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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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December 07, 2002
US responsibility in Iraq
Responding to Salam in Baghdad (and Diana in Gotham)
Salam-
Buddy, I'm sorry but we're getting ready to have to kill people and break things in your country. Having made friends with you, I can relate to your anguish and anger. I think about you personally every day leading up to however this plays out. I can imagine how unhappy I would be if the shoe were on the other foot.
I wish that some of your own people would whack Hussein and avoid the necessity of this excursion, but this looks pretty unlikely. If I were religious, I'd pray for your personal safety. As it is, I'll be looking for a falling star on which I might wish for your safety and prosperity.
You're upset about what you see as American hypocrisy in Iraq because some of us profess concern for the plight of Iraqi civillians at the hands of Saddam, yet the US supported Saddam at one time. I can see why you might think that. US action certainly has not been without fault. However, I think your anger here is largely misplaced, and I'd like to speak in at least partial defense of my country. We may sometimes miscalculate, but we're trying to do right.
I note that you've had some Americans writing to you in rude and inappropriate tones, suggesting among other things that you should shut up and "appreciate" what the US is doing. OK, so our government was backing Hussein. Then we came in bombing hell out of you 10 years ago [which I opposed]. Then after all that bombing and killing we left the bastard there to cause you yet more misery. Now we're coming back to finish the job. Oh, in the meantime sanctions necessitate you scrounging the black market to get basic surgical supplies in order to get even basic dental care. Yeah, you should be on your knees every night thanking Allah for America. I'm sorry for this suffering put on you, and I apologize for American fools speaking to you in this disrespectful manner. As Hannibal Lector would express it, they've been unspeakably rude.
Several points need to be made here, though. Charitable concern for the Iraqi people is NOT the principle reason for our impending invasion of your country -no one here pretends otherwise. We should consider some reasons why eliminating the Hussein regime ranks top of the US "to do" list. Western support for Hussein was a bad idea, particularly in retrospect, but an honest mistake and not done with callous indifference. Finally and most importantly, Saddam is responsible for the actions of his government, not the US.
Most Americans do in fact have concern for the Iraqi people. Without leaning on it too heavily, we show great compassion for suffering people around the world in many ways- though we've admittedly bungled it badly in the case of Iraq. The Bush administration in fact speaks for a great majority of Americans in saying that we have great hope that knocking out the Hussein regime will be a HUGE benefit to your countrymen, even though there will inevitably be suffering and great risk to you in the short run.
Make no mistake though: NO ONE here says that humanitarian relief of the the Iraqi people is our primary reason for coming in. Any good we can do you constitutes gravy. We're coming in because we now perceive the continued rule of Saddam Hussein as an unacceptable risk to our country.
You asked "What makes today different than a year ago?" The answer is: 9/11. We've suddenly gotten the picture that there are a bunch of Muslim/Arab radicals killing and continuing to kill us at home and abroad. Not just the 9/11 attacks themselves, but the anthrax attacks shortly thereafter, the LAX shootings, and lots of other attacks and attempts.
This new attitude does not come from a desire for retribution, but from a desire for prevention. We shrugged off the first WTC bombing when Clinton was president, but now we've gotten the picture that it's not just a little one time thing. A bunch of people from your part of the world seriously want to destroy our society. They're actively trying to get weapons of mass destruction to take us out in bunches. This is unacceptable.
Thus the stakes have changed dramatically for us. We're not looking at an occassional bombing of an embassy or foreign military base. We're getting visions of WMD attacks on civillians at home. We're seeing some hideous stuff coming down the tracks, and we're going to do whatever is necessary to derail this.
Which is, unfortunately, where your country comes in. Hussein may not be actively attempting to attack us right this second, but he's got a unique position in the world of having nasty WMDs now, working hard on getting more and worse, and a demonstrated willingness to use the things. Our worst fear prompting action is that he might be handing some of this nasty stuff under the table to Al Qaeda or Hezbollah to use in -from his vantage point- running interference against us. He'd do it in a heartbeat. He could well hand stuff off and not leave any fingerprints. Many of us expect that to have been what happened with our anthrax letters last year.
You wondered about picking Iraq for special attention over other countries of interest. Make no mistake, there are other countries getting ready for change one way or another. The Saudis and Iranians are top concerns to me, based on my limited personal knowledge.
We can't do everything at once though, and Hussein makes sense as a second stop after Afghanistan. He seems to be about the worst immediate threat because of his WMDs, plus he seems to otherwise have no likelihood of being taken down internally. The Iranian theocrats are probably actually doing worse things right this minute, but they apparently don't have WMDs, plus it looks like the people may take this government out without the US being significantly involved. That would be much preferred.
Our government at one time supported Hussein. In retrospect, this was clearly highly ill advised. It comes from a certain idea of supposed "pragmatism" that I understand to be commonly expressed in your part of the world by the adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The relationships of Saddam and of Bin Laden to the US show all too starkly the shortcomings of that particular philosophy.
Now we have to clean up our mess- which unfortunately is in YOUR yard. The fact that our government had some role in supporting Hussein only makes it MORE our responsibility to deal with him. We had legitimate US security concerns that we were trying to address, but we went about badly in Iraq. Meanwhile, this has made life more difficult for you, particularly with the sanctions. I'm very sorry.
However, <.b>Saddam is your main problem, not the US. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the US did NOT place Saddam in power. He got there on his own, and our government then chose to do business with him. Saddam bears responsibility for his wicked behavior, not US. Your relative was likely NOT killed by any kind of US government order or influence. The torture is Saddam's way, not ours.
With that perspective, I must take some issue with Miss Diana. I've got a lot of love for our sister, but she's considerably too willing to take the blame on us for things outside our control. Hussein was already there, and doing what he was going to do. SOME (not all) of the damage of sanctions falls on the heads of US policy makers, but the torture and murder does not.
It seems that from time to time whole societies or cultures collectively go just purely and fanatically rabbit-ass crazy to the point that the whole society has to be destroyed before people get the point that their behavior is unacceptable. Germany and Japan went there in the last century. I fear that a big chunk of Muslim society is slipping into that range now. Criminy, man, a bunch of Muslims just went on a huge killing spree and murdered HUNDREDS of people over a stupid frickin' beauty pageant.
Neither the American public at large, nor President Bush, nor I WANT to kill people. We're not trying to collect tribute or subjugate the world. However, we're goddam well not going to just lay down while people are killing us.
I'm just sorry that a lot of decent, reasonable people like you are caught in the middle of all this nonsense.
Try to stay safe.
Love and Prayers,
Al
posted by Al at 12/07/2002 03:30:00 AM
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