What I think of the United States government's current push for war with Iraq:
First off, we need to ask ourselves: "Why now?" Under the auspices of the U.N. we have been bombing Iraq for the last 11 years, and still nothing has changed there in terms of ousting Saddam Hussein. What has changed is there is once again a Bush in the oval office, along with many of the same actors from the Gulf War in 1991, such as Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. They have been waiting throughout the Clinton adminisration to have another crack at Hussein. It has been generally accepted that Bush Sr.'s administration was beaten by Hussein because he remained in power while Bush Sr. was voted out of office.
Then there is the issue of Bush the Younger's most glaring policy failure: tracking down Osama Bin Laden and those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Bush said that this was our country's highest priority, but he has failed to deliver on this. Suddenly no one is talking about that and everyone is focused on and talking about Saddam Hussein. How exactly did that happen?
And then there is the U.S. economy, which is sliding down the tubes. Bush the Younger came into office with a budget surplus and within two years our country is in the red. Rampant corporate corruption is coming to light and thousands of working people have lost their retirement savings, but none of that is really being addressed in a meaningful manner while Dan Rather is on the news every night talking about "The Showdown with Saddam".
So here we go again...another attempt by "Big Oil" to get their hands on Iraqi oil. In the last year alone the United States imported 69% of Iraq's total oil production; over a million barrels a day! Once the U.S. government has displaced Hussein they will be free to exploit all of their oil reserves, leaving the Iraqi population with a bombed out infrastructure, no natural resources, our country still not addressing its dependence on a finite supply of fossil fuels, and yet another generation of angry people bent on attacking the U.S.
So what do I think about that? I will not support a war that has as its major military objective stealing another country's resources. I will not support a war that is being used to distract people from important issues at home and abroad that need to be addressed, like the erosion of our civil liberties here in the U.S. and the suffering of the Iraqi people. This is not a just war, and this is not a war for survival. This is a war for oil. And in the end most of us regular people will not benefit from it and many people will be killed so that a few people can make some money and George W. can prove his Daddy wasn't a wimp after all.
Another reason an invasion of Iraw is a ridiculously lousy idea is the political reality that it conflict with. By going in with little or no support from our mostly Islamic theocracies/Secular dictatorship allies in the area, we're further destabilizing an already out-of-control region. Even if we march into Baghdad with few military or civilian casualties (yeah right, and monkeys will fly out of my butt), what will we do then? Will we do as great a "nation-rebuilding" job as we did with Afghanistan? Probably marginally better due to the immense oil and gas reserves in Iraq, but that's not saying too much. What about the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish minorities in the country...thanks to our long-time alliance with the secular semi-democracy Turkey and to the huge oil reserves in Northern Iraw, we will once again squash the Kurds' attempt to create their own state. Another anti-U.S. guerilla terrorist movement will begin, fought in part with U.S. supplied arms and supplies.
For the U.S. to charge forth unilaterally is for us to clearly state to the rest of the world that we are the imperial power of the 21st Century and fuck the world. We are doing the planet a disservice by reintroducing the precedents set by Imperial Rome, the Crusades, and Adolph Hitler into the world politics. "You don't like it, Mr. European Union? Bite me. I'm a gonna git dat Saddam guy and damn the consequences!
Mr. Russia and Mr. China are lodging diplomatic protests? So what? Our nukes are better than theirs and ours are actually under lock and key and not for sale to the highest bidder!"
Unfortunately for the short-sighted members of this U.S. Administration, willful flouting of international law and procedures means that the U.S. people will be paying for decades. The U.S. is the largest consumer state as well as one of the largest exporters in the world. Trade tariffs combined with international free trade agreements can and will be used to bring the U.S.'s economy to it's knees, especially combined with runaway military budgets for the foreseeable future. Self-defencse is the main justifiable act of war according to international law. There is no threat to the U.S. from Saddam Hussein at this point. Since he's a secular dictator who has crushed his country's Islamic fundamentalists into dust, Al Queda and the other Islamic fundamentalists hate him almost as much as they hate the U.S. and Israel. The occasional headline of "Osama and Saddam are in cahoots" has always panned out to be incorrect or unprovable. The final reason is a positive one. Look at the most realistic alternative solution: The United Nations sends in weapons inspectors who inspect everything possible for nasty weapons. They find some, destroy them, then they declare Iraq clean. Sanctions are then lifted, the secular-not-theocratic-dictatorship continues working with the outside world, and eventually the country evolves into a democracy through an internal coup, a U.N.-led occupation, whatever. A lot less civilian lives will be lost, depending on how long the generally inhumane sanctions are left in place, and the U.S. will not be lighting matches in the fireworks factory of the Middle East.
TAKE ME BACK TO WHERE I WAS BEFORE!
WOWIE SARA'S A COOL ONE! I WANT TO READ MORE OF HER THOUGHTS!