[Vision2020] Despite Mess, Still Reason to Hope (By Molly Ivins)

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (February 6, 2005) Spokesman Review.

No finer, more appropriate words were ever spoken.

Thank you, Molly Ivins.

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We erred aplenty in Afghanistan, Iraq, but they have voted, Molly Ivins
says.

Despite mess, still reason to hope 

By Molly Ivins 
Creators Syndicate

February 6, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas - Here's hoping.

The trouble with being a congenital optimist is that gloom-mongering feels
so uncomfortable. The election in Iraq Sunday, like the one in Afghanistan
last year, was moving, inspiring and hopeful. When there's a ray of light
breaking through in a dark sky, I'd much rather concentrate on the ray than
the black clouds.

But mitigating my optimism is the fact that I've been around for a long
time. Not that longevity is any guarantee of wisdom, but it does provide
perspective. I can remember when they had elections in Vietnam that looked
hopeful in 1967. I can remember the elections in El Salvador in 1984. 

And I remember last year's election in Afghanistan, with the almost
unbearably moving sight of Afghani women coming out to vote. Still, it
didn't kill off a single raping warlord, did it?

In Iraq alone, we've been through "mission accomplished," then the violence
would end once we captured Saddam Hussein, then the all-important handover
of sovereignty that would make all the difference and next the destruction
of Fallujah that was going to break the insurgency. 

(Well, it did destroy Fallujah.) Someday, we will actually capture
al-Zarqawi, and I bet we find that doesn't make much difference, either.
 
I really don't like accentuating the negative, but I also don't like spin,
especially after what we've been through with this administration and the
truth about Iraq. It isn't helpful to write off 175 terrorist attacks on the
day of the election as "relative calm." It isn't helpful to claim there was
a 72 percent turnout rate and then have it fall overnight to 57 percent. It
isn't helpful to set low expectations, then boast about doing "better than
expected." And we also still don't know what we've got here.

We're potentially looking at an anti-American Shiite government that signs
right up with the mullahs in Iran. What do we do then, re-invade?

I'm having a hard time believing this next one is true. Judith Miller of The
New York Times, who was responsible for much of that paper's lousy reporting
before the war, said on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" that the American
government is angling to get Ahmad Chalabi a top government post in the
Iraqi cabinet. If true, someone not only needs his head examined, but should
also be indicted for malfeasance. Chalabi is, of course, the noted crook and
Iranian spy who fed this administration so much bad information before the
war he should be considered a pariah for that alone.

That said, it was still pretty thrilling, wasn't it? God bless them. I hope
they're going to make it after all. Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan - which
we dropped like a hot rock to go after a nation that not only had not done
us any harm, but didn't even present the threat of harm - all is not
tickety-boo. Opium is once again the country's most important product, and
the Taliban is still around. Al Qaeda, the people who did attack us, are
also still around. Warlordism still rules in most of the country. And
perhaps saddest of all, so little attention is paid.

We came in like gangbusters and promised the earth - we were going to
nation-build, put in infrastructure, all that good stuff - and it got
siphoned away to Iraq, including $700 million that had been appropriated for
Afghanistan, according to Bob Woodward.

The good news (can't help myself) is that we did Afghanistan right, if you
will recall - went in with pretty much global backing and the support of all
our allies. And they're still there helping out, 8,300 NATO troops,
including the French, the Germans and the rest of "old Europe." Some of the
country is secure enough for the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to
function there. The commitments are starting to dwindle down now, but it's
still more help than we had in Iraq.

Unlike Iraq, we've actually got some construction projects going (there was
nothing to reconstruct in Afghanistan) and should be able to celebrate a
highway opening before long.

I don't know whether these fairly dismal twin tales should be considered the
alpha and omega of Bush's policy of exporting the shining light of liberty
via military invasion, but at least we can learn from our mistakes - and if
there ever is a next time, we could try doing it right.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy