‘These are the times that try men’s souls’

BY PEDRO O. VEGA

February 16, 2007 10:08 am

— The situation in which we find ourselves in Iraq because of the war on terror defies my attempts at originality to describe.
I find myself in need of laying hold of aphorisms and clichés said by the truly Great Ones, and some not-so-great.
The first one that comes to mind is from Thomas Paine, an American Founding Father, written in 1776. It’s one I used in a previous column, one I keep returning too because of its sheer wisdom: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
A movement is afoot in Congress to remove funding from military stabilization operations in Iraq. The nonbinding resolution designed to disagree with the president’s military “surge” currently being debated in the House and Senate represents the first step in that direction.
The resolution is mute when it comes to offering an alternate plan ensuring victory and protecting our national interest in the region.
“Summer soldiers” and “sunshine patriots” are intent on prolonging the war on terror for two more generations by hastening a unilateral retreat from Baghdad without giving current operations a chance to work.
Emboldened politicians and pundits now behave as generals, claiming to be masters of the retrograde fighting maneuver and the pursuit of peace.
Another saying comes to mind, this one by that great Pennsylvanian, Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good war, or a bad peace.”
Not knowing the original context of Franklin’s declaration, I am left to deal with its meaning at face value.
I agree with him that all wars are bad, but it goes without saying that some are worse than others. On occasion, there’s such a thing as a “bad peace” if this “peace” becomes a cover for defeat, humiliation and eventual surrender to the will of the enemy.
Franklin’s actions in the field of diplomacy belied his own assertion. Once converted to the patriot’s cause, Franklin ensured that the nascent United States had enough weapons to win the war. His diplomatic skills doubled the size of the country at the end of the revolution, at the expense of the British.
If aversion to war and love of peace ever moved Franklin to appease the British, he never showed it.
Thomas Friedman is credited for coining the “Pottery Barn rule” of foreign policy. That is: “You break it, you own it.”
This is what Colin Powell, retired Army general and then secretary of state, told President Bush before the start of the war in Iraq.
Events are about to disprove the logic of this common-sense assertion. We went into Iraq and broke the status quo there, and now our armchair generals want us to retreat without fulfilling our responsibilities, despite an already dreadful investment in American lives and treasure.
We want to walk away; we don’t want to own the situation. But the fact is that we do.
Neville Chamberlain returned from the Munich Conference in 1938, waving a piece of paper signed by Adolf Hitler and saying, “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.”
Winston Churchill wryly replied, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”
Many Chamberlains run around today in the guise of politicians and pundits, waving papers and declaring “peace for our time.”
Their views might even prevail and become both law and accepted wisdom. But by choosing peace over dishonor, they will ensure the coming of even more war.
Sadly, summer soldiers, sunshine patriots and enlightened pundits alone are not going to bear the bitter consequences of failure in Iraq. They will befall all of us, our children and our children’s children.
One more aphorism is in order. George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
As we get ready to abandon Iraq, we’re about to relearn this lesson in spades. Truly, these are the times that try men’s souls.

Pedro O. Vega lives and works in Johnstown. He can be reached via his blog, The Conemaugh Valley Times – conemaugh-pa.blogspot.com.