The Right Thing To Do

[MM38084]

Shopkeepers who display fragile items on their shelves have posted this warning for years: "You break it, you bought it."

That's what the United States is up against in Iraq. We invaded their land, smashed their country, and took over every aspect of their government and economy. Temporarily, we own Iraq. We broke it, now we have to pay to fix it.


To do anything less - to move too fast toward an exit, to attempt to get by on the cheap - could prove disastrous.


So, it's more than a little disingenuous for congressional Democrats who know better - or for average voters who supported the war - to complain now about the $87 billion cost of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. Keep in mind that most of the money sought by the Bush administration, about $67 billion, is for military needs; $20 billion is for infrastructure.


If you hear pandering politicians say that we should be spending those billions on our roads, our schools, our cities, they're selling you a bill of goods.


Don't buy it.


Sen. Debbie Stabenow devised a political stunt here in Michigan, calling a news conference to demand that $5 billion, or one-fourth of the $20 billion designated for Iraq reconstruction, should be spent on health care, highways and school construction in the United States.


Sounds good, but Iraq is in shambles and $5 billion there for schools or hospitals or electricity will have a far more dramatic impact than $5 billion spread to 50 states and thousands of cities here. More importantly, Iraq is a political powder keg of our own making, and delaying the dawn of a functioning society there could have dire consequences for our foreign policy, and deadly consequences for our military.


The post-war price tag shouldn't surprise Stabenow and other lawmakers who opposed the war - they had ominously predicted a far more expensive outcome, up to $200 billion. But now they hypocritically express astonishment at the $87 billion cost.


It was a legitimate position to oppose the military invasion. But now that we're in control of Baghdad, with 130,000 troops trying to keep a lid on the chaos, it's not a legitimate position to say we should pull out or pull back.


If we abandon the Iraqis, the image of a weak-kneed America lacking in commitment will reverberate throughout the Middle East. Worse yet, we will leave behind a new haven for terrorists and anti-Western Muslim radicals.


The post-war mess in Iraq is undeniable. The lack of planning is apparent. But we're stuck seeing this through to the end. The American public can't express enthusiastic support for the war in March and April and then claim in September and October that they didn't understand the financial implications of smashing Saddam's regime.


Another dishonest tactic at this stage of the post-war debate is the talk of "internationalizing" the reconstruction process so that other countries share the expense. Democratic complaints that we're lacking international assistance are irrelevant. Face it.

No help is on the way.


Most hypocritical of all is Rep. Richard Gephardt who, as a presidential candidate denounces Bush as a failure for not taking a multilateral approach. But it was Gephardt, as the former House Minority Leader, who played a pivotal role in getting the unilateral Bush war resolution passed by Congress last year. It was Gephardt who cut the legs out from bipartisan, alternative resolutions which would have required a multilateral approach to the war and reconstruction.


To be fair, Bush was far from forthright in warning the taxpayers about the cost of this mission. Estimates that oil revenues would pay for the post-war transition were wildly off the mark. And the intelligence gathering about the state of the Iraqi economy and infrastructure was probably even worse than the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.


But we decided to go it alone, so now we're in it alone. If we don't finish the job, if we don't pave the way for a healthy democracy, we will cheapen the hundreds of American lives already lost in Iraq.


There's a price to pay for being the superpower, the standard-bearer of democracy, the leader of the global war on terrorism. And there's a reputation to uphold.


Surely, America doesn't want to be seen as the kind who breaks something and then runs out the door.

It is time we stop the games and do the right thing.

Bob