Stepped into a time warp today listening to a 12/20/02 episode of This American Life, “Why We Fight.” Broadcast exactly four months before the American invasion of Iraq, it’s a portrait of American consciousness that feels unnervingly distance.
Back then, we were still undecided about whether or not they thought Iraq posed a legitimate enough threat to justify the war our government was flirting with. It was still understandable that no one knew how to pronounce “Iraq.” There was no recession, no huge war debt, no body count, no Abu Gharib, no GITMO. People in liberal enclaves such as NPR were still saying things to the effect of “I’m not so sure about this whole ‘invasion’ thing, but I like the president and I want to support him.”
It’s a bit like stumbling upon a picture from junior high and not being able to recognize yourself. You can’t imagine a time when you thought graffitied jeans or crimped hair were a good idea, just as you can’t imagine a time when an invasion without an exit strategy seemed feasible… and yet there it is, that image of a former self which proves you wrong.
Perhaps the best example of this comes in Act Three (“Realism 101″), in which The New Yorker’s Nicholas Lemann and Brookings Institution analyst Kenneth Pollack argued about the for and against the invasion. It’s weird, remembering that arguments like these were persuasive in either direction, when they seemed well informed and thought through, and for their time they were. Yet there are some pretty glaring anachronisms, or at least, what feel like them now. For instance, both parties believed that Saddam Hussein had WMDs–they’re existence is in no way up for debate. It of course, begs the unsettling question of how current debates will look in only a couple years. When we talk about Iran or Gaza in three, four years, how uninformed will we consider the conversations we’re having now?
On the other hand, there are details that ended up staying true that have in some ways fallen out of our awareness. In Act Two (“When Firas Comes Marching Home Again”), Adam Davidson interviews Iraqi refugees and foreign workers who either live in or commute to Amman, Jordan. There are a number of Iraqis who left the country after being subjected to brutal torture for petty or non-existent crimes, the effects of which are still visible on their faces and fingers. I think it’s good to remember that the specter of violence has existed in the Iraqi consciousness for longer than the American occupation.
Also, these stories hit a little too close to home in a way they didn’t before the invasion. Before, these were Saddam’s brutal interrogation techniques, and were widely publicized in America as justification for overthrowing a wretchedly inhumane dictator. Yet now we have to square ourselves with our own track record in Abu Gharib, GITMO, and hundreds of CIA blackout sites all over the world.
If you’ve got an hour to listen, you should check it out for yourself, and see how far we’ve come, for better or worse.
