The Temporary Lie

From "Why I Continue to Believe in the War in Iraq," a poem by Lynn Chu, literary agent. This is an abridgment, first published by Harper's Magazine in September, 2006, of a long poem, the full version of which can be found at writersreps.com by searching on "Lynn Chu."

Because to depose a murderous despot is a good thing.
Because I believe in nation building.
Because the left has always insisted on this.
Because I harbor no animus toward Muslim peoples.
Because we must seed the world with democracy, for it is right.
Because Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, deserves no less.
Because containment is impossible in a globalized world.
Because in truth the world respects us for it, however they moan.
Because Iraqis are an educated people fully capable of democracy.
As is all of humanity.
Because we did so with a minimum of human loss.
Because one out of three in the axis of evil is 33.3 percent better than zero.
Because America is as brave and competent as it is reasonable to expect of clumsy, imperfect humans.
Because if Saddam had the bomb in 1981, he would soon have it again.
Because in 1948, to world acclaim, the U.N. created Israel, whose existence is just and must continue to be defended.
For the evil of anti-Semitism still lurks in the world, in radical Islam and elsewhere.
Because the new kind of war will be sporadic, desultory, and covert.
And will bore us, but complacency is dangerous.
Because to them their jihad has only just begun, and crush it we must.
For Osama bin Laden is not Deng Xiao-Ping.
Because our nation is strong enough to shrug off the malice and subversion and sophistries its heedless factions devise.
Who style themselves heroes and whistle-blowers.
For their vanity and venality betrays them.
Because this war's lessons will assist in transformation, which must continue.
For the emasculated CIA and bloated DOD must be reformed.
Because the idea that the world has outgrown war is a fantasy.
Because if we cannot do Iraq then we can never do Rwanda or Darfur.
Because we need to pick our fights.
And there is nothing immoral about making a list ordered by need and self-interest.
Because, when the world is ever really in trouble, fashionable anti-Americanism will fall away.
For all know that America is not the source of evil in the world.
Because people just like to exaggerate. And nowhere is the human condition more on display than in a democracy.
Because we must learn how to replace chaos with democracy.
Because we won in Afghanistan, whose economy is starting to boom.
Because Iraq must continue to "balance" Iran in that region.
Because we can use a Middle East base.
Because civilization is always effortful.
Because the U.N. will save no one.
Because diplomacy is sometimes the path to a solution, but just as often is not.
Because politics is always war by other means.
Because we must expect only carping and ingratitude and have infinite patience.
Because it is the right thing to do and the sophists' words will vanish with the wind.
Because wordsmiths overestimate words.
Because lies, however big, are only temporary.