Omar,
You say: “I understood that by winning a majority in the legislature the Democrats were supposed to guide America to victory by correcting the mistakes of the past. Obviously I was wrong; they have put all their efforts into making sure the exact opposite outcome happens.” I very much envy the innocence necessary for anyone to have believed that the Democrats would help America win the war. When the President, or any other head of state, signs a treaty, the whole country is thereby committed to its terms. That’s what a head of state is–someone with the authority to commit the country to certain kinds of projects and courses of action. Similarly, when a head of state decides to start a war, the whole country is thereby committed to, and made responsible for, making the war turn out well. The sad fact, as we Americans who truly care about our Iraqi friends have understood for some time, is that the Democrats refuse to accept this responsibility. They think that it is just Bush’s war, or the Republicans’ war. Americans (and citizens of Western nations in general) like to apologize for all kinds of things, but it will be a long time before any Democrats apologize to the people of Iraq for abandoning them. I myself feel like apologizing, as an American, for the shameful behavoir of our legislators. But it is much more important to stop this terrible turn of events before it is too late. It would be a disaster, both for your country and for mine, if America left Iraq now, and we must do whatever we can to stop it. I like Peter Kay’s suggestion of mass Iraqi demonstrations, which the media would have to pay attention to, in support of American troops staying in Iraq. But, of course, Sadr’s people would organize counter-demonstrations demanding that America leave, and the media would give those much more attention. So whatever message good Iraqis like yourself might try to get through the media has to be *loud* and *constant.* It’s no good to just have one demonstration once; at best, that would cause a brief reversal in the general disastrous anti-war trend in American politics. Maybe Iraq could have a national referendum on whether the Iraqi people want American forces to stay? Then there would be polls that had to be reported, and a national campaign with important Iraqi politicians coming out in favor of or against the referendum every other day, so there would be lots of headlines about it for an extended period. That’s the sort of thing that might make a difference. We must all try to do something to stop this.
