Dawgy
Joined: 09 Feb 2002
Posts: 463
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| Posted: 11-29-2002 10:23 PM Post subject: Target: Iraq |
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Is this war just? Will it make us safe?
In 1964, the US military came before the US Congress and claimed that US ships had been fired upon by North Vietnamese ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. They asked for the Congress to give the military the right to go into Vietnam and fight. Congress agreed and passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which marked the beginning of the bloody Vietnam War. And it turns out that the military’s claims were false. The Vietnamese never fired on any US ship. It was a lie made up to give the military what it wanted, a free hand to wage war.
In 1990, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, a little girl testified about Iraqi atrocities before the UN. Her name was “Nayirah.” She said that she had been a volunteer at a Kuwaiti hospital during the invasion, and told a story about Iraqi soldiers storming the hospital, taking premature infants out of incubator machines, throwing the newborns onto the cold stone floor to die, and then shipping the incubators back to Baghdad. It was a horrifying tale that helped galvanize US support for the Gulf War. Except it later turned out that “Nayirah” was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S., had never been to that hospital, and the entire story of the incubators was completely made up to convince the U.S. military to come in and give Kuwait back to its wealthy dictators.
And now in 2002, the government tells us that we are in immediate danger of a chemical or biological attack by Iraq. They tell us they have damning evidence, but they can’t show it to us.
Maybe it’s time to be a little skeptical.
Don’t buy the “Iraq and its WMD are a threat to the United States” arguments, not for a second. Not even Iraq’s neighbors--not even Kuwait--are particularly concerned about an Iraqi attack. The entire globe is caught up in playing out an elaborate soap opera set in motion by Bush, pretending that we’re all trying to de-fang Iraq, when the Iraqi threat is just a smokescreen.
You could possibly support a U.S. invasion of the sovereign nation of Saddamistan, if it were populated only by Saddam Hussein and his advisors. They’re ruthless and have no concern for the life or suffering of their fellow man. Sending these guys to the cemetery isn’t such a bad idea. Maybe the skeletons of all their victims would throw them a nice welcome party.
But Saddamistan happens to be located in the middle of Iraq, a nation not quite as large as California state, home to 24 million people who aren’t Saddam Hussein, who are victims of his oppressive will. How many of these innocent people is it “okay” to kill in an effort to “make America safe?” Last Gulf War killed over 100,000 Iraqis. Then the lack of food and medicine caused by U.S. economic sanctions killed off over 400,000 children and maybe another million adults. And the war still hasn’t ended. The U.S. and Britain have already bombed Iraq 46 times this year in the “no-fly zone,” two large stretches of Iraqi territory that the U.S. arbitrarily decided Iraq couldn’t use.
What could be of such vital importance that the United States would risk shooting fiery arrows into this powder keg that is the Middle East? The only reasonable answer is oil and power. With Saddam Hussein gone, Bush can make sure that a new, U.S.-friendly fellow becomes the leader of Iraq. Which gives the U.S. access to lots of cheap Middle Eastern oil, and makes us less dependent upon oil from other, less-friendly countries like Saudi Arabia or Yemen. After seeing a U.S. assault on one of their neighbors, and knowing that the U.S. is no longer so dependent upon them for oil, they might start bending over backwards to make the U.S. happy. Which might aid the U.S. elite somewhat, but seems destined to increase levels of anti-American terrorism. Thanks, Mr. President.
Bush’s saber-rattling has all the subtlety of a Siegfried & Roy show, where he is attempting to whip up a patriotic, militaristic fervor and distract our attention from an economy that is going down the toilet, corporate crime at an all-time, and in the process, steal the November elections.
Even now news is breaking that makes this war seem ludicrous. Some dude in Washington DC has been sniping people to death. Suspected Al Qaeda members are attacking U.S. troops in Kuwait. Terrorists have blown up a club in Bali, Indonesia. And North Korea has admitted that they have The Bomb. In light of all this, how can any rational person think that overthrowing Saddam Hussein is the top U.S. priority?
We hear all about an Axis of Evil, which is primarily comprised of boogeymen in oil-rich corners of the globe. In the name of a war on terrorism, soon America’s might will rain destruction down upon Iraq to topple this dictator, and in the process certainly lay to waste thousands of civilians. Not only is this immoral, but it is also very disingenuous. Bush is sadly mistaken if he thinks that America will be safer from terrorism if we economically and militarily dominate countries in the Middle East. On the contrary, it is that perceived domination that has stoked the flames of anti-American resentment across the globe and made the prospect of terrorism that much more real. In the aftermath of 9-11, there was a genuine empathy among Americans towards their fellow man, the victims of the horrific tragedy. Those killed were just like us, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. What we need to do is take that genuine humanistic impulse and transcend our own borders. It is ! vitall y important that innocent civilians are protected here in the United States from acts of violence. It is equally important that innocent civilians’ lives are not taken in our name in far-flung corners of the world, while corporate puppeteers reach out for all that oil and gold.
Source : Axis of justice |
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