CEU Spring2004 Full

PERSON OF THE YEAR The American Soldier: Defender of Freedom They swept across Iraq and conquered it in 21 days. They caught Saddam Hussein. They are the face of America, its might and good will, in a region unused to democracy. The U.S. G.I. is Time’s Person of the Year By NANCY GIBBS winter wrapped in yellow ribbons and duct tape. But in a year when it felt at times as if we had odern history has a way of being nothing in common anymore, we were united in modest with its gifts and blunt with its this hope: that our men and women at arms might reckonings. Good news comes like a soon come safely home, because their job was breeze you feel but don’t notice; the done. They are the bright, sharp instrument of a markets are up, the air is cleaner, we’re blunt policy, and success or failure in a war unlike Mbeating heart disease. It is the bad news that any in history ultimately rests with them. comes with a blast or a crash, to For their uncommon skills stop us in mid-sentence to stare and service, for the choices at the TV, and shudder. each one of them has made and Maybe that’s why we are the ones still ahead, for the startled by gratitude in the sea- challenge of defending not only son of peace. To have pulled our freedoms but those barely Saddam Hussein from his hole stirring half a world away, the in the ground brings the possi- American soldier is Time’s Per- bility of pulling an entire coun- son of the Year. try out of the dark. In an ex- It is worth remembering that hausting year when we’ve been our pilots and sailors and sol- witness to battles well beyond diers are, for starters, all volun- the battlefields—in the streets, teers, in contrast to those of in our homes, with our allies— most nations, which conscript to share the good news of Sad- the citizens who serve in their dam’s capture felt like break- armed forces. Ours are serving ing a long fast, all the better since it came by in 146 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. surprise. And who delivered this gift, against all The 1.4 million men and women on active duty odds and risks? The same citizens who share the make up the most diverse military in our history, duty of living with, and dying for, a country’s and yet it is not exactly a mirror of the country it most fateful decisions. defends. It is better educated than the general Scholars can debate whether the Bush Doctrine population and overweighted with working-class is the most muscular expression of national inter- kids and minorities. About 40% of the troops are est in a half-century; the generals may ponder Southern, 60% are white, 22% are black, and a whether warmaking or peacekeeping is the more disproportionate number come from empty states fearsome assignment; civilians will remember a like Montana and Wyoming. 2 time, december 29, 2003–january 5, 2004 PERSON OF THE YEAR The unstated promise is that soldiers are sent to launcher? How do you win the hearts and minds war only as a last resort, to defend their country of residents in a town you’ve had to wrap in barbed from harm. But while the threat posed by Saddam wire? How do you teach about freedom through was chief among the stated justifications, George the bars of a cage? W. Bush’s war was always about more than the It is a fantastically romantic notion, that thou- weapons that have yet to be found. The son of the sands of young men and women could descend on President who had trouble with the Vision Thing a broken place and make it better, not decades offered a vision so broad it bent the horizon: this from now but right away, hook up the high school was nothing less than a “battle for the future of Internet lab, send the Army engineers to repair the the Muslim world,” an expression of American soccer field, teach the town council about Robert’s idealism in all its arrogant generosity. Once again, Rules and all the while watch your back. They de- we thought we could liberate a country just by bate how much to tell their loved ones back home, walking in the door. The President could move who listen to each news report of victories won and this immense fighting machine halfway around lives lost with the acute attention that dread de- the world and ignore old allies, leaving us to act mands. They complain less about the danger than without their support and rescue the uncertainty: they are told a captive country. The same soldiers who they’re going home in two It may be that idealism re- swept across 350 miles weeks, and then two months quires naiveté to survive, because later they have not moved. no war ever goes as planned, and in 21 days soon found When the Pentagon an- peace can be just as confounding. themselves being shot at nounced that instead of six The same soldiers who swept by the people they had months abroad the troops would across 350 miles in 21 days, to be spending a year, it began ro- be greeted by flowers and candy come to save. tating them home for a two- and cheers as the statues fell, week leave to rest and recharge. soon found themselves being shot at by the people Some turned the offer down; they said it would be they had come to save. As it turned out, the Iraqi too hard to go back when the 14 days were up. civil servants who were supposed to keep the lights Some went home to meet their babies for the first on after Saddam was gone instead stayed home time. They flush the toilet over and over, just be- when there was no one to give them orders. The cause they can, celebrate a year’s worth of birth- sudden collapse of the Iraqi army was such an days in 14 days, meet the new neighbors, savor indignity to the Iraqi people that in a way it made rain. Troops come home to a Heroes’ Parade; the Americans’ job harder: You can rebuild a bridge, towns don’t call it a Victory Parade, because they but how do you restore national pride at the same know it’s not over yet. time, or impose order on people who have been It now falls to the Iraqis themselves to decide taught to distrust authority and Americans? what they are willing and able to do with the The fight for peace demands different skills of chance they have been given, and the rest of the the soldiers: not just courage but constancy; not just world to decide how to help. Freedom’s conse- strength but subtlety. Liberty can’t be fired like a quences, intended and otherwise, will determine bullet into the hard ground. It requires, among whether the world is safer for having been forcibly other things, time and trust, and a nation scarred by rearranged, and how long it will be before the tyranny and divided by tribe and faith is not going soldiers can come marching home for good. π to turn into Athens overnight. A force intensely trained for its mission finds itself improvising at Questions every turn, required to exercise exquisite judg- 1. Why did Time select the U.S. soldier as its Per- ment in extreme circumstances: Do you shoot son of the Year? What is your reaction to this choice? the 8-year-old when he picks up the grenade 2. What skills does the “fight for peace” require? time, december 29, 2003–january 5, 2004 3 THE WAR IN IRAQ “WE GOT HIM” Inside the daring nighttime raid that nabbed Saddam Hussein— and what it means for George W. Bush and the future of Iraq By NANCY GIBBS broadcast address from the Cabinet Room. “It marks the end of the road for him and for all ven before he is brought to trial, who bullied and killed in his name.” there was justice in the news that Saddam It was a team of 600 soldiers from the 4th In- Hussein had survived by being buried alive. fantry Division and U.S. special forces that acted Like a pharaoh in his tomb, he had sur- on the tip that Saddam was hiding in a little town rounded himself with symbols of his lost called Dawr, 15 miles from his hometown of Epower—two ak-47s, a pistol, $750,000 in $100 Tikrit. These soldiers had been scouring the area bills. The Butcher of Baghdad was nestled under- for months in the belief that he would stay close ground with pictures of Ben Franklin. The hunt for to home, where loyalty among those who most Saddam that began with a hellfire of bombs eight benefited from his rule still ran deep. U.S. intel- months ago ended without a shot being fired. ligence sources tell Time that over the past month With his capture, we exhale, after a long, deep they were getting better leads. breath we have held for a year. We can measure But it was not until 8 o’clock on Saturday, Dec. the meaning of his capture by the measures we 13, with the launch of Operation Red Dawn, that have taken—old alliances and long traditions dis- they finally began to close in on the prize.

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