Obama's Iraq Speech: Ditch "Mission Accomplished" for "Shared Sacrifice"

[unhappycamper]

Obama's Iraq Speech: Ditch "Mission Accomplished" for "Shared Sacrifice"
Christine Pelosi
Campaign Boot Camp author; California DNC Member
Posted: August 31, 2010 04:31 PM

When President Obama welcomes home combat troops from Iraq, he should lay out the context of their return, the mission for the remaining 50,000 troops and the help they need in transition. Instead of "Mission Accomplished," President Obama should do what was not done when the war began -- call upon all Americans to join in "Shared Sacrifice."

Already we know that the White House has wisely forgone "Mission Accomplished," as well they should. War-weary Americans -- chicken hawks, anti-war doves, and everyone in between -- are beyond impatient for happy talk. Many people yearn instead to be part of something larger than ourselves, something that binds us together rather than tears us (further) apart. What better way for the President to welcome combat troops home than to prevent the argument over history's verdict on the Iraq War from clouding our focus on where we are now, where we are going, and how we can each do our part to get there?

This call for Shared Sacrifice is easier said than done because lost in the fog of war debates --- why there were no WMDs found or why we weren't greeted as liberators or why the Iraq War didn't pay for itself as promised or why our troops didn't get the body armor or planning they deserved or why we didn't build a diplomatic surge as successful as the military surge -- is the fundamental question of why we still find it so hard to separate the war from the warriors and add our sacrifice to theirs. Even though the Iraq War has permeated our popular culture like none before it, we Americans civilians remain as far from military families as ever.

Few of us know what it's like to sacrifice in war because so few of us do: less than 1 percent of Americans -- and less than 3 percent of our draft-age population -- serves today in uniform. Add with their spouses, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends and neighbors who have answered the call to service and we're still talking a small fraction of our country.

Though veterans groups from the American Legion to VoteVets.org to Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America warn us that this deep civil-military divide is dangerous for the health and future of our democracy, Americans have yet to bridge the divide.