January 12, 2003
Yet Another Unpublished Letter
This one to The Stranger.
Hi, Three beefs regarding Sandeep Kaushik's fine piece regarding the looming Iraq war.
Firstly, while it would indeed be a cold day in Hell before the Bush Administration took to fostering democracy overseas (or at home, for that matter), that would still not justify the war, either legally or morally. Or, if it would, then, it would be justified for any country with the ability to do so (there's the rub: the United States appears to be the only country in the world which spends more on the military than the rest of the world combined) to militarily destroy (then, uh, "rebuild" in its own image) any country in possession of weapons of mass destruction. (Even if we were to restrict the licence to only non-white countries, on the principle that the west insists on "reserving the right to bomb niggers", that would still leave much of the world's population ripe for the picking any time some power-drunk cowboy felt the itch.)
Second, the anti-war movement is indeed suffusing the mainstream population. (Much of it emanating from faith-based organisations throughout the country, as was the case with the Central American solidarity movement of the Reagan years.) Hell, it's even breaking into the mainstream media, which is no small feat. 200,000 in DC, 100,000 in San Francisco, 400,000 in London, Reps' offices being inundated with calls and faxes, polls showing a consistently growing unpopularity over the seemingly inevitable war. The movement is real, and much more organised and visible than, for example, it was eight weeks prior to the first Gulf War. You're right, though: it probably won't be enough to make a difference.
The left doesn't want to "err on the side of more dead Americans." It's quite apparent that Bush Administration foreign policy is increasing the likelihood of future terrorist attacks (as is openly acknowledged by the State Department, and as bin Laden has repeatedly warned since well before September 11th), no matter how many dead Muslims W. is able to ring up.
Anyway, more reporting like this, please!
Posted by Eddie Tews at January 12, 2003 02:48 PM
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