Dear U.S.,
I write this letter to you – to us – in hopes of sparking some sort of change in how this country discusses war. As a nation, we have certainly found our ability to discuss war. There seems to be no shortage of debate and argument, but it seems clear to me that most of our energies in this endeavor are wrongly directed. We still spend so much time fueling debate over the Iraq war’s justification – an issue that has long since passed and one that has no bearing on our future situation. Equally as misguided are the arguments that operate under the assumption that an obvious solution lies in either simply keeping troops in the region longer or withdrawing them as quickly as possible. These notions are presumptuous, naive and should be thought out much further before being acted upon.
The decision regarding the future of this war is a strategic one, more than anything. The middle east has found itself mired in wars for hundreds of years, and it is in no way cynical or pessimistic to believe that this latest intervention in Iraq will not cure the region of its conflict. Knowing that there is little the United States can do to change ideologies of an entire culture, U.S. citizens should be focused on engaging in productive debate over the strategic consequences that the future of this war (whether drawn-out or ended quickly) will have on our country.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently stated in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, “Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.”
Finding new avenues of debate over this war will surely be our first step in moving beyond the darkness of our previously ineffective arguments.
With hope,
Trey
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