Second thought for the day

Tackling the `inevitability` defense by Rose Berger What do you do with 200,000 soldiers after you`ve called off the war? Former Supreme NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark perfectly captured the "inevitability defense" on a recent Sunday morning talk show.He said that he could not envision a scenario where the United States backs off from war with Iraq. "It`s too late," said Clark, with all those troops in place, "war is inevitable." Conventional thinking (and the higher in a bureaucracy you go the more conventional the thinking gets) says that the United States is now committed to war with Iraq, even if tens of millions of people and most of the world`s governments are against it. You don`t send 200,000 troops to staging areas in the Mediterranean, Kuwait, and Jordan only to call them back without a fight. I agree. It is a waste of time and money. The question is - What kind of fight? One of America`s shining military moments occurred between May 10 and June 13, 1991, just after the Persian Gulf war. Just as troops were returning home, Cyclone Marian hit Bangladesh. It was a disaster. More than 100,000 people died and millions were left homeless. More than 1 million cattle died. Crops on 74,000 acres of land were destroyed. The soil was contaminated. The president of Bangladesh turned to the world for help. Within 24 hours President Bush directed the U.S. military to provide humanitarian assistance. A 15-ship Navy amphibious force returning from the Persian Gulf was redirected to Bangladesh. When a Bangladeshi citizen spotted the force arriving from the water, he allegedly called them "Angels from the Sea." Operation Sea Angel had begun. It was one of the largest military disaster relief forces ever assembled. Thousands of U.S. soldiers worked with multinational forces over the next month to provide food, water, and medical care to nearly 2 million people. The valiant relief efforts of the troops were credited with saving as many as 200,000 lives. What would it take for American to wage an "Operation Sea Angel" in Iraq, rather than a repeat of the horrors of Desert Storm? What would it take to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people? This is the kind of "war" our troops could wage and win with honor. Imagine our 200,000 troops working with multinational agencies to rebuild Iraqi water systems; rebuild roads; transport medicine and food to the non-urban areas where access is severely limited; rebuild hospitals, churches, mosques, and homes; assist UNICEF`s social mobilization for a polio free Iraq. Imagine our troops serving as teachers, doctors, engineers, and veterinarians. Imagine them rebuilding Iraq`s agricultural base that has been so badly neglected. Imagine them training people for democracy. Imagine starting a massive humanitarian aid project for the people of Iraq now, not after a war. Imagine also our troops coming home without nightmares, without "syndromes." Imagine them bringing home pictures of kids they helped save, rather than images of children they were trained to kill. Imagine not having the post-war spike in depression, addiction, and domestic abuse among our vets. Would Saddam Hussein ever allow such a thing? Probably not, but it`s hard to know without trying it. Rose Marie Berger is associate editor of Sojourners magazine.