Opinions: No clue

 published on Wednesday, March 19, 2008

If you haven't noticed, today marks the five-year anniversary of the Iraq War.

But we think you noticed — mainly because you didn't have much choice while looking at any of the 19 preceding pages or the giant "5" up front.

However, the real issue here isn't whether or not you did notice, it's whether or not you wanted to notice, because if you're anything like us, then you probably didn't. After all, it serves as an overwhelming reality check.

Five years ago last week, there were no American troops in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was still alive and well. Our country was still, for the most part, united in the face of Sept. 11.

Five years later, all three of those details couldn't be further from the truth. Although "Five Years Later" might sound like the awesome, but incorrectly, titled third film in the thriller movie franchise with "28 Days Later" and "28 Weeks Later," the reality is that it's anything but thrilling.

But this isn't meant to be anti-war or pro-war. If there was any disservice we could do to the war, it would be further politicizing it.

So instead, this special issue should serve as a way to reflect. Over the past five years, the Iraq War, like Vietnam, has turned into an entire era's defining conflict. As we enter year six, it's time to think about your own experience with the war and what it has done to you.

Where were you five years ago? Listening to Beyoncé's new hit "Crazy in Love" and anxiously awaiting Colin Farrell's "Phone Booth?"

Well, we won't admit to that (we were far more excited for Amanda Bynes's "What a Girl Wants"), but we can at least tell you where our paper was.

As the first strike hit the news, ASU was in Rocky Point. But on the first Monday back from spring break, The State Press was dominated by war coverage. The editorial for March 24, 2004, titled "Students find war with beer, sun-tan," talked of televisions "plagued with images of desert warfare ... and U.S. soldiers making peace with surrendering Iraqi fighters." It acknowledged that the war could very well change us, even within our comfy bubble of ASU.

In the following weeks, the various headlines of the columns told such a story: "War has a justification, but this war does not," "No link between al-Qaeda and Iraq," "Soldiers aren't the sanest bunch," "At least our motives aren't hidden," "Make a difference, shut your mouth," "Newsflash for 'fools': The war is won," or even "The war of words doesn't stop with 'Freedom Fries.'"

What a cursory look over these columns shows you is how little anyone knew about the entire situation in Iraq at the onset. What a deeper look shows you is that even today, five years later, we don't really know a whole lot more.

For every question that has been answered so far, even more have been posed. And they still loom today. Yes, we have more facts (and in most cases, more anger), but oddly, it still feels too early to make blanket statements about the war. Because somehow, from day one in Baghdad, that's one of the few things that hasn't really changed.

So, what do we honestly think of our five years in Iraq? To be honest, we don't know yet.

What do you think of it?