The Late Statesman

Five speeches that the President should make to bring honesty and effective leadership back to the Presidency -- but won't

By M. Harrison

#1 The Iraq Apology

In 2003, the United States of America and its allies invaded the nation of Iraq, mostly under the assumption that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction that posed an immediate threat to the free world. This assumption was supported by government intelligence which, as we found out after the invasion, was entirely false. As a result, much to the sadness and regret of American leaders, a major portion of the casus belli that convinced our nation to support the invasion of Iraq was completely nonexistent.

As the commander-inchief of the American military, I must take full and complete responsibility for this mistake. While there was no deliberate effort to deceive the American public, the decision to go to war was flawed in fact. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of the United States to the Iraqi people and the people of the world. I would also like to apologize to our citizens, friends and allies who opposed the invasion on grounds of insufficient intelligence. We recognize the correctness in their objections. Therefore, I would also like to express our sincere desire to work with the Iraqi people and our international allies in immediately rectifying this situation.

Americans are rightly proud of our military's service in Iraq, and our men and women in uniform have done an incredible job in following the orders which I have given. However, even the best soldiers cannot create a threat where one does not exist, or ameliorate the fact that the decision to go to war with Iraq was justified by false information. For this reason, I make clear that my decision to apologize for this unjustified invasion in no way denigrates the efforts of our troops.

Now the question is, where can America go from here? Unfortunately, the political structure in Iraq has been highly underdeveloped thanks to the hideous regime of Saddam Hussein. A regrettable auxiliary impact of his terrible repression is the fact that Iraq does not have the necessary institutions, development and political culture to support a democracy that would meet our American standards. As a result, we cannot transform this reality - we must deal with it.

We now will work with the Iraqi people and our allies to ensure an orderly and diplomatic transition of power to Iraqis themselves. While many Americans, like myself, would prefer that Iraq implement a democratic regime, I will not use the American military to force our political preferences on a sovereign nation that has proven its proclivity to slip into sectarian brutality. Order and the rule of law - not coerced emulation of the American Constitution - is most important to Iraq. Recognizing this, American forces will restrict their services to peacekeeping as we are requested by Iraqis, but we will have no role in administrative and governmental decisions. While history has shown that brute force from a foreign power can secure law and order, true independence can only come from the people themselves.

I urge all Americans, as well as our friends around the world, to put aside petty disagreement and to work together to correct our mistake.