The headline reads: “Ex-Commander Says Iraq Effort Is ‘a Nightmare’ “ (David S. Cloud, The New York Times, October 13, 2007). The newspaper article goes on to report: “In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top commander of American forces there called the Bush administration’s handling of the war ‘incompetent’ and said the result was ‘a nightmare with no end in sight.’ “ It is noteworthy that a military person of high rank invokes the world of dreams.
The waking nightmare is fleshed out. “Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who retired in 2006 after being replaced in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, blamed the Bush administration for a ‘catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan’ and denounced the current addition of American forces as a ‘desperate’ move that would not achieve long-term stability. ‘After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism,’ General Sanchez said at a gathering of military reporters and editors.” The nightmare has to do not with airy-fairy stuff, but the nuts and bolts, the guns and guts of war.
It is important to examine nightmares, to understand what it is they indicate is out of balance. “ ‘The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the State Department, must shoulder responsibility for the catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable,’ he said.” This waking nightmare can be understood to be telling Americans to wake up and speak out about what is happening in Iraq. If we continue to proceed in our silent dazed attitude, the nightmare of war will continue to morph into increasingly grotesque and disturbing forms, ever more insistently demanding our wakeful response.