thrive free from the threat of tyranny. Instead, we’ve decided to follow in the footsteps of Rome by creating the next international empire. If we refuse to change, we might suffer the same disastrous end.
