7.30.2004
I've Got Your Back John Kerry!
Posted to http://blog.johnkerry.com/ John Kerry's Blog
I am a 6 year veteran of the U.S. Navy who served proudly from 1988 to 1994, including service in Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Nothing made me feel prouder to support John Kerry than his introduction by Max and his inclusion of the men who served with him in
My family was very much like John Kerry's family in that someone in every generation has answered the call of duty to country. Counting both sides of my family, I can find an ancestor who served going all the way back to the French and Indian War.
I fear for my country right now more than ever. We are living in difficult times. I do not believe our country can withstand another four years of corporate dominance and whimsical warfare. Gunboat diplomacy is not the way to build world unity, it is the way to build global division, and it plays right into the hands of our enemies. We cannot afford to alienate our allies and further antagonize our enemies.
We have lost touch with the spirit that helped forge our nation. We no longer remember the sweat, the back breaking work, and the sacrifice our forefathers endured so that we could live free. We must return to the value of hard work, ingenuity, and achievement that made us the greatest economic force this world has ever known. We cannot do this if we keep allowing corporations to move to places where the labor and taxes are cheaper.
We can win this one, but we have to stand together to do it. We must put down the issues that divide us and concentrate instead on the issues that unite us. As far as I'm concerned, I've got your back John Kerry! Let's go get 'em!
TANSTAAFL!
© 2004, J.S.Brown0 comments
0 Comments:
7.04.2004
Fallout: Fahrenheit 9/11 Part 2
For those of you who have not seen this movie- there are “spoilers” in this work.
I have seen this movie now. Perhaps it is because of preconceived notions I tried to keep from being a factor that I find myself agreeing with much of it. It did not have the level of sensationalism that some of Moore’s previous works had. It laid out a pretty convincing paper trail to tie the Bush family to the Saudis and, specifically, to the Bin Laden family.
We start out with the 2000 Presidential Election: a celebration of Al Gore’s victory in Florida. Then we all remember how Florida somehow went from blue, to red as if by “magic.” Then Moore has us consider the fact that the Governor of Florida is Jeb Bush, and that the Secretary of State for Florida was a member of the Bush campaign, who hired an independent company to strike names from the roles of registered voters, many of whom were stricken because they were likely to not vote for George W. Bush. George W. Bush was highly confident that he would win Florida, even when all the analysts and projections placed it clearly in the “blue.”
We see a joint session of Congress, presided by then Vice-President Gore. In order to question the results of the Florida elections, a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the Senate must put in writing, and sign, a request for inquiry. As many as 10 members of the House of Representatives did make such a written request. . .but they could not get one Senator to sign them. Not one single Senator would ask for the kind of investigation that might have uncovered the truth.
Michael Moore discusses George W. Bush’s records from the Texas Air National Guard. The ones he released to the public in 2002 had a name blotted out with black marker. Moore had already obtained an unblotted copy of this record prior to its release, and he revealed this name: the other person besides George W. Bush to be suspended for failure to take his annual flight physical. This person would be influential in Bush’s future as a businessman and as a political leader.
The man was an attorney representing a wealthy Saudi family that wished to invest in American oil interests. It did not seem to matter that this family comes from perhaps the largest oil producing country in the world. Perhaps they wished to diversify. Once such company the Saudis invested in was a small oil drilling outfit run by George W. Bush. This company had a reputation for drilling a lot of dry holes. No surprising that Dubya ran the company into the ground. No evidence exists to support that Bush Jr. got any money from his father to start this company. The only source of money that was found was from a series of small investors, and one big Saudi company known as The Bin Laden Family Group.
Just after this failure. Bush Sr. was elected President. Bush Jr. was offered a seat on the board of directors for a large group of investors in Texas, who mysteriously got involved in a number of Saudi investments just afterwards. Conjecture indicates that adding the President’s son to the BOD was a strategic move that allowed these investments to occur.
After his four-year stint in the White House, Bush Sr. became a member of the Carlyle Group, another prestigious investment group with strong ties to Middle Eastern oil. Bush Sr. made many trips to Saudi Arabia as a representative of this firm. Among the people he met with regularly were members of the Bin Laden family. Bush Jr. would join his father in the Carlyle group for a time, before leaving to run for governor of Texas.
While Bush Jr. was governor of Texas, a group of Arabs from Afghanistan came to Houston to meet with a company called Unical 76. These men were members of The Taliban. Discussions were held to build a natural gas pipeline that would run through Afghanistan. Bush Jr. played a part in facilitating these talks. Contracts were arranged and signed, but the work was stalled by a number of complications. Ironically, since the United States sent troops to Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power, the new President of Afghanistan is one of the former liaisons between Unical 76 and the Taliban. Guess what they’re building in the Afghan desert?
Bush is appointed to the Presidency of the United States. For the first eight months of his term, he spends 42% of his time on vacation. A security report is delivered to Bush on his Crawford Texas ranch that indicated Al-Qaeda may try to hijack planes in the United States. The FBI and the CIA had information that cells of the terror network were in the U.S. and they were attending flight schools. Whether Bush ever read this report or not doesn’t seem to matter much.
On September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush was at an elementary school in Florida listening to students read from My Pet Goat. The President was informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. He continued to participate with the students. He was informed of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, and that the United States was under attack. He continued to participate with the students for another 7 minutes. Perhaps he was waiting to get more information. Perhaps he was waiting for his advisors to tell him what to do. Perhaps he was waiting for the Secret Service to jump in and extract him. Perhaps he just wasn’t surprised at all.
The first thing that was done was to authorize 142 Saudi Arabians to fly out of the country “for their own protection.” Among them were members of the Bin Laden family. Nearly 3,000 Americans were dead. American travelers were stranded all over the country because their planes were grounded. Foreigners and Americans were detained for months without being charged for a crime, having access to a lawyer, or a speedy trial. Despite all this, 142 Saudi Arabians get to fly out of the country just two days after the worst attack on American soil ever? This was a criminal investigation. In criminal investigations, one of the first things police do is question friends and family of the victim(s) and suspect(s).
Within months of the attack, the U.S.A. Patriot Act sails through Congress without a whimper. It is then we learn that the majority of the members of the House and Senate do not read these laws. They don’t have time. Perhaps they have legal assistants that highlight and summarize them. The U.S.A. Patriot Act gives the FBI and other agencies broad powers to spy on anyone they suspect of being a terrorist, or being affiliated with terrorist acts. The definition of “terrorist” is deliberately vague. Several provisions of this law have already been struck down as unconstitutional.
I remember when John Ashcroft came through Las Vegas stumping for U.S.A Patriot Act II. He invited only members of law enforcement. He did not allow the press to cover the event. He did not want to debate the issue with concerned citizens who want to know how this will make them safer, why? Because he doesn’t care about what the people think, or are concerned with. He wants to increase his agency’s ability to defy the U.S. Constitution and legally spy on anyone he wants to. Let us not forget that John Ashcroft is a man who ran for Senate from the State of Missouri, and lost to a dead man, only to be appointed to the top law enforcement position in our nation.
The pieces of this puzzle continue to fit into place. Bush’s own terrorism experts are pressured to “find” Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Bush begins to play up the fact that Saddam Hussein has continually defied U.N. resolutions to disarm, despite the fact that he himself, and Secretary of State Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleza Rice had all indicated that Iraq did NOT have WMD’s the year before.
Despite the lack of U.N. Support for an invasion of Iraq, Bush sent troops there anyway. No WMD’s have been found to date. What has been found is a lack of sanitation, a lack of fresh water, a lack of consistent electricity, and a populace that is as terrified with American occupation as they seemed to be when Saddam ruled there. The numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq is scary, but we didn’t hear about that. We heard: “Mission Accomplished.” Moore shows American soldiers prior to going into combat. Many of them were boys barely old enough to shave. They were excited, they were ready. They were more than willing to do their jobs. After they had seen true combat, they were men and the look in their eyes changed from one of eagerness, to one of true horror.
The most melodramatic moment in the movie came at the expense of a woman whose son was killed in Iraq. Before this, she never questioned the leadership of this country. She supported the troops. She supported George W. Bush. Then she got his letters, and her son was questioning why he was there. They weren’t liberators, they were conquerors. The majority of Iraqis do not want the Americans there. They inflicted just as much suffering, horror, and sadness upon the Iraqi people as Saddam did. But we never found this out. The news media played up the success of the invasion. They played up the celebrations of the Iraqi people freed from under the boot of Saddam. In a final demonstration of just how “spun” the whole thing is, the leadership of this country did not allow the showing of the flag draped coffins coming back from Iraq.
There was a portion of the movie devoted to Moore asking members of the House and Senate if they would like to enlist their sons and daughters in the military so they could help out in Iraq, as it turns out that only one member of Congress has a son in the military who is in Iraq. Moore couldn’t find any Senators or Congressmen who seemed eager to enlist their children, but these same people don’t seem to have any problem sending the sons and daughters of poor and underprivileged families to fight and die.
The “icing” on this cake was a convention hosted by the U.S. Government to encourage corporate investments in rebuilding Iraq. There was a lot of talk about “...once the oil starts flowing again, there will be plenty of money to be made.” It also seems ironic that we are seeing one of the highest gas prices in history, as if the members of OPEC know that as soon as Iraqi oil starts to flow freely once more, they are going to start losing market share.
For those of you who still believe George W. Bush has the best interests of this nation in mind, I don’t think anything is going to change your minds. I think your blind loyalty to a man whose sole interest is power and profits have been sadly misled; but I also believe you are willing to go down with the ship rather than admit you might be wrong. I believe that it would be too painful to break ranks with a political party that has done nothing but dupe you. Ignorance is bliss, and we shouldn’t question our leaders, we should trust them, isn’t that right?
For those of you who are ready to wake up and recognize that our nation has been taken advantage of, that our people have been horribly fooled, that our leadership is not interested in the welfare of the people, but in the welfare of their own bank accounts, then you will find something to cheer about. I went to a 4:40 PM showing of this movie. It was a packed house, and the people who were there applauded at the end. Maybe there is hope for us yet.
© 2004, J.S.Brown
0 comments
I have seen this movie now. Perhaps it is because of preconceived notions I tried to keep from being a factor that I find myself agreeing with much of it. It did not have the level of sensationalism that some of Moore’s previous works had. It laid out a pretty convincing paper trail to tie the Bush family to the Saudis and, specifically, to the Bin Laden family.
We start out with the 2000 Presidential Election: a celebration of Al Gore’s victory in Florida. Then we all remember how Florida somehow went from blue, to red as if by “magic.” Then Moore has us consider the fact that the Governor of Florida is Jeb Bush, and that the Secretary of State for Florida was a member of the Bush campaign, who hired an independent company to strike names from the roles of registered voters, many of whom were stricken because they were likely to not vote for George W. Bush. George W. Bush was highly confident that he would win Florida, even when all the analysts and projections placed it clearly in the “blue.”
We see a joint session of Congress, presided by then Vice-President Gore. In order to question the results of the Florida elections, a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the Senate must put in writing, and sign, a request for inquiry. As many as 10 members of the House of Representatives did make such a written request. . .but they could not get one Senator to sign them. Not one single Senator would ask for the kind of investigation that might have uncovered the truth.
Michael Moore discusses George W. Bush’s records from the Texas Air National Guard. The ones he released to the public in 2002 had a name blotted out with black marker. Moore had already obtained an unblotted copy of this record prior to its release, and he revealed this name: the other person besides George W. Bush to be suspended for failure to take his annual flight physical. This person would be influential in Bush’s future as a businessman and as a political leader.
The man was an attorney representing a wealthy Saudi family that wished to invest in American oil interests. It did not seem to matter that this family comes from perhaps the largest oil producing country in the world. Perhaps they wished to diversify. Once such company the Saudis invested in was a small oil drilling outfit run by George W. Bush. This company had a reputation for drilling a lot of dry holes. No surprising that Dubya ran the company into the ground. No evidence exists to support that Bush Jr. got any money from his father to start this company. The only source of money that was found was from a series of small investors, and one big Saudi company known as The Bin Laden Family Group.
Just after this failure. Bush Sr. was elected President. Bush Jr. was offered a seat on the board of directors for a large group of investors in Texas, who mysteriously got involved in a number of Saudi investments just afterwards. Conjecture indicates that adding the President’s son to the BOD was a strategic move that allowed these investments to occur.
After his four-year stint in the White House, Bush Sr. became a member of the Carlyle Group, another prestigious investment group with strong ties to Middle Eastern oil. Bush Sr. made many trips to Saudi Arabia as a representative of this firm. Among the people he met with regularly were members of the Bin Laden family. Bush Jr. would join his father in the Carlyle group for a time, before leaving to run for governor of Texas.
While Bush Jr. was governor of Texas, a group of Arabs from Afghanistan came to Houston to meet with a company called Unical 76. These men were members of The Taliban. Discussions were held to build a natural gas pipeline that would run through Afghanistan. Bush Jr. played a part in facilitating these talks. Contracts were arranged and signed, but the work was stalled by a number of complications. Ironically, since the United States sent troops to Afghanistan and removed the Taliban from power, the new President of Afghanistan is one of the former liaisons between Unical 76 and the Taliban. Guess what they’re building in the Afghan desert?
Bush is appointed to the Presidency of the United States. For the first eight months of his term, he spends 42% of his time on vacation. A security report is delivered to Bush on his Crawford Texas ranch that indicated Al-Qaeda may try to hijack planes in the United States. The FBI and the CIA had information that cells of the terror network were in the U.S. and they were attending flight schools. Whether Bush ever read this report or not doesn’t seem to matter much.
On September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush was at an elementary school in Florida listening to students read from My Pet Goat. The President was informed of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. He continued to participate with the students. He was informed of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, and that the United States was under attack. He continued to participate with the students for another 7 minutes. Perhaps he was waiting to get more information. Perhaps he was waiting for his advisors to tell him what to do. Perhaps he was waiting for the Secret Service to jump in and extract him. Perhaps he just wasn’t surprised at all.
The first thing that was done was to authorize 142 Saudi Arabians to fly out of the country “for their own protection.” Among them were members of the Bin Laden family. Nearly 3,000 Americans were dead. American travelers were stranded all over the country because their planes were grounded. Foreigners and Americans were detained for months without being charged for a crime, having access to a lawyer, or a speedy trial. Despite all this, 142 Saudi Arabians get to fly out of the country just two days after the worst attack on American soil ever? This was a criminal investigation. In criminal investigations, one of the first things police do is question friends and family of the victim(s) and suspect(s).
Within months of the attack, the U.S.A. Patriot Act sails through Congress without a whimper. It is then we learn that the majority of the members of the House and Senate do not read these laws. They don’t have time. Perhaps they have legal assistants that highlight and summarize them. The U.S.A. Patriot Act gives the FBI and other agencies broad powers to spy on anyone they suspect of being a terrorist, or being affiliated with terrorist acts. The definition of “terrorist” is deliberately vague. Several provisions of this law have already been struck down as unconstitutional.
I remember when John Ashcroft came through Las Vegas stumping for U.S.A Patriot Act II. He invited only members of law enforcement. He did not allow the press to cover the event. He did not want to debate the issue with concerned citizens who want to know how this will make them safer, why? Because he doesn’t care about what the people think, or are concerned with. He wants to increase his agency’s ability to defy the U.S. Constitution and legally spy on anyone he wants to. Let us not forget that John Ashcroft is a man who ran for Senate from the State of Missouri, and lost to a dead man, only to be appointed to the top law enforcement position in our nation.
The pieces of this puzzle continue to fit into place. Bush’s own terrorism experts are pressured to “find” Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Bush begins to play up the fact that Saddam Hussein has continually defied U.N. resolutions to disarm, despite the fact that he himself, and Secretary of State Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleza Rice had all indicated that Iraq did NOT have WMD’s the year before.
Despite the lack of U.N. Support for an invasion of Iraq, Bush sent troops there anyway. No WMD’s have been found to date. What has been found is a lack of sanitation, a lack of fresh water, a lack of consistent electricity, and a populace that is as terrified with American occupation as they seemed to be when Saddam ruled there. The numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq is scary, but we didn’t hear about that. We heard: “Mission Accomplished.” Moore shows American soldiers prior to going into combat. Many of them were boys barely old enough to shave. They were excited, they were ready. They were more than willing to do their jobs. After they had seen true combat, they were men and the look in their eyes changed from one of eagerness, to one of true horror.
The most melodramatic moment in the movie came at the expense of a woman whose son was killed in Iraq. Before this, she never questioned the leadership of this country. She supported the troops. She supported George W. Bush. Then she got his letters, and her son was questioning why he was there. They weren’t liberators, they were conquerors. The majority of Iraqis do not want the Americans there. They inflicted just as much suffering, horror, and sadness upon the Iraqi people as Saddam did. But we never found this out. The news media played up the success of the invasion. They played up the celebrations of the Iraqi people freed from under the boot of Saddam. In a final demonstration of just how “spun” the whole thing is, the leadership of this country did not allow the showing of the flag draped coffins coming back from Iraq.
There was a portion of the movie devoted to Moore asking members of the House and Senate if they would like to enlist their sons and daughters in the military so they could help out in Iraq, as it turns out that only one member of Congress has a son in the military who is in Iraq. Moore couldn’t find any Senators or Congressmen who seemed eager to enlist their children, but these same people don’t seem to have any problem sending the sons and daughters of poor and underprivileged families to fight and die.
The “icing” on this cake was a convention hosted by the U.S. Government to encourage corporate investments in rebuilding Iraq. There was a lot of talk about “...once the oil starts flowing again, there will be plenty of money to be made.” It also seems ironic that we are seeing one of the highest gas prices in history, as if the members of OPEC know that as soon as Iraqi oil starts to flow freely once more, they are going to start losing market share.
For those of you who still believe George W. Bush has the best interests of this nation in mind, I don’t think anything is going to change your minds. I think your blind loyalty to a man whose sole interest is power and profits have been sadly misled; but I also believe you are willing to go down with the ship rather than admit you might be wrong. I believe that it would be too painful to break ranks with a political party that has done nothing but dupe you. Ignorance is bliss, and we shouldn’t question our leaders, we should trust them, isn’t that right?
For those of you who are ready to wake up and recognize that our nation has been taken advantage of, that our people have been horribly fooled, that our leadership is not interested in the welfare of the people, but in the welfare of their own bank accounts, then you will find something to cheer about. I went to a 4:40 PM showing of this movie. It was a packed house, and the people who were there applauded at the end. Maybe there is hope for us yet.
TANSTAAFL!
© 2004, J.S.Brown
0 comments
0 Comments:
7.02.2004
Fallout: Fahrenheit 9/11 Part 1
Pre-Fahrenheit 9/11
I am going to see this movie with an open mind. I am attempting to hold my preconceived notions concerning Michael Moore at bay. There is no doubt that he has a tendency towards melodramatics, sensationalism, and hyperbole whenever it suits his purpose. Despite this, Michael Moore has managed to provide us with something we most desperately need: an alternate perspective to the ones we are getting from the corporate-sponsored news media and our own government. If his works do nothing more than get us to think for ourselves, speak out, and act according to our consciences, then they will have served a greater purpose. I have my own ideas concerning the “War on Terror,” and our invasion of Iraq. I have supported our troops for carrying out their orders to the best of their ability, but I seriously question the justifications our leadership used to order them there.
Michael Moore makes at least one good point: Change cannot be enforced at the point of a gun. A revolution must come from within, by the will of the people. If their own people are not willing to give their blood, sweat, and tears to tear down tyranny and oppression and build up their own government with their own hands, no country on earth is going to do it for them. Successful nations have been forged only when the people rise up and speak with one voice. Every time a country has tried to force revolution upon another country, it has failed miserably. What would I have done in George W. Bush's place? I would have incited the people of Iraq to organize and overthrow Saddam themselves. Then they would have real ownership in building a new democratic Iraq. What they have is the facade of "propped up” officials mouthing their words from Washington. If some of Moore's commentary is over the top, then at least on this point, he rings true.
What we doubt, and what we must carefully consider, is the conditions under which we went into Iraq. We were told by our leadership that Iraq posed a "...Imminent threat to the United States." We were given the impression that Saddam Hussein was in league with Al-Qaeda. We were told that Iraq had the means, and was actively seeking to expand upon those means, to unleash Weapons of Mass Destruction against the U.S. and its neighbors. We were told that the policy of containment and inspections was not working, and many people questioned our very membership in the UN: an organization chartered to help find diplomatic and peaceful alternatives to war. We know all too well how to destroy. We know all too well how to take lives. We have yet to learn how to stop others from destroying and taking lives without responding in kind. Our leadership "pooh-poohed" the majority of its allies and the UN and is now offended that these allies will not join in a unified front to rebuild Iraq?
The United States invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq under false pretenses. We cannot pull out now. George W. Bush and his cronies have made certain of that. Regardless of our stated intentions or justifications, we have no right to go around the world invading other countries just because we don't like them. Might does not make right. We spend trillions of dollars a year in other countries and ignore our own schoolchildren, homeless, and poor.
The greatest fallacy that has been overlooked and suppressed by the Pro-Bush folks is that there are no innocents in war. There are always civilian casualties who get caught in the crossfire. There are always senseless deaths and barbaric slaughter involved no matter how noble or moral the cause might be. At its core, war is an evil and dirty business in which people intentionally set upon killing other people they don't even know, often for reasons they cannot begin to fathom. At what cost have we invaded Iraq? How are they better than they were under Saddam? We detain, humiliate, and torture their people. Their basic services, such as electricity, water, and sewage, are sporadic at best. Their country is filled with insurgents and terrorists looking to cause further disruptions and chaos. We beat on the hornets nest, and now we're going to have to deal with getting stung.
Saddam was a two-bit thug with delusions of grandeur. The United States under Reagan supported Saddam in his war with Iran. We gave him weapons. We gave him money. We helped him build up his power base. Our government has been the willing accomplice to much of Saddam's atrocities.
Our nation's foreign policy in the latter 20th Century is rife with examples of "moral relativism," we have supported terrorists, thugs, dictators, gangsters, and drug runners on the justification that we were "...Fighting the commies." We took the position of: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," and turned a blind eye to the horrors these people committed. Osama Bin Laden received weapons, funds, and training from the CIA. The Shah of Iran brutally ruled over his people, yet when they revolted and threw him out, the United States and Great Britain aided in reinstalling him. While his people suffered the anguish of war, the King of Kuwait was living it up in a posh hotel in Saudi Arabia. We have consistently armed and funded Israel despite the fact that they have become no better than the thugs who tried to exterminate them in WWII. This is just one region of the world. I haven't mentioned our dirty dealings in Europe, Central America, South America, Africa, or Asia. The U.S. has a history of meddling in places it ought not to be for reasons that are dubious at best.
I love my country, but I am ashamed of what our leadership has done in its name. We need to take care of our own house before we go telling the rest of the world how to mind theirs.
I will of course follow this up with a Post-Fahrenheit 9/11 article.
© 2004, J.S.Brown
0 comments
I am going to see this movie with an open mind. I am attempting to hold my preconceived notions concerning Michael Moore at bay. There is no doubt that he has a tendency towards melodramatics, sensationalism, and hyperbole whenever it suits his purpose. Despite this, Michael Moore has managed to provide us with something we most desperately need: an alternate perspective to the ones we are getting from the corporate-sponsored news media and our own government. If his works do nothing more than get us to think for ourselves, speak out, and act according to our consciences, then they will have served a greater purpose. I have my own ideas concerning the “War on Terror,” and our invasion of Iraq. I have supported our troops for carrying out their orders to the best of their ability, but I seriously question the justifications our leadership used to order them there.
Michael Moore makes at least one good point: Change cannot be enforced at the point of a gun. A revolution must come from within, by the will of the people. If their own people are not willing to give their blood, sweat, and tears to tear down tyranny and oppression and build up their own government with their own hands, no country on earth is going to do it for them. Successful nations have been forged only when the people rise up and speak with one voice. Every time a country has tried to force revolution upon another country, it has failed miserably. What would I have done in George W. Bush's place? I would have incited the people of Iraq to organize and overthrow Saddam themselves. Then they would have real ownership in building a new democratic Iraq. What they have is the facade of "propped up” officials mouthing their words from Washington. If some of Moore's commentary is over the top, then at least on this point, he rings true.
What we doubt, and what we must carefully consider, is the conditions under which we went into Iraq. We were told by our leadership that Iraq posed a "...Imminent threat to the United States." We were given the impression that Saddam Hussein was in league with Al-Qaeda. We were told that Iraq had the means, and was actively seeking to expand upon those means, to unleash Weapons of Mass Destruction against the U.S. and its neighbors. We were told that the policy of containment and inspections was not working, and many people questioned our very membership in the UN: an organization chartered to help find diplomatic and peaceful alternatives to war. We know all too well how to destroy. We know all too well how to take lives. We have yet to learn how to stop others from destroying and taking lives without responding in kind. Our leadership "pooh-poohed" the majority of its allies and the UN and is now offended that these allies will not join in a unified front to rebuild Iraq?
The United States invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq under false pretenses. We cannot pull out now. George W. Bush and his cronies have made certain of that. Regardless of our stated intentions or justifications, we have no right to go around the world invading other countries just because we don't like them. Might does not make right. We spend trillions of dollars a year in other countries and ignore our own schoolchildren, homeless, and poor.
The greatest fallacy that has been overlooked and suppressed by the Pro-Bush folks is that there are no innocents in war. There are always civilian casualties who get caught in the crossfire. There are always senseless deaths and barbaric slaughter involved no matter how noble or moral the cause might be. At its core, war is an evil and dirty business in which people intentionally set upon killing other people they don't even know, often for reasons they cannot begin to fathom. At what cost have we invaded Iraq? How are they better than they were under Saddam? We detain, humiliate, and torture their people. Their basic services, such as electricity, water, and sewage, are sporadic at best. Their country is filled with insurgents and terrorists looking to cause further disruptions and chaos. We beat on the hornets nest, and now we're going to have to deal with getting stung.
Saddam was a two-bit thug with delusions of grandeur. The United States under Reagan supported Saddam in his war with Iran. We gave him weapons. We gave him money. We helped him build up his power base. Our government has been the willing accomplice to much of Saddam's atrocities.
Our nation's foreign policy in the latter 20th Century is rife with examples of "moral relativism," we have supported terrorists, thugs, dictators, gangsters, and drug runners on the justification that we were "...Fighting the commies." We took the position of: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," and turned a blind eye to the horrors these people committed. Osama Bin Laden received weapons, funds, and training from the CIA. The Shah of Iran brutally ruled over his people, yet when they revolted and threw him out, the United States and Great Britain aided in reinstalling him. While his people suffered the anguish of war, the King of Kuwait was living it up in a posh hotel in Saudi Arabia. We have consistently armed and funded Israel despite the fact that they have become no better than the thugs who tried to exterminate them in WWII. This is just one region of the world. I haven't mentioned our dirty dealings in Europe, Central America, South America, Africa, or Asia. The U.S. has a history of meddling in places it ought not to be for reasons that are dubious at best.
I love my country, but I am ashamed of what our leadership has done in its name. We need to take care of our own house before we go telling the rest of the world how to mind theirs.
I will of course follow this up with a Post-Fahrenheit 9/11 article.
TANSTAAFL!
© 2004, J.S.Brown
0 comments
0 Comments:
