Fall is upon us, and with it the awful memories of the fall of the towers five years ago.  We remember how the world stood with us, and proclaimed “Today we are all Americans.” 

The toll that day was great, and the toll since then has been even greater, from terrorist eposides around the world, from innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of the war on terror, and from the sacrifices of soliders who laid down their lives in the hope of preventing another 9-11.

As well as the continued loss of life, we have also lost the unity that we once felt amongst Americans and with the rest of the world.

Without descending into political partisanship, it is safe to say that a significant factor in the loss of unity has been America’s single-minded focus on Iraq. Our allies were unconvinced (correctly, it turns out) by our evidence for weapons of mass distruction in Iraq, and couldn’t understand the urgent timetable we imposed. Politicians who questioned the particulars of attacking Iraq had their patriotism and commitment to the broader war on terror questioned.

That might have made sense given our initial intelligence about Iraq, but makes no sense today. What is truly appalling is how bipartisan this fixation on Iraq has been and remains. Even the Democrats who oppose involvement in Iraq have difficulty articulating a broader strategy that goes beyond Iraq.

Republicans and Democrats alike have presented voters with a false dichotomy in which we must either fight in Iraq as the central front in the war on terror, or “cut and run” and hunker down in a fortress America.  But it’s not cutting and running to join a more important battle elsewhere!

 What has resonated with voters is the Republican message that we need to take a proactive approach to dealing with terrorism. This is no way requires the selection of Iraq as the central front of the war on terror, especially given what we know now, but Democrats have been remarkably ineffective in enunciating an alternative strategy that doesn’t have Iraq as its center.

Iraq is likely to be a mess for years to come if we stay, and an even bigger mess if we leave and it descends further into chaos.  It does have the potential to become a safe haven for terrorists, even though it had nothing to do with 9-11. But it’s only a piece in a much bigger puzzle, and has been the source of no significant terrorist attacks outside its own borders, including a number of attacks since 9-11.

 By fixating on Iraq we are unable to focus on a number of other spots on the globe that we now know have an greater chance of harboring terrorists and a far greater chance of threatening the world with weapons of mass distruction. We are bogged down in a quagmire of our own choosing in Iraq and countries like North Korea and Iran act with impunity.

If we’re going to continue to spend 90% of our resources and lives on Iraq, at the expense of our standing in the world, desperately needed unity, and the ability to act elsewhere, we have to prove not just the struggle in Iraq has some value in the war on terrorism, but that it is the most valuable use of lives and resources.

On this anniversary of 9-11, I’m hoping that people from all sides of the political spectrum will recognize building a stable Iraq is a front in the global struggle against terrorism, but not the central front. This recognition will be an important step in restoring our shattered unity internally and with our allies. We owe nothing less to those who have lost their lives.