Happy Anniversary! Usually a positive statement, this week the sentiment takes on a more somber tone – happy three-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.
What is the traditional anniversary gift to send after three years? Leather. I ought to send President George W. Bush a lovely gift celebrating this momentous occasion – perhaps a nice pair of combat boots.
While we in the Gulf Coast are still fighting to keep our heads above water in the wash left behind by Hurricane Katrina – struggling to clean up the social, physical and political messes in our region – the federal government continues to spend billions of dollars in Iraq and is still fighting to convince us it’s a good idea to do so.
We’re Americans. We’re notoriously impatient and quick to judge. As citizens and taxpayers, we always want solid results. It’s funny that despite our quick-draw method of judging situations, we are still giving the administration lots of time, leeway and tax money when it comes to this war.
Regardless of one’s political affiliation, three years of conflict, violence and turmoil without any visible sign of accomplishment at all should bother us, especially considering our current state in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Our money, our troops – a word that almost makes us forget that it means human bodies, people’s family members and friends – our sense of well-being and pride in our country are all being sacrificed for this war, a war which has yielded no real positive outcome or large-scale change.
And all the while, in the grand scheme of things, the federal government is sacrificing hardly anything to repair the devastated areas of its own country and heal its own people.
This week, this week of anniversary, the administration is pushing to get us to see what it sees in its “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” I can’t help but want to be a little selfish and ask: What about our freedom as Americans? What about the freedoms of those affected by the hurricane – the freedoms that have been taken away from so many and are being returned slowly or not at all?
Basic freedoms: the freedom to come home, the freedom to live a normal life, the freedom to live without fear of one’s neighborhood, one’s city or one’s government.
For seven months, residents of the Gulf Coast community have lived without these basic freedoms, have lived with a slow-to-react, slow-to-take-action, slow-to-help government. We have been told that the federal government is working on it, that the federal government cannot replace private property, that the federal government cannot provide for its citizens to go home.
We have been told that homeowners in destroyed areas may rebuild at their own risk with whatever capital they may have. With all of the problems we have domestically, it’s offensive to me that we’re being asked to continue to support a failing, multi-billion dollar project halfway around the world.
It is true, we cannot simply pack the troops’ bags and head home from Iraq tomorrow, and as much as it pains me to admit, we still have work to do in getting ourselves (and our wallets) out of Iraq. But in the government’s insistence to continue this ludicrous operation for “Iraqi freedom,” it seems it has pushed “Operation Gulf Coast Freedom” aside.
Oh, I almost forgot, Happy Anniversary again, as Wednesday marks seven months since Katrina hit. Taking a look around this city and this region, it is obvious that not a lot has been done since then.
