Stephen Zunes, chairman of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, said Sunday that the U.S. government's inconsistent, hypocritical actions in Iraq are "ironic, unmotivated attempts at war."
"Our foreign policy is clearly not working," Zunes said. "All of our technology and wars will do little good to protect us when there are still millions of people who hate us."
In his lecture, "Iraq, Palestine and Israel: How The U.S. Can Build Peace and Security in the Middle East," at the First Unitarian Church on 3701 Carlisle Blvd. NE, Zunes said that Sept. 11 should have been a wake up call for Americans that people around the world were taking notice of the foreign policies, which have "served to negate the very ideals it has promised to uphold."
He added that journalists, such as Daniel Pearl, covering the events "chicken hawks" for president Bush's self-serving agenda.
Zunes also said that the mass media in the United States have tried to take advantage of Americans' fear and sense of patriotism after Sept. 11. He cited the insistent portrayal of a group of Palestinian civilians celebrating after the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
"They were experiencing a perverse sense of satisfaction in that for the first time Americans knew what it felt like to lose large numbers of life at the hands of their own policies," Zunes said.
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Zunes said the root of the dangerous list of situations America is finding itself in is the government embracment of an insane, self-perception of its role in the world.
"The U.S. government is attempting to become an empire," Zunes said. "It condones the fact that it is the highest military spender in the world, spending 10 times more than the next country, yet it thinks no other country has the right to arm itself."
He said that if every country acted like the United States, invading sovereign countries and overthrowing its governments in favor of ones more to their liking, anarchy would soon prevail.
Zunes said that the situation in Iraq it is yet another example of the U.S. government putting a new twist on things to continue its attempts at war whenever there is a chance for peace. He noted the consistent air strikes by U.S. coalition planes in northern Iraq as just one of the many ironies of the country's involvement in the region.
"I want everyone to know that a war on Iraq would be illegal," Zunes said. "There is no agreed upon no-fly zone in Iraq. So they are justified in firing on our planes, as we are invading their country illegally every day that our planes patrol the area."
Zunes balked at reports claiming that Iraq's chemical arsenal has the potential to kill millions of Americans. He said it is a matter of delivery systems, which he believes Iraq lacks.
"It is like saying that a man has the possibility of impregnating millions of women, it's all about the consistency of the delivery systems," Zunes said.
He went on to say that despite American fears about a chemical or biological attack within the United States, a preemptive strike on Iraq would be the only realistic possibility of such a scenario.
"The threat from Iraq is grossly exaggerated," Zunes said. "Although, I do agree that there is a need for a regime change there."
Zunes said that the unbalanced, violent government that controls Iraq now is a direct result of the Persian Gulf War, which he said devastated the social infrastructure of the country, leaving it open for such a problem.
He added that most hypocritical facet of President Bush's current agenda toward Iraq, Palestine and several other Middle East countries is that he is negating every thing he claimed to stand for when campaigning for the presidency.
"Bush spent many hours arguing that the United States must learn more humility and must not overreach it bounds in the world," Zunes said. "His actions since then tell a very different story."
Zunes said that he believes the United States is in a crisis, where danger as well as opportunity exists. He said that the danger is that we will overreach our boundaries, making more enemies than we can compensate for.
However, he added, opportunity also exists to build alliances within the country's population that can be instrumental in avoiding a war in Iraq.
"The U.S. military knows from Vietnam that it is not a good idea to go to war against the majority of the population," Zunes said. "If we band together, we can ensure our safety and the future for our children."
Zunes is a senior policy analyst and Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy in Focus Project and a research associate at the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at the University of California.
Sponsors of the event included the Arab/Jewish Peace Alliance, Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, New Mexico Solidarity Newtork and Peace Action New Mexico.
