soapboxdiner

Would the real axis of evil please stand up?

So a friend and I were chatting about Bush, 9/11, Iraq, and the impending war. This was a very interesting chat, as he is a very smart man whose opinion I greatly respect on many levels. He is a rational man and a thinker. He studies history and remembers many things. Hence, I think he has valuable insights into the current national and world sitch. (And a debate does not hinder a friendship, darling. Sheesh!)

I, on the other hand, don't bother to devote to memory much of the past regarding the history of this particular struggle. I'm a generalizer, really. I base my opinions on basic philosophical differences between our nations, along with a large dose of gut-instinct. Allow me to share some of the high points of my beliefs.

I believe Bush has taken the tragedy of 9-11 and is using it as a scapegoat. I base this on several points such as: 1. Our government knew of the terrorist plans years before the attack happened, but did little in the way of preventing it from happening. 2. Iraq was not the principle funders or orchestrators of the attack, though the Bush camp repeatedly propogandizes it to the nation lest we remember it was really Al Qaeda. These points amoung others.

I believe Bush has a score he wants to settle with Hussein. I believe under the Clinton administration, we were making headway towards the goal of peace through diplomacy. Not perfect by any means, but heading in the right direction.

I believe we have for over 50 years meddled in middle eastern affairs, beginning with the pivotal decision to recognize the state of Israel in Palestine. However historically entrenched in the region the Jewish nation is, or how rightful they are in seeking these lands based on that history, I feel that we as a nation overstepped ourselves in being instrumental in the establishment of State of Israel. This opinion is solely based on the fact of existing occupation of the lands granted.

I believe that from that day, we have been a thorn constanting grating on the nerve that is the sovereignty of the nations in the region.

I believe that the religious, philosophical, and governmental principles of our cultures are in diametric opposition to each other, and that the US has not treated that with a great enough respect when dealing with the nations of that region economically. I believe that when you go into another regions lands, you should know better than to dictate how they manage their human and environmental resources.

I believe that when you attempt to so dictate, you ask for the malice and hatred of that neighbor.

I believe we in the US depend on the resources they have, that we covet, because we are hypocrites who don't want to devastate our own ecosystems by utilizing our own resources, and so we harbor the desire to annihilate the opposing governments of countries in order to build an empire and thusly unilaterally control said resource.

I do not believe this is about terrorism. I do not believe this is about weapons of mass destruction, although if I were an Iraqi national, I would greatly want to get my hands on some of those weapons. I would want to defend my country's right to sovereignty in philosophy. I wouldn't want the only world superpower coming in to terrorize my country or change my basic and generations-old system of beliefs.

And I say that knowing full well that in our eyes, great percentages of those populations are treated inhumanely. But it is not my place to judge that. What is my right, in an instance such as this, is to use diplomacy, patience, and time. Listen, understand, and perhaps educate. Impose economic sanctions. But we don't do that with the middle east, as we have in South Africa. Russia. Scores of nations less vital in terms of valuable resources. We do it in the middle east.

I do not believe this war will end the differences our countries face. I hold the unpopular belief that war begets war, no matter how many times my government tells me the other guy started it. We are the superpower, and they have something we need. Iraq did not crash planes into the WTC towers or the pentagon. But my government tells me every day that we have to go fight a war on foriegn soil with a country that did not do that terrible thing. It tells me we have to fight that war because we have to preempt another attack that they weren't responsible for to begin with.

This war is not about 9-11. It is about a man who hates who has become President. It is about a country that has bullied and butted undiplomatically into another region's affairs for so long, the people of our country don't even remember the origins of our differences. This is about forcing change on a region that didn't ask to have lands usurped, judgment passed, foriegn philosophies imposed or ways of life changed; but who most assuredly remember every wrong we have committed against them - on their own lands. As any red-blooded American would remember, if placed in the same situation.

But like I said, I am not the foremost expert on any of these matters. I am sure there are many, many intricacies and nuances of which I am completely unaware. Those aside, I think it is about time the US stops calling itself a hero and a martyr, and starts acknowledging the fact that it is a bully, a tyrant, and a would-be empire.

How do you view this upcoming war?

7:35 pm - 01.20.03
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