Editor,
Recent articles indicate that to be considered patriotic, one must be supportive of all decisions made by the current administration and our politicians.
Now some are using our military's accomplishments in Iraq to say that "Bush the elder is a doormat no more." If the elder Bush was a doormat after his run, he will forever be a doormat. They can cover it up with the younger Bush's unjustified Iraqi accomplishment, but history cannot be changed.
Anyway, L'il Bush has little to be proud of so far. By usurping the United Nation's authority and unilaterally invading Iraq, he set this country's statesmanship back to the Neanderthal age. We are the major super-power in the world today and yet we chose to operate from a very insecure position. Being a super-power carries great responsibilities, which require that we lead by example in all phases of government. His behavior and attitude merely serve to reflect his immaturity and insecurity. I predict that history will not be kind to him.
Bush's last justification to invade Iraq was the liberation of oppressed people. If he was sincere, why didn't he start with Central Africa - the worst hellhole on earth where conditions are worse than in Iraq - the ethnic cleansing of 800,000 people in Rwanda by Hatu extremists; the 12,000 children serving as soldiers in the Congo since 1996; and the indiscriminate raping of village people in the Congo, Malawi, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe by the soldiers of whom about 50 percent are HIV-positive. The reason - there is no money to be made in stabilizing Africa.
While Saddam is evil, one has to ask who created this monster. The answer: in late 1970s and early 1980s the United States, France, Germany and Italy transformed this two-bit dictator into a world-class threat by providing him chemical weapons, ballistic missiles and the makings for a nuclear bomb.
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Europe helped develop Iraq's pesticide plants, nuclear reactors and supplied the uranium; then Vice President Bush denounced Israel's air strikes on the reactors; the United States removed Iraq from terrorist list after terrorist Abu Abbas was evicted, but wasn't placed back when Abu Abbas returned three years later.
In early 1984, Saddam used mustard gas against Iranian troops; late 1984 Reagan restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq; in 1985, 70 major American companies joined the newly-formed U.S.-Iraq Business Forum; in 1988, Saddam killed about 5,000 Kurdish people with poison gas; senators demanded sanctions, but Reagan squashed measure; Export-Import Bank insured Iraqi purchases of American pesticides; EIB loans increased from $35 million in 1985 to $267M by 1990; and Congress voted to end Iraq access to EIB funds, but Bush, Sr., waived the ban citing "national interest."
In truth, we chose to close our moral eyes so corporate America could make money and because Saddam was a useful tool against our then-problem-child the Ayatollah of Iran. In view of the preceding, it stands to reason that if the creation is deemed to be evil, then the creator is equally evil if not more!
I guess it's true that politicians and diapers are alike - both serve the same purpose and both need to be changed frequently.
Nahum B. Castillo
Daily Lobo reader
