Marc,
What did you think of yesterday's performance by Clinton, McCain and Obama as they questioned General Petraeus about the situation in Iraq? I found it pretty depressing.
Like most African Americans I opposed this war from the start. Black folks have been the opinion leaders on the war. Compare polling data from 2002 and today and you will see that the country's opinions about the war in 2008 finally reflect the position that African Americans have had since before the invasion.
I am always annoyed when African American support of Obama is cast in entirely racial terms. Much of his support among black voters can be traced to the fact that he shared our broad opposition to the war since its inception. So as much as anyone, I wish that our men and women could all come home today.
That said, I am deeply concerned about a theme that has emerged among all the candidates as they discuss Iraq. I call this theme the "negro-ization" of Iraq. My colleague Cornel West often speaks of the process in America post 9-11. He says that after the September 11th attacks, all Americans learned what black folks had known for centuries: what it means to be hated for who you are and subject to random violence. I see a parallel in our national discourse about Iraq.
Here is a sovereign nation that we invaded, destroying its infrastructure, unleashing sectarian violence, clearing the path for outside terrorists, and exploiting it for our corporate gain. Now we claim that it is their fault that they can't get it together and make a peaceful nation. That sounds uncomfortably familiar to me. It is too close to how America systematically dismantled the social, economic and political lives of black communities and then blamed those same communities for not getting it together.
Yesterday sounded like the application of the anti-black personal responsibility rhetoric deployed against the nation of Iraq.I confess that my specialty is American domestic politics and elections.
I understand much more about electoral strategy than military strategy. It seems likely to me that our continued military presence in Iraq only fuels every negative social outcome of our ill-conceived invasion. I suspect that we have to leave and do it soon, because there is no way we can fix what we have broken.
But I think it is wrong to leave while wagging a judgmental finger at the failing Iraqi government. Without a more honest assessment of our deep implication in both the military and the political problems of Iraq we may be doomed to repeat this wretched history.
What do you think Marc? Is there a way out?
Melissa
