I mentioned some of this to Marilyn, both sides of it. She understood and had a simple response. Shut up, smile, and fake it! Marilyn is nothing if not practical. I just smiled and agreed with her, and started writing. I ended with the following.
"Four years ago I spoke here, and I sent that class out into a world changed by the events of 9-11. I told them then that this was a damn dirty business we are in. Those young men and women are most likely first lieutenants right now, with maybe a few captains thrown in. Their pay isn't the world's greatest and there is never enough leave to do the things they want. They have missed holidays and birthday parties while standing watches and doing duty. Some have had children born while they were deployed. Others have spent time in hospital, recovering from wounds and injuries received on duty. Regrettably, some have paid the ultimate price for serving their country.
I also told that class that this was a job worth doing, and it was probably the best job in the world. I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Every word I said that day was true, and I have had several of them write me and tell me just how right I was. Now our world has changed again. A few months ago I had to use those young men and women, and in some cases I had to use them up. The one promise I can make to you is that while I will use you, I will never waste you. What you bring to the Army, and what you bring to your nation, is far too valuable to be thrown away. So I tell you, like I told them, this is still the best job in the world.
Now we send you to the Army. You have taken the King's Shilling, and now go to fight the King's battles. As generations before you have done, stand by your troops, stand by your comrades, and stand by your honor. In your time here you have heard the motto 'Duty, Honor, Country' many times. Now you get to find out what that really means. Those who came before you faced this challenge. Now it is your turn. I look forward to seeing how those who follow you look upon your time when it comes time for them to face their challenge. Thank you, and God keep you safe."
It seemed to be a hit, and was quoted on most of the networks that evening, even as I wondered to myself how many of those earnest young faces would be cursing me before their time was up. Then we flew back to Washington for the night, in preparation for our overseas trip.
It was going to take a couple of weeks to see everything and meet everyone. I was taking Marilyn, and for senior staff would have Frank Stouffer and Eric Shinseki. John McCain would stay in Washington, and the traveling party would link up with Condi Rice when we landed in the Middle East. We were figuring one day apiece in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait, two days in Israel, and at least three days in both Turkey and Kurdistan. The Kurdish portion of the trip was questionable for Marilyn, simply because for all practical purposes the place was still a war zone. I wasn't expecting to find any five star hotels in Erbil, and some of the places I planned to visit would be very rough battlefields. I would have to give that one some thought.
Our first visit was to Israel. The Israelis were not amused that they had been attacked by the Iraqis, and were rather upset by the possibility of poison gas. Condi and I met with Ehud Olmert and several of his top people and reiterated America's support for the State of Israel. In general I had taken a hands-off approach to the country. Intellectually I knew that many of their actions regarding new settlements were not helpful to the peace process. That couldn't be helped, however. There was not a single blessed thing I could do to get them to actually change their actions. Worse, there was a rabid pro-Israel lobby in America, and if I tried pressuring them, it was going to fail and screw me over back home.
To make matters worse, I informed them that I would be meeting with a representative of the Revolutionary Council at some point, and trying to make nice. As part of that, almost all of the economic sanctions that had been in place under Saddam's rule would be lifted. Some had been international, some had been American, and some had been more local, but they would be ending. They had only been put in place to force him to behave; now that he was gone, they were superfluous. I expected the Iraqis to be going hat in hand to the Saudis for assistance rebuilding, and I was going to talk to the Saudis about that very thing. On the plus side, the Iraqi economy was well and truly trashed. The entire country was going to take a generation to rebuild. They were not a threat to anyone anymore.
The Israelis wanted all the sanctions kept in place to prevent the Iraqis from rearming. Their argument was that any money that got to the new generals in Baghdad would immediately be used to buy new weapons to replace all that we had just destroyed. That was what all generals wanted to do. Olmert and his people were absolutely right. That was what would happen, and there was nothing we could do to prevent that. The political reality, however, was that the sanctions would be lifted, and the money would be spent. If Hussein had been able to evade the sanctions and use oil-for-food money to buy stuff from the Russians, we couldn't stop it now that there was peace. The best I could do was say that we would argue for keeping the sanctions in place at least until Uday was caught and killed. He was still on the loose, but the noose was getting tighter, and we expected him to be either caught or to seek asylum outside of the country.
In total honesty, the Israelis couldn't claim that I was being anti-Israeli. During the war at least a third of the fighter-bomber sorties by the Air Forces of the various countries had been on Scud hunt missions. They actually managed to get one, this time, when the Iraqis managed to launch a Scud in plain sight of a drone. The drone had tracked the launcher back to the barn, and while we couldn't stop the missile, we could plaster the barn the launcher was hiding in, and there were a number of reported secondary explosions, large ones that indicated a missile storage facility. Likewise, they couldn't claim I was giving them grief over their internal policies, since I had never said anything about them. I had also promised them a large amount of foreign aid (for instance, 'reconstruction from war damages' - total bullshit, since most of the damage was in Palestinian areas that wouldn't be touched) and a free hand with some future arms purchases.
We spent two days and two nights there, and then flew to Saudi Arabia. That lasted longer than I had expected. I wanted to talk to their Foreign Office about the Iraqi sanctions, and ended up speaking to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former ambassador to the U.S. who I had kicked out of the country. Awkward! The surprise was when he introduced me to Colonel Rafiq Tawaziq of the Iraqi Revolutionary Council. Tawaziq was their new Foreign Minister, and was in Saudi Arabia to make nice. He said the days of Saddam Hussein were behind them and that Iraq wished to rebuild and join in the family of nations and be friends again. Uh, huh! I could believe as much of that as I wanted. Again, we talked about the sanctions and the importance of rebuilding the nation and not the armed forces. I got a definite vibe from the Saudis that they were planning on loaning money to the Iraqis. I wasn't quite sure where that would all lead, but it would be out of our hands in any case. On the plus side, when the war had started the price of oil had skyrocketed. Now that the war was over, the price had dropped, and the Saudis were pumping extra to make up for the loss of Iraqi production. I wondered how the future increases in Kurdish oil production would be appreciated.