James Holbrook easily could have concluded this war was not his fight. A combat veteran of the Vietnam War, the Utah attorney knows the price military members sometimes pay for the decisions of political leaders --- and he feared going to war in Iraq was a reckless whim.
Now Holbrook is packing up his reservations and marching off to Iraq.
President Barack Obama -- whose opposition to the Iraq War was key in his swift political ascent -- has pledged to find a sensible way to end the six-year-old conflict. In attempting to do so, he will be following the lead of those like Holbrook who have served in Iraq despite their grave political misgivings.
Why go to war for a cause you do not believe in? For Holbrook and others it comes down to a belief that, in a democracy, no citizen is free of responsibility for the actions of his nation.
Holbrook, who teaches conflict resolution at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney School of Law, said he was skeptical of the former administration's claims that Iraq's military was harboring weapons of mass destruction. And having served in Vietnam in the waning years of that conflict, he knew how hard it was for a nation to extract itself from another country's affairs, particularly in the midst of violence and civil strife.
The war in Iraq was everything he feared and more. "This war has been extremely expensive, in blood and treasure, both for America and Iraq," Holbrook said.
But given the opportunity to be a civilian advisor to the Iraqi government as part of the law school's Global Justice Project, Holbrook cleared the matter with his wife and said goodbye to his dog. During the next year, he will help Iraq's fledgling government map a route to a democracy less beholden to corruption and sectarian discord.
"Whatever I can do to honor the sacrifices that have been made by America's soldiers, to help in some small way, to make a contribution to peace and stability, I feel it is my obligation to do what I can," he said.
Holbrook said his objections to the war did not give him any pause. "If anything, it was just the other way around," he said. As a patriotic American, the feeling that his nation had gone adrift only furthered his resolve to help right the course.
He's not alone.
Marshall Thompson did not just oppose the war in Iraq, he organized a protest against it. But when the Army Reservist was called to serve there, he followed his orders.
"I absolutely believe that, in a participatory democracy, everybody shares in the decisions we make, good and bad," said Thompson, a native of Logan. "Everyone shares in the guilt. Everyone shares the blame. That's kind of the deal we've made."
And that's the kind of deal that resulted in Orem native Kael Weston's long tour of duty in Iraq's volatile Anbar Province.
As the U.S. marched toward war in 2003, the State Department political officer worried that the decision to invade Iraq would divert global attention and aggravate international relations at a time when the U.S. needed strong allies in its battle against Al-Qaida. And that, he believed, could endanger American lives around the world.
"A few months later, I found myself in Baghdad," Weston said.
His initial assignment was for one year. He stayed for four.
The decision to stay in Iraq was in part because Weston felt an obligation to the military members who helped keep him safe in Anbar. "I wanted to help limit the risks young Marines were facing," he said.
And, he said, his job wasn't to go where he wanted, but where he was needed.
"Far better to be in the Iraq fight, in my view, than only criticizing it from afar," he said. "Wars do not end on their own."
