James Dobson

Dr. James Dobson, host of Focus on the Family, made me angry. He recently interviewed Ambassador Paul Bremer about his work in Iraq. Dr. Dobson asked how harmful it would be if the United States were to "cut and run" from the situation in Iraq. He used that phrase repeatedly, and used it to suggest that those of us who believe the United States should not be in Iraq are cowards.

Dr. Dobson has been around long enough to understand that reasonable people can disagree over complex issues (or simple ones for that matter). At the very least, he should be honest enough to abstain from mischaracterizing the views of those who disagree with him.

I believe the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. I believe this for a number of reasons, but the primary reasons are:

1) We shouldn't have invaded in the first place. Remember how we went to find weapons of mass destruction?

2) Despite how awful his regime was, Saddam was a stabilizing force in the region. His regime was secular, predictable, and most importantly, contained. In his absence, religious fanatics have gained a great deal of influence, and no one knows what to expect besides more kidnappings and suicide bombings and power outages.

3) Al-Qaeda had no significant presence in Iraq during Saddam's regime. Now that he is out of power, al-Qaeda makes its presence felt on a regular basis.

4) Forcing regime change by military force sends the wrong message to the international community, particularly when you claim to be doing it because the leader is a brutal dictator. If the United States is truly committed to promoting democracy through forced regime change, SURELY it is planning to invade Zimbabwe and overthrow Robert Mugabe. I could list the other dictators that the U.S. is surely planning to overthrow, but this post would become very, very, very long.

5) The war in Iraq bears some striking similarities to the Vietnam Conflict, where thousands upon thousands of Americans lost their lives, or were physically and emotionally maimed, only to find out that their sacrifice didn't really make that much of a difference. At least not in terms of what the United States claimed to be doing (i.e. halting the spread of Communism). The vast majority of thinking people understand that we should have left Vietnam long before we did. Actually, we never should have gone there.

There are more reasons, but in the interest of saving time, I'll end with this:

If the United States is serious about maintaining its status as a superpower while simultaneously promoting democracy around the globe, it must engage in fair trade with, and offer financial assistance to those nations that are serious about embracing democracy. The United States must not rely solely on military might because it drains resources, chips away at the public morale, and makes our nation less open to the dialogue that always, always, always accompanies truly free speech.

There are only so many soldiers, and they are best used for defense rather than regime change. They are best used for protecting democracies rather than trying to force democracy upon people who aren't ready for it, or who simply don't want it. So yeah ... I think we should bring the U.S. presence in Iraq to an end.

But back to Dr. Dobson, who boils my arguments down to the phrase "cut and run." I find this so troubling because he is allegedly one of the most prominent Christian leaders in modern America. Dobson claims to be on a mission to strengthen families by using sound Biblical teaching. He is an accomplished author who claims to want to do God's work. He speaks about Jesus all the time. And yet ... he seems to be characterizing my views in a way that seems so typical of Karl Rove.

I'm disappointed.