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[21 Mar 2003|09:06pm] |
Q: When the troops enter Iraq, and eventually attempt to liberate Iraq from Saddam's evil clutches, do you think the people of Iraq will mostly view the U.S. troops as liberators or invaders? Do you think they will be happy to have a democ-Iraq or sad to see their culture violated?
Here is one idiots opinion.
Iraq, the middle east, Isralies, and indeed most of the world view actions with more significance then they do words. Words are the paper that gets ignited, the flags that get burned, and the promises that fade into the sand. Countries around the world do not fear the words of Bush, they fear a repeat of the actions of the past, they fear our arrogance, they fear our neglegence and our lack of empathy or sympathy. But much of this fear we inheritted from the previous world power Great Britain, and before that the French, and before that the Spanish, and the Roman Catholic Church, the huns, the Romans and so on and so forth. The general fear is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we carry the stigma of the super power who is out to dominate, then the Iraqi people will eventually grow to loath our existance like the people of South Korea do today. To ask such a question as you pose is really to try and predict the future actions of our own administration. The Iraqi people will react based upon what we do over there, the whole world is watching.
To answer your question I must first answer another question, what is to be made of American dominance in world affairs? A skeptic will tell us that this is the rise of American Imperialism, despotism, and the rule of the elite over the poor, it is the rise of Christian conservatives, the gun toating right wing constituancy that has hijacked our political system driving American politics the way of Teddy Roosevelt. Walking softly, carrying a big stick, and going into any nation we want to so long as our national interests could be benefitted. Look at Panama, look at the Phillipines, and even look deeper back into the formation of Texas and our aquisition of California. According to the skeptic when Bush was 'elected' it was only achieved through the gradual dumbing down of our nation by the constant blasting of corporatized capitalistic entertainment. The rise of fast food, the gadgets, the starbucks on every corner has been draining our ability to think outside ourselves, we have become selfish and vain. A skeptic mistrusts technology, especially if that technology is designed with a market in mind to buy it. He will tell you that true innovation in humanity comes from the enlightenment of the individual not through the technological achievements of the group.
I believe that the role America plays in international politics has been permamently altered by the events of 911. Speaking generally, Bush was elected because people wanted a tax cut and some leader that did not act robotic. It was monkey versus Robot and monkey won. people like monkeys, they fear robots. Ironically Bush's lack of foreign knowledge was a plus during the campaign because he seemed less likely to engage in the turmoil of world affairs. People saw that the Israeli Palestinian situation was escalating, but so long as we were not responsible we didn't want to know about it. "Let them kill each other - I don't give a s#$$". Our economy was at it's peak, and Americans wanted to sit in their fat and stew in the pleasure of a beautiful world. It was your time to achieve your POTENTIAL, to liberate yourself from the confines of culture and ethics, and be free to indulge in the bulge of capitalism.
But 911 changed our perception, we saw with clarity finally that we are at risk, that our actions in world affairs are carefully monitored and challenged by a rising power. The policy of containment will not protect us from those that seek to destroy us. Time is on the side of terrorists. It will only take one major attack to destroy our economy, only a single nuclear strike from a terrorist cell, just one large scale biochemical attack in a subway to destroy the freedom we all enjoy. In effect one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. The barrel is shrinking, we are nolonger protected by our distance from them. With such a possibility looming, how can we be expected to sit and wait for it to happen? Even if we focused all of our policy internally, monitored all of our own people, and created a society dedicated to our own protection, to the point where the free spirit is confined - where would it end? If we did this, along with making massive changes in international policy with countries like Israel as a way of appeasing Hamas, PLO, Alkaeda and others, if we pulled out of Saudi Arabia, dragging behind our own tail, if we openly begged forgiveness for our crimes against the arab people and the nation of Islam - can anyone honestly expect that an extremist would still not take an opportunity to destroy us if given the chance?
Some might call this paranoia, I call it the new GRAND PARANOIA. Some might say this is self defeating and short sighted. I have argued this very point with many, during my search for my own answer. Some say that we can NEVER say with certainty that life will keep on going, to do so goes against the essence of life itself. On a purely individual level I agree, and I can tell you - I am not afraid of being killed by a terrorist. My life exists for freedom, and the moment I give into the fear of losing life - I do loose it. But society itself is based upon the rule of law, order is the key to our existance. A terrorist destroys our own belief in order which undermines our culture. Without the stability of a governing society despotism will dominate the physically week, chaos will ignite all through our cities and a cultural darkness will envelope the whole world.
During the Cold War we knew exactly who our threat was, and we could easily threaten them back - this created the peace we had for 40 years. A terrorist has no national origin, and nothing to defend, their life by definition is expendable. They do not care if we nuke them, or their entire region, in fact they would encourage us to do so as part of their fundamentalism. There is no way of deterrance against such a foe, the only solution, if we do choose to keep society going is to go after the problem at the source.
Watching the twin towers fall was one of the most horrific sites I have ever seen. Yet today in Qatar, near the main base of American forces fighting Saddam, people cheer as they watch footage of the towers coming down, calling America arrogant, they cheer in praise for the brave young men who hijacked those planes. Societies that are fueled by such hatred will only galvanize their efforts when there are signs of cracks in their opponents. They will dance in the streets, they will laugh out loud at our destruction. They come from a harsh society of absolutes, of abuse of power, of massive indifference by the rich for their suffering. They cannot understand the flexibility afforded in a free and open society. They are angry, they see our country as weak, our people evil, our culture as selfish.
Our actions in the world have been selfish, and weak, especially during and after the cold war. We have made mistakes, been prejudice against people based upon their skin color and ethnicity, we have acted cowardly, without vision, without leadership, and against our own values prooving our hypocracy and our dual weakness glutony and lack of responsibility to our actions. Nobody is responsible for their own actions, sue them, make them pay! Since Vietnam we choose to believe we will never accept casualties in war. Our very people distrust our soldiers our police and our own elected officials. Meanwhile our communities are withering away, white America continues running away from the big cities, we leave our dead and dieing fellow citizens to rot instead of facing the challenge of social imballance. We pass laws without conviction, we let special interest dominate our political system, we rarely vote, we try to get out of jury duty, we pass tax cuts even as our national debt inches towards 7 trillion dollars. Can such a society survive? What about the community? what about contributing to it's beauty and growth and the enlightenment of all beings you can touch?
The spirit of this country once stood for the enlightenment of the whole world, let our hearts be a beacon! We have become a society without convictions. At least that is what our detractors believe - the French have turned away from us. Remember the French? What does it say on the Statue of Liberty? "*Bring*
*us* *your* *poor*, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.".... we have become a nation of fools! Monuments are there for people to remember their convictions!
In words we stand for peace, for the life and liberty and human rights of all people. But in actions we are not willing to hold true. In Sommalia, when 18 of our combat troups were killed and dragged through the streets we said we would revenge, but in essence all we did was lob a few smart missles at them killing a donkey, and destroying a pharmacuetical plant. Protestors demanded to know why we were there in the first place "NOT ANOTHER VIETNAM!" they screamed. Clinton I'm sure hoped nobody would really notice we were there in the first place, it seems a president has to sneak a selfless act past his own people. Later on we pulled out our troops and let the monsters win. We stand for peace but act for self interest. What about the some 100,000 people we killed during the first Gulf war? And what about the 500,000 who died as a result of our inaction afterwards? That was a war about oil not liberation and not about democracy. If you are going to fight someone you need to accept that there will be casualties, we could not accept blood for oil, especially our own blood. We missed a huge opportunity to create love in Iraq. Deep down our conviction was reduced to this "It's ok if others suffer so long as we are not directly responsible for their suffering, and we get our oil".
If your convictions for fighting are so flimsy that war is only possible with 1000 to 1 kill ratios then what does that say about your convictions. True war is about will, and about the individuals will to live and promote their way of life - in our case the ideas of freedom. For too long now the only conviction we have shown is that freedom doesn't work.
What about the opportunity to bring freedom to all? To liberate the world from the oppressive regimes, to educate, to encourage trade, to develop nations, to rise to our position as leaders of the world?
Thomas Jefferson said that the price of freedom is constant dilligence. We have been asleep too long America. If half the world lives in chains then all of humanity lives in chains. We cannot skirt our responsibility to be the lighthouse of the world. If we sit by on the sidelines, sipping our coke, eating our mass produced burgers, watching as half the world lives in despotic poverty, over populated, uneducated, rampant with disease and infections then we are not worthy of keeping our power, and eventually we will loose it.
It can be further generalized that war is caused from a fundamental imbalance of power, and no war is ever over until both sides grow more balanced. World War One ended in the collapse of Germany and Austria. Rising from the ashes of that was the hatred instilled in Hitler and others. World War Two ended when we occupied Germany and Japan and built up their economy, creating that balance again.
Finally back to Iraq, ff we go into Iraq, as we did the first time, bomb the shit out of them, then leave without fixing our holes - we are doomed to see a repeat of 911. The Iraqi people will loath us, and the hatred that is felt all over the world for America will escalate into World War Three. All nations will turn against us in scorn, shaming us, demanding our destruction. Imagine there were 20 Osama bin Ladens, 40 Saddam's? Imagine every nation resorting to terrorist acts against us - seen as the only way to make us feel their hatred.
Will the Iraqi people hate us in the end? I say it depends upon what we do over there, and how much attention we give to our own actions. It's up to us to prove that Democracy can bring real freedom.
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