Perhaps Gil is listening to the wrong folks

by Leigh Pomeroy

Often the most telling part of an article is buried somewhere in the middle or even tacked onto the end. In fact, this is the case in a recent piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune entitled "Gutknecht fans the flames on Iraq". In the very last paragraph he is quoted:

"When I go out and talk to people, they don't have much to say about Iraq," he said. "The reason is they're frustrated. They understand instinctively what I've been trying to say. An immediate withdrawal is a disaster, and 'stay the course' isn't getting us anywhere. There must be a better way."

Obviously, he isn't talking to the same people I have been hearing from for the last, oh, four years. And they have been vocal about it, not silent.

Like many of my colleagues — including Tom Maertens, who used to work for President Bush in the State Department — I was opposed to the Iraqi incursion before it began. I even made my opposition to the war a key issue in my campaign for Congress in 2004. But I realized then, as Rep. Gutknecht finally does now, that having opened the Pandora's box of Iraq, closing the lid and subduing the evils that were let out might well be an impossible task.

Rep. Gutknecht should not be blamed for swallowing the misinformation that the administration supplied to justify the war. Most of his colleagues, Republican and Democrat alike, did so hook, line and sinker. Even such diverse personas as Colin Powell and Al Franken were caught up in the administration's web of deceit. After all, who was putting forth this information but the President, Vice President and Secretary of Defense of the United States? And if you can't trust the President, whom can you trust?

At least, that's the way a democracy should work.

What Gil can be blamed for is failing to recognize the administration's deceits and the futility of the war earlier. And for this his constituents — Republican, Democrat and independent — should call him to task. There has been plenty of evidence presented over the last several years to prove that this war is wrong. While Rep. Gutknecht should be commended for wanting to assess the situation with his own eyes, a trip to the scene of the crime is not always necessary to judge that a crime has been committed.

Yes, Mr. Gutknecht, as you say, "Baghdad is a serious problem." But so is Washington. And while people there are not getting maimed, mutilated and murdered at the same frequency as in Baghdad, our fundamental system of government is.

It is clear more than ever that the people of this nation need to vote for major change come November. And that includes replacing even those who are coming around to recognizing the truth late.