In struggling to find a topic for this column, two unrelated things happened.  Followers of Jung would call them synchronicity; the catechism of my youth might call them actual graces. The first was a bumper sticker I saw in a parking lot.  It read, “It is the soldier’s duty to obey; it is citizen’s duty to question.”

The second was a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt, which I spotted the next day in the news.  Roosevelt seemed to be bellowing out to the nation from Mount Rushmore.  He proclaimed bluntly, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”  A strong sticker – and stronger words.

Those sentiments are certainly timely given the debate about the Iraq war and the questioning of the patriotism of its critics, but the message is deeper than that – a lot deeper. A loyal, questioning opposition is essential for the functioning of any democracy.  Once we surrender the right to question and criticize our government, then the democratic process is fatally weakened. As the bumper sticker said, it is our duty as citizens to question. We’re not soldiers; indeed we can best support those bearing arms by questioning.

I only wish that citizen Colin Powell had questioned the flawed rationale for this war publicly. Instead as Secretary of State he reverted to the engrained habits of his military lifetime and obeyed as a soldier. He would have served the President, the nation and the troops much better if he had openly challenged the war and the shaky justifications offered for it.

The debate about that war is growing; it has been focused and galvanized by Cindy Sheehan’s forthright question, “For what did my son Casey die?” Of course Mrs. Sheehan does not speak for all gold star mothers; she never claimed she did. But she speaks for many. If we can believe the polls, she speaks for many of us.  An increasing majority of the public doubts the President’s changing explanations, his repetitive bromides and his lack of vision.

Despite the President’s cockiness, most of the nation knows that the war and the pacification of Iraq are going horribly. Is the President in denial? Or is he thoughtlessly mouthing the platitudes Dick Cheney or Don Rumsfeld print on his prompt cards? The record is now indisputable: from the beginning the highest sources in this administration have misinformed the country about this war. As more and more of our troops die, more and more Americans, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, the military and ordinary citizens are questioning. They should; it is their patriotic duty.

A Newsweek poll in August reported that only 34 percent of Americans approved of the president's Iraq policy and 61 percent disapproved. A Pew Center poll in July reported that only 27 percent thought Bush had a clear plan for success in Iraq, but the President’s response continues to be more calls to support our troops.

The nation does not need consensus to support our troops; it already has it. It needs debate on why the troops were sent to Iraq in the first place. Otherwise the observation of historian Barbara Tuchman would apply to us: “A nation in consensus is a nation ready for the grave.” The questioning and its implied criticisms prove that as a democratic nation we are very much alive.

Rev. William Sloan Coffin, a prophetic Christian and patriotic American who has often questioned governmental arrogance and power said, “Good patriots carry on a lovers’ quarrel with their country.” Cindy Sheehan and her colleagues are in such a quarrel.  They are good patriots.

Let the quarrel rage.  Let the questioning become persistent and insistent until we get some frank answers and a realistic plan for Iraq.  The political mantras and simplistic slogans are convincing fewer and fewer.

“Bring ‘em on,” our president boasted in his cowboy drawl when confronted with the Iraq insurgents. Those insurgents last month killed seventy-four more troops.  How long will this national nightmare continue?

As for such questions being unpatriotic, remember Mark Twain. "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." This government does not deserve it.

Daniel O’Rourke is a former Observer Clergy Columnist.  He’s a married Catholic priest, retired from the administration at State University College, Fredonia. A mediator for the Center for Resolution and Justice, he lives in Cassadaga, NY. His column appears the second and
fourth Thursday of each month. Comments may be sent to orourke@netsync.net