by Richard M. Berthold
Daily Lobo Columnist
War is a horrible affair, a fact that seems to escape many Americans.
Not surprisingly, the single senior official in the Bush administration who has actually been in conflict, Colin Powell, was the only one to resist our rush to war, though it appears that party loyalty has triumphed over principles.
Donald Rumsfeld has arrogantly referred to France and Germany as “old Europe” and out of touch; could it be that the horrors they and Russia suffered in WW II have made them hesitant about war? War means death and mostly the death of innocent people. We may not suffer much, but tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis will die, despite our sophisticated weaponry.
Oh, I forgot, they are just wogs, so it hardly matters. Murdered Israeli children get their biographies on television; dead Palestinian children are just collateral damage. Afghanis bombed accidentally get an apology and a check; do it to Canadian soldiers and the pilots are court-martialed.
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Yes, Saddam is a liar, is attempting to obtain nuclear weapons and may well have chemical weapons, but he is absolutely no immediate threat to the United States, as is, for example, North Korea. Connecting him to Islamic terrorism, which might justify action, is simply ludicrous. His secular regime is anathema to the religious fanatics, and he was number two on bin Laden’s hit list after the Saudi royal family. Bin Laden’s recent expression of solidarity with Iraqi people hardly changes that — he refers to the Iraqi government as “infidels” — and bin Laden knows full well that a U.S. attack on Iraq will bring him hundreds of new recruits.
Saddam supports terrorism, but it is Palestinian terrorism, a purely secular issue, and he has ruthlessly suppressed the fundamentalists in Iraq. Yes, he is a bloody dictator who violates human rights, but when did that ever matter to Washington? The dictator of Pakistan, our ally, could be placed in that category and Saddam was in fact our ally and Vice President Cheney’s buddy less than two decades ago.
He invaded Kuwait. Well, we fought a just war over that and one might point out that Israel has invaded four different countries and has occupied Palestine and bits of Syria and Lebanon for more than 30 years. If this was purely defensive, why has the Golan Heights been declared part of Israel and why are Israeli colonies being built in Palestine (the “so-called” occupied territories, according to Rumsfeld, who apparently attended the Adolf Hitler school of international law)? It seems to depend upon who your friends are.
Iraq has defied and ignored resolutions of the United Nations. This is certainly an odd charge, given the contempt in which the United States has held the United Nations all these years. Israel has defied and ignored just as many U.N. resolutions, and we do not seem at all bothered. The United States has in fact, on numerous occasions, vetoed otherwise unanimous Security Council resolutions to protect Israel. Remember all those General Assembly votes when it was America, Israel and apartheid South Africa against the rest of the world?
Oil? As much as I believe Bush & Company to be utterly devoted to business interests, it is difficult to see the sense in this. War is likely to destroy more Iraqi production capacity and lifting the sanctions (a weapon of mass destruction that is killing each month more Iraqi children than all the adults murdered on Sept. 11) would have been a far better way for the oil industry to make money. Perhaps it has something to do with getting exclusive hands on Iraqi oil; such was suggested by the government’s warning to the French that they would not share in the post-war Iraqi environment. Only those who toe the line get part of the spoils.
Domestic politics? Well, a nice foreign crisis is a certainly a traditional mechanism for distracting people from problems on the home front, and we surely have serious problems on the home front, which of course are only going to be exacerbated by this expensive war.
The prime drive of virtually every government in history has been to defend and expand its power, and this administration is doing that in spades, chipping away at our Constitution (take a close look at Patriot Act II and in Albuquerque ask Mark Rudd and his wife, who are now being hassled by the FBI) and expanding governmental authority, all in the name of national security. Hitler had to burn down the Reichstag; lucky George had fanatics flying airplanes into the World Trade Towers. And as the President reminded us, Saddam tried to kill his dad, certainly an excellent reason for America to kill thousands of Iraqis (“Hey, Pop, mine is bigger than yours”). I guess Castro has every reason to declare war on us.
Finally, could it have something to do with Israel, the only country in the world where a majority of people supports an immediate strike on Iraq? Could Arab hatred of the United States have just a little to do with our unqualified support for a state that ignores international law and any notion of human rights when it comes to Palestinians? All those dead women and children: I guess the Israeli Defense Force is just the sloppiest army in the world. But of course they’re just wogs and I’m just an anti-Semite and Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz are patriotic Americans, following their dream of turning America into Israel.
Our government is now reaching heights of arrogance and self-righteousness that would make a Roman blush. We are entirely blameless, the innocent victims of a world that will not recognize the superiority of our culture and the justness of our cause. We give no consideration to the problems of our allies and the trouble they might face by signing on with us. Three-quarters of the people of Europe, including those of Britain, Spain, Italy and the economically desperate eastern European countries, oppose this war. But why should the voice of the people elsewhere matter to the administration when it does not matter here either?
We have the gall to say the United Nations will become irrelevant if it does not do our bidding, when for 50 years we have tried everything to make the it irrelevant. We have refused to pay our share of dues and have jerked the institution around with our veto, all for compelling national interests like our objection to family planning and our need to cover for Israel.
We now accuse France, Belgium and Germany of ruining NATO, simply because for the first time some of our European allies have dared defy us. NATO was important in deterring the Soviet Union, but it is now little more than a mechanism of American influence in Europe. It is only right that we shoulder the major financial burden of NATO: it has consistently served American interests and heaven help those ingrates and effetes (“old Europe”) who disagree with us.
Waging a pointless war is bad enough, but we are about to do this precisely when there are other real problems: North Korea, where a true looney apparently already has nukes, Islamic terrorism (remember Afghanistan?) and our economy, which is tanking even without paying for this war. States and cities are desperate for funds for domestic security, but the money will go to this silly war. And is the Armageddon scenario the one occasion when Saddam, a crafty survivor and no fool, would actually use any weapons of mass destruction? It is almost as if we are trying to create more problems, more terrorists, more hatred of ourselves.
And are we not setting an incredibly dangerous precedent by ignoring international law and establishing a policy of preemptive strike? Think your neighbor might be a threat in the future? Well, bomb him now! How can we credibly tell India to back off when they decide Pakistan is a serious threat?
I love this country, its Constitution and our values and precisely for those reasons I am appalled by what my government is doing, bullying the world while undermining freedom at home. It is my flag that is being soiled, and my freedom and safety that is being compromised.
