October 06, 2003
Perplexing
You've seen them, right? The earnest ops-eds, popping up at the rate of about one per week, speaking in so-called opposition to the war in Iraq, urging the Bush Administration to "declare victory" and leave.
What the fuck?
First of all, this insipid argument couldn't possibly be more naive. If the Bush Administration leaves Iraq behind, it also leaves behind the "reconstruction" and "services" contracts awarded in Iraq to its cronies, it leaves behind the World's second-largest proven oil reserves, and it leaves behind its master plan to privatise every inch of Iraqi soil. Ain't gonna happen.
Secondly, what right have we to declare "victory"? Declare "victory" over what? Over Saddam's non-existent weapons stash that, if it had existed would have been dwarfed in size by the stashes of the "P-5" overlords of world morality? Over Saddam's non-existent links to al-Qaeda that, if they had existed, should somehow given us the right to blitz tens of thousands of innocent civilians' and conscripted teenaged soldiers' lives into "collateral" oblivion? Over Saddam's dictatorship that, at its height was lovingly supported and nurtured by current Bush Administration higher-ups, and that in its latest stages was a shadow of its former self -- and in any case was virtually indisinguishable from a long line of similarly lovingly supported and nurtured tyrannies on ever continent?
Followed by which, we'd then be free to watch without regret at Iraq's inevitable descent into the chaos and misery now holding forth at the scene of the Bush Administration's first battle of the Great Crusade?
Fuck that. We need to declare ourselves guilty of the war crimes we have committed, pay reparations to the victims, promise not to do it again, and lock up the perpetrators.
Yeah, yeah. That, in the current political climate, ain't gonna happen either. Which is why it's the responsibility of opponents of the war to create a political climate in which it will happen.
Foregoing honesty, integrity, and responsibility in the quest to practice "I-told-you-so" one-upsmanship and the desire "wash our hands" of the affair and just "get back to normal" is no way to go about attaining justice.
Posted by Eddie Tews at October 6, 2003 08:06 PM
Comments
Right on Eddie. They aren't leaving until either we force them or they have finally looted the country of its oil.
Also, electing a Democrat won't end the occupation either. That's my biggest fear when it comes to electing a Democrat into the White House. People become less active, like they did during Clinton time. We saw what electing Kennedy and Johnson did to end the invasion and occuapation of South Vietnam. -Rick -- Posted by: Rick on October 6, 2003 10:36 PM