Getting It Right Matters

The benefits of "Getting it Right" are many and extremely important to getting the next part of life right. Normally, when you get it wrong, the next step is also wrong and so on, with the wrong increasing with each new next moment carrying forth more of the "wrongness." "Getting it right" normally brings a blessing, something good, even if "Getting it Right" carries with it some kind of pain (for example, "getting it right" by admitting that we "got it wrong"). Conversely, getting it wrong usually brings a curse, even if getting it wrong brings momentary pleasure or even the feeling of victory.

"Getting it Right" is not easy. It is not an exact science. It might not even be totally possible. Fortunately, getting it "mostly" right is of considerable worth and can bring many blessings to life.

It once was the case that "Getting It Right" actually mattered to people. Recently, "Getting It Right" seems to be on the decline in popularity. Still, some of us believe that "Getting It Right" matters for such things as healthy living, healthy relationships, possibilities for a good future , living in some kind of helpful harmony with others, peace, justice, etc. All good things.

That is why Iraq is really important, or going back even further, the reaction to September 11. If we don't get these two things "right", the wrong keeps mounting and the curse keeps growing. Whether or not Bush/Cheney lied to the nation about Iraq and the reasons for going to war may come down to semantics or defintions of "lie." The problem is more that Bush/Cheney got it wrong not only on the obvious things - no WMDs, no welcoming as victors, no relationship to Al Quaeda, etc (the list is too long) - but also on the not too obvious, but hugely important things - such as the wrong understanding of national security, the wrong strategy for encouraging democracy, the wrong way to build stability in the region, etc. (the list is too long).

But, tolerance for the Bush/Cheney mistakes was incredibly wide and deep not only among the political elite of both parties but also in the public mind. No one wanted to say that they go it wrong. Maybe it was a misplaced sense that saying "we got it wrong" would demoralize the troops. Maybe it was because it would be obvious to the world (as it was already) that "getting it wrong" in this case really has a hugely negative consequence for the world. Whatever the reason, there evidently is no consequence in our current political climate, for getting it wrong, except maybe lower popularity ratings. Bush/Cheney got it wrong economically, politically, geopolitically, internally and internationally. It was a clean sweep! Who evidently pays the consequences are soldiers, the reputation of the country, the economy and all of the world in a more unbalanced and unpredictable climate in almost all important arenas of life. No matter. No one wants to look at how we got it wrong and why we got it wrong.

I will make a modest suggestion. Until we go back and get it right we will continue to get it wrong and continue to suffer the consequences: economically, politically, internally, internationally.

I will make a further modest suggestion. We got September 11 wrong and, thus, created a world of insecurity, danger and instability that didn't have to be. It was not the beginning of a war. It was the work of a limited, relatively isolated terrorist network which took years, perhaps decades to develop the capability to make one strategic and dramatic strike against its perceived enemy. The only hope for Al Quaeda was that we would over react, decide to attack Afghanistan and wipe them out. They got just what they wanted because we "got it wrong" and nobody wanted to say that "we got it wrong." We got it wrong and now the terrorist networks grow internationally, have gained widespread notariety and need no public relations department for advertising their cause, and, best of all, they have what they never had before and maybe never dreamed they would have: opportunity to attack our interests on a daily basis, not in a protected area like the United States, but on their very own turf.

Going to war in Afghanistan and in Iraq is exactly what the terrorists wanted us to do. The moment we sent troops to both countries, the terrorists won the encounter. Now they had a permanent opportunity to inflict political, military and economic damage on their perceived enemies with little cost and on a daily basis.

The alternative to going to war, would have been to make peace with as many friends as we could and thus isolate the terrorists more and reduce their field of action, meanwhile increasing collaborative efforts to bring together intelligence and international policing to reduce the number of terrorist and disrupt their limited and isolated ability to inflict damage on the world.

The "surge" was wrong because it built on a wrong premise: that it is possible to find a way out of Iraq with a "victory." That possibility was eliminated the day we went to Iraq. Withdrawal is what would have defeated the terrorists because it would have denied them what they want most - daily ability to inflice damage upon our society. This is not even to mention that the primary reason the "surge" works is not 30,000 extra troops, but billions of dollars paying for the temporary loyalty of the Sunnis while heavily arming them for the internal civil wars to come in Iraq. By the way, arming the Sunnis is just another of the "getting it wrong" actions we have taken in order to try not to admit that "we got it wrong" in the first place.

Empires have this bad habit: confusing what is victory and what is defeat. Empires are blind and deaf. We will not admit it, but we really know that we got it hugely wrong in Iraq, but we still think we "got it right" in Afghanistan. But, Afghanistan is wrong for the same reasons as Iraq. Invading Afghanistan, even if by proxy, does not advance the mission of detering terrorism, but rather aids the terrorists. So, even as candidate Obama gets it right on Iraq (we should leave), he gets it wrong on Afghanistan (we should not send more troops). At a time when we need to be concentrating our economic resources on building the infrastructure of our country and improving health and education for our youth we are involved in actions which create enemiew, waste resources, entangle us in conflicts which are not our making nor available to be solved by us. Meanwhile we cannot take really effective action against the limite threat to us posed by terrorists because we cannot focus clearly, strategically and intelligently on actions which really would deter the terrorists from growing as a threat to us and others in the world.


Now, my last modes suggestion. Victory for our nation would be to provide quality education to all our youth, health care for all our families, jobs that provide living wages for alll working age people, and policies that encourage justice and peace to prevail in our nation and around the world. For the moment, the terrorist set the agenda, not common sense.

Getting it Right really does matter.