Hey America! Surprise!!
Feb. 1st, 2004 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkan Iraq hates us.
I really wish I could enjoy it when I say, "I told you so," but instead I'm just sad...and worried. A year ago, I was screaming from the rooftops (with thousands of other dirty liberals across the country, regardless of the fact that the media was ignoring us and we knew it) that Hussein was not an immediate threat and that Bush's warmongering was misplaced.
As we all learned earlier this week, there were no WMDs. (PS - isn't it disgusting how the blame is being placed on everyone save Bush, the man who ultimately determined whether or not we were to go to war? Interesting that the British expose on the WMD 'evidence' has the same thing to say concerning Blair. But I digress...) Now? Well, Iraq might not have posed a terrorist threat before, but it sure as hell does now.
I am so angry at, and embarrassed for, the government of my country. It really seems as if the American government truly believed that the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms after we deposed Hussein! Isn't it just a little bit frightening that the most politically informed(?) people in the nation were able to disregard the massive cultural and religious differences between the US and Iraq so facilely when it suited their purposes?
Of course this had something to do with Daddy. Of course this had something to do with ensuring that Bush's interests in the oil industry will continue to live like fat cats, bolstering his reelection chances in the bargain. However, I also get the feeling that Bush honestly believed that he was doing the people of Iraq a favor, and that's scary. America's duty is not to police the rest of the world. Hussein visited true horrors upon his people, but it is not America's job to mount a white horse and ride across the globe, righting the wrongs of the world.
But that's the reasoning Bush has to give now that his earlier excuses (links to al Qaeda, a nuclear program, WMDs) have all been exposed as the excuses they were. Put as much diplomatic spin on it as you wish. The bottom line is that America entered into a war without any justification. Now that that precedent has been set, America is going to have to live up to it. Our buddies in Saudi Arabia, mainland China, Israel, and loads of countries in Africa and South America must all be waiting for the arrival of our military, given that America's new role in the world is ending oppressive, terrorist regimes and replacing them with good ol' democracy, just because, you know, those regimes exist.
I just finished watching a twenty-minute news spot on current affairs in Iraq. The program was in Japanese, which means I only understood 60-80% of it, but it could have been in Swahili for all my comprehension mattered. Comprehension merely fills in the details. There's something about image after image of mobs of angry Iraqi men demanding America's withdrawal that convinces one despite any language barriers.
Incidentally, I doubt any American coverage of current affairs in Iraqi is one third as honest as is the Japanese coverage.
I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. However, it's a foregone conclusion that America is trying its damnedest to install a new government sympathetic to American interests. I don't think they're intending to install a puppet government, but here's the catch: it doesn't matter if America does. The majority of the Iraqi people despise us. Any government that's established in the wake of our occupation is going to be viewed as a puppet government, whether it is or not. And thus, America has two options: fight another Vietnam in Iraq (ie a losing war fought for the wrong reasons), or withdraw from the region and allow an equally oppressive Muslim regime to replace that of Hussein's. What great options.
Japan is deploying combat troops to Iraq, for the first time since World War II. This makes me angry because this is less Japan's fight than it is America's. It's disgusting that Bush's war is being fought by poor, undereducated youth (in other words, the people who comprise the bulk of the armed forces in America, and Japan as well). And it's even more disgusting that the American government, not wanting to sacrifice any more of its youth, has cowed other countries into compliance as well.
That will be all.
I really wish I could enjoy it when I say, "I told you so," but instead I'm just sad...and worried. A year ago, I was screaming from the rooftops (with thousands of other dirty liberals across the country, regardless of the fact that the media was ignoring us and we knew it) that Hussein was not an immediate threat and that Bush's warmongering was misplaced.
As we all learned earlier this week, there were no WMDs. (PS - isn't it disgusting how the blame is being placed on everyone save Bush, the man who ultimately determined whether or not we were to go to war? Interesting that the British expose on the WMD 'evidence' has the same thing to say concerning Blair. But I digress...) Now? Well, Iraq might not have posed a terrorist threat before, but it sure as hell does now.
I am so angry at, and embarrassed for, the government of my country. It really seems as if the American government truly believed that the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms after we deposed Hussein! Isn't it just a little bit frightening that the most politically informed(?) people in the nation were able to disregard the massive cultural and religious differences between the US and Iraq so facilely when it suited their purposes?
Of course this had something to do with Daddy. Of course this had something to do with ensuring that Bush's interests in the oil industry will continue to live like fat cats, bolstering his reelection chances in the bargain. However, I also get the feeling that Bush honestly believed that he was doing the people of Iraq a favor, and that's scary. America's duty is not to police the rest of the world. Hussein visited true horrors upon his people, but it is not America's job to mount a white horse and ride across the globe, righting the wrongs of the world.
But that's the reasoning Bush has to give now that his earlier excuses (links to al Qaeda, a nuclear program, WMDs) have all been exposed as the excuses they were. Put as much diplomatic spin on it as you wish. The bottom line is that America entered into a war without any justification. Now that that precedent has been set, America is going to have to live up to it. Our buddies in Saudi Arabia, mainland China, Israel, and loads of countries in Africa and South America must all be waiting for the arrival of our military, given that America's new role in the world is ending oppressive, terrorist regimes and replacing them with good ol' democracy, just because, you know, those regimes exist.
I just finished watching a twenty-minute news spot on current affairs in Iraq. The program was in Japanese, which means I only understood 60-80% of it, but it could have been in Swahili for all my comprehension mattered. Comprehension merely fills in the details. There's something about image after image of mobs of angry Iraqi men demanding America's withdrawal that convinces one despite any language barriers.
Incidentally, I doubt any American coverage of current affairs in Iraqi is one third as honest as is the Japanese coverage.
I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. However, it's a foregone conclusion that America is trying its damnedest to install a new government sympathetic to American interests. I don't think they're intending to install a puppet government, but here's the catch: it doesn't matter if America does. The majority of the Iraqi people despise us. Any government that's established in the wake of our occupation is going to be viewed as a puppet government, whether it is or not. And thus, America has two options: fight another Vietnam in Iraq (ie a losing war fought for the wrong reasons), or withdraw from the region and allow an equally oppressive Muslim regime to replace that of Hussein's. What great options.
Japan is deploying combat troops to Iraq, for the first time since World War II. This makes me angry because this is less Japan's fight than it is America's. It's disgusting that Bush's war is being fought by poor, undereducated youth (in other words, the people who comprise the bulk of the armed forces in America, and Japan as well). And it's even more disgusting that the American government, not wanting to sacrifice any more of its youth, has cowed other countries into compliance as well.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2004-02-01 06:29 pm (UTC)What coverage in America?
Re:
on 2004-02-03 01:09 am (UTC)