Here’s a little scenario that might help you understand why war is not any kind of answer to whatever problems Saddam represents.
Imagine, if you can, that it’s 2004. Dubya has not been elected. He comes on TV with Cheney, Ridge, Ashcroft, and Rumsfeld standing behind him to announce that he has chosen to ignore the results of the election for reasons of national security. To this end, he has declared a temporary state of martial law. Citizens are encouraged to report unseemly behavior to the Homeland Security office. Of course, protests and riots break out aorund the country. Some military units join the protestors when called out to quell the demonstrations. Thousands of US citizens and residents are rounded up and placed in “temporary detention centers”, including several Democratis leaders and even some Republicans.
Eventually, people have to go back to work and things return to “normal.” Dubya’s government continues to consolidate its power, suspending congress until new elections can be held that will be favorable to his regime. The military purges those who don’t agree with the new government and begins plans to invade Mexico over an old dispute over land and oil. The rest of the world calls for calm and a return to democracy in the US. Dubya tells them all that the game is over. A year after the coup, the US invades Mexico and “reclaims” parts of it. The US abrogates all arms control treaties it has ever signed and begins making every kind of WMD known and unknown to humanity. Bush and his regime continue to consolidate their power internally, using torture, murder, imprisonment, exile and threats of the same to do so.
Meanwhile, the EU and China’s anger over the Bush regime continues to grow. Using the precedent set by the US/UK over Iraq, China begins to make noises about regime change in Washington. Cheney says that China has no place making these noises. China begins to form a coalition to force the US to leave Mexico and stop threatening the world with its WMD. The US, meanwhile, opens its oilfields and other resources to European corporations, hoping to provide these countries with monetary reasons not to attack the US. The UN decides to send in inspection teams to search out and destroy these WMD. The US plays a game of hide and seek with inspectors for years. China steps up talk of regime change and disarming the US. War is nigh.
Now, the question is: Do you support China’s desire to invade the US and replace the Bush regime with a regime friendlier to China and the rest of the UN?
RON JACOBS lives in Burlington, VT. He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
