The waters of chaos have been stirred and so lawmakers are scrambling to make the “right” choices, but the reality is that they’re also concerned with grabbing the strongest wave of public opinion, to ride back to a solid shore of voter support.
Let us not forget that 2008 is not too far away, and that every move they make will be inked in the media and watched by their respective constituencies. That being said, we must all posit the following questions:
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Will our lawmakers, leaders from both camps, do what’s best for both Iraq and the United States from a place of conscience, or will their personal agendas be trumped by the prevailing winds of polling results, media swings, and the escalating acrimonious war of words among them?
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Will they be “fearless” leaders while mired in the hostile debate over the “new course” to take in Iraq?
In Ariana Huffington’s latest book, On Becoming Fearless, (Little Brown and Company, 2006) she speaks of leadership not only as an external force, but also as internal. “This kind of leadership is generated instead by an inner force that compels us to try and make the surrounding work – whether it’s our family, our community, the entire nation, or beyond – a better place,” wrote Huffington. (p.176)
Huffington goes on to quote Martin Luther King in a 1968 speech: “There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.” Huffington remarks that it seems leadership these days,
“…means just being obsessed with finding the political middle, the elusive M-spot.”
Solving the conundrum of Iraq is not just about troop “surge” or “withdrawal”. It’s about fearless leadership. It’s is not just about taking the political pulse of a nation, it’s about making well thought-out decisions from an internal place of conscience, a deep place of the soul. Even if it flies in the face of criticism. Fearless leadership sometimes requires one to venture into the unknown. A fierce fight for an unprecedented shift in action. An actual commitment to venture forth into new territories. I believe we have yet to see this action from either camp.
The new Democratically controlled congress, and the Republicans that have managed to hang on in the mid-term fire storm, are being carefully scrutinized. Everyone’s political legacies are on the line, just like President Bush. Will these lawmakers toe the moderate line – fearful of straying too far from public opinion, or fearlessly enter the fire of conscious transformation?
