| What lust for glory?
On the morning of April 9, 2003, a bevy of top newspaper editors
sat in a New Orleans hotel ballroom awaiting the arrival of Vice
President Dick Cheney to speak at their annual convention. Before
them, a giant screen projected televised images of efforts to topple
a statue of Saddam Hussein.
The vice president bounded onto the stage before the editors could
see Saddam’s bronze head being dragged through the streets
of Baghdad.
The scene brought to mind “Patton,” the 1970 movie in
which the feisty World War II general, played by the late George
C. Scott, pontificates on the lessons of war. (British moviegoers
saw the film under the title “Lust for Glory.”)
Despite what appeared at the time to be a relatively bloodless victory,
Cheney’s remarks stopped short of triumphalism. He did get
a rise, however, in noting that “in the early days of the
war, the [battle] plan was criticized by some retired officers embedded
in TV studios. But with every day and every advance by our coalition
forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent.”
All of us are well-advised not to prejudge events too closely before
they actually unfold. When an editor, presuming the conflict had
all but drawn to a close, asked Cheney how the administration planned
to deal with postwar anger in the Arab world against the U.S.-led
invasion, he replied: “There’s no question but that
there’s work to be done in that area. In the final analysis,
history will judge us, and, hopefully, the people of the region
will judge us based upon what happens next in Iraq.”
Some 14 months later, it remains unclear how the invasion and occupation
by a largely Christian army of a largely Muslim land will finally
pan out.
Of late, French, German and Russian leaders, who had undercut President
Bush at nearly every turn, seem to be coming around. Some Washington
insiders believe that’s because they sense great profits to
be made in Iraq, with its plentiful oil reserves, if and when its
cities and roads become safe enough to traverse.
At the same time, fresh surveys show that a majority of U.S. voters
have become increasingly concerned that America is being drawn into
a quagmire in Iraq from which it cannot escape.
A majority also doubt a viable democratic government ever could
be established there. And they remain skeptical that replacing Bush
in the White House with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) would make much
of a difference on that score.
In such an uncertain climate, it’s instructive to hear the
historical viewpoint offered by Robert McNamara. President Lyndon
Johnson gently dumped him as defense secretary in late 1967 and
put him in charge of the World Bank — after McNamara came
to believe that the Vietnam War couldn’t be won at any rational
cost in blood and treasure.
At a spry 85, he grouped his thoughts as “11 Lessons From
the Life of Robert McNamara,” as culled from 20 hours of interviews
that went into the making of a fine documentary film called “The
Fog of War.” You have to wonder whether a Cheney or a Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would gain much solace from McNamara’s
lessons No. 1 and No. 2 (“Empathize with your enemy”
and “Rationality will not save us”) or, for that matter,
from No. 6 (“Get the data”), No. 7 (“Belief and
seeing are both often wrong”) and No. 8 (“Be prepared
to re-examine your reasoning”). |
