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Column: Mea culpa — In 2000, 2004, I voted for Bush I voted for George W. Bush. Not in 2000 — I was too young to vote. I voted for him in 2004. Though I have never lied about this, I rarely bring it up. Thus, even many of those who know me are not aware that I did such an incredibly stupid thing. But, before you write off my judgment as being entirely unsound, allow me to explain what went into my decision four years ago. Unsurprisingly, it all began with the events of 9/11. Prior to that date, I was not a Bush supporter. Though I wasn’t yet eligible to vote in 2000, I favored Al Gore. It’s not that I really liked Gore all that much, but simply that he seemed a great deal smarter and more knowledgeable than Bush. And Bill Clinton had been on a whole a pretty decent president, so I figured we might as well not rock the boat. However, after much chaos and controversy, Bush won in the Electoral College and became president. On the day Al Qaeda terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, I was 18 years old. Only weeks into my first year of my undergraduate education at the UI, this massively jarring event thoroughly disoriented me. I reacted exactly as one would expect an 18-year-old male to react — with extreme anger and a desire for retribution. That demographic is the prime target of military recruiters for a reason. A deficit of life experiences combined with an excess of testosterone makes one ideal cannon fodder — and the last type of person who should be making decisions in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, the people running our country reacted similarly to me. At first, with the surgical strikes in Afghanistan, it seemed as though Bush had decided to respond to the 9/11 attacks in a relatively calm and measured way. However, after the Taliban quickly collapsed, the White House wasted no time in redirecting the nation’s focus on Iraq. And, given the insecurity so many people felt at the time, it was easy for Bush to drum the country up into a frenzy. Like a substantial majority of Americans, I favored invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein from power. All of this was going on when I was 18, 19, and 20 years old. And it was all framed by the image of the World Trade Center towers collapsing before my eyes. By no means am I attempting to make excuses for being so easily led along as part of the pro-war mob that did its best to drown out any and all dissenting voices. I’m just offering an explanation. In such times of conflict it is tragically easy to allow oneself to be caught up in an overly simplistic us-versus-them mindset. By 2004, it was obvious to any honest observer that Iraq had possessed no weapons of mass destruction at the time of the American invasion. It was also increasingly apparent that the war effort had been poorly planned and unreasonably understaffed from the outset. But admitting that it had been the wrong thing to do was still too hard to do. It’s human nature to hate recognizing our mistakes — especially when they have had such terrible consequences. So I ultimately held my nose and voted for Bush even though I was already well along my way back to my original low opinion of his intelligence and competence. It’s highly unfortunate that the Democratic nominee wasn’t someone better than John Kerry. He voted to authorize the war in Iraq and his message during the campaign about how to move forward in Iraq was hopelessly muddled. A candidate with a clearer plan could have persuaded me and a majority of Americans to back him. But Kerry didn’t. So Bush won re-election. But much has changed over the last several years. I’ve matured a great deal since the invasion of Iraq. Never again will I so naïvely support the use of military force in such a complex situation. And this year the country has the option of electing Barack Obama, who was wise and brave enough to speak out against going to war with Iraq even though doing so jeopardized his fledgling political career. Hopefully, a majority of Americans have come as far as I have. |