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From Iraq, the view looks different here
Oregonian
July 24, 2005

DAVID SARASOHN

The screen saver on Paul Evans' laptop shows a handful of men wearing combat fatigues in an extremely warm climate.

"It reminds me," he explains, "of why I do what I do."

What Evans does is air-battle management, and for a year, ending this summer, he did it as a mission crew commander with the Oregon Air National Guard at Balad Air Force Base, 45 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Air-battle management is a particular kind of skill, and Evans practiced it for four earlier months in Iraq in 2003, in South America as part of antidrug campaigns, in Italy to support efforts in the Balkans and in a place he describes as just "Southwest Asia." In between, he's been mayor of Monmouth and an adjunct professor at Western Oregon University and Oregon State. Now, he's back to part-time service in the Guard, giving some speeches and trying to publish a vampire novel he wrote during down time in Iraq.

And talking about a war that he believes in, and a fight that he thinks looks very different there and here.

"The bottom line, in my opinion, is that a whole lot of people are sacrificing everything -- marriages, careers, lives," Evans says. But "Americans may not fully understand the level of support that may be needed."

Evans, of course, viewed Iraq from an air-control monitor, not a troop carrier or a strategic planner's desk. But he saw quite a bit of it, and of Oregonians fighting and working there.

"Based on my experience of 13 years in the military, and trying to be an observer of history, I have concerns about the capacity that is currently in the field," he says. "I'm not a general, but from the field, it seems like what we've got is stretched pretty thin. . . .

"Iraq is at a critical juncture. If we don't make it work in the next year or two, it will only get worse."

Evans is concerned about an administration trying to achieve a transformation of Iraq on the cheap. But he also thinks the responsibility extends to the nation that supported the administration.

"Elections matter," he argues. "In 2002 and 2004, the country voted for a Congress and a president that support the activity."

To him, those elections also created a direct political responsibility to provide the resources and manpower to reach the goal that voters backed.

"If that means (Bush) needs to visit every college around the country, or help his daughters enlist, that's up to him," Evans says. "If recruiting is down, he needs to deal with that. If money is the issue, he and Congress need to deal with that."

Evans may be wrong about what's possible in Iraq, and about what the United States can or should do there. But there does seem to be a rising conflict between what the administration describes as the goal, and the stakes, in Iraq and the strategies to get there.

Most Americans, on a careful political calculation, have been asked for little, and a few for a great deal.

During the next year, projections say, the manpower crunch will get tighter. The difficulty in maintaining the current troop level will get worse. The mismatch between declared goals and the commitment to meet them will become more inescapable.

But we will know who it all lands on.

Since returning, Evans also has been active on veterans' issues, watching some benefits strengthened by Congress and the Oregon Legislature but questioning whether it amounts to the kind of coordinated support structure needed by the thousands of troops coming back each month from Iraq and Afghanistan.

When soldiers return, he says, "you have to prepare yourself for the idea that everything didn't freeze-frame while you were away. Things happened, decisions were made. You've changed, and they've changed. For the first year you can pretty much bluff your way through. About 12 to 18 months afterward, the wheels start falling off.

"A lot of the guys who need help most aren't going to ask for it."

On a daily basis, questions come up about Iraq, questions about the success of the policy and, according to repeated polls, questions about how much most Americans still believe in it. The Americans who go over there at least deserve some clearer answers.

"When you go to war to fight for your country," Evans says, "the relationship between you and your country becomes very personal."

One way or another, those who go are entitled to ask other Americans to take Iraq personally.

David Sarasohn, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8523 or davidsarasohn@news.oregonian.com.