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Recent
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April
10, 2003
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April 12,
2003
Our
Vulnerable Warmongers
The
Rush to Justify the Devastation
by
WILLIAM BLUM
When you wage a war that is strongly opposed by
the great majority of those on the planet who are aware of such
things, when your own people are becoming increasingly militant
against your unilateral waging of that war, when you know well
that your war is palpably and embarrassingly illegal, immoral,
illogical and unjust, when you can't admit the real reasons for
the war ... then you have a consuming need to find a moral-sounding
and credible selling point -- "Regime change", to remove
the evil Saddam, the Iraqi people will welcome us with flowers
and music!
Thus was it mortifying for the warmongers
that for more than the first two weeks of the war the Iraqi images
shown to the world were largely of the dead, the wounded, the
grief-stricken, the immense piles of rubble, the bombing-produced
homeless, those bitterly angry at the US. How could it be otherwise?
What kind of people like their loved ones torn apart by missiles,
their children without a limb, their homes, hospitals, schools
and jobs destroyed? The US military told its cannon fodder and
its embedded media that any negative reaction,
or lack of a positive one, was all because the people were afraid
of Saddam, as if one of his agents was standing behind each Iraqi
citizen. Why did a million people fight and resist to the death
instead of surrendering, defecting, anything to show their gratitude
for their "liberation"?
Now, any teenager flashing a victory
sign or anyone climbing upon a toppled statue of Saddam is an
American media star. But what portion of the Iraqi people are
happy about the invasion -- happy about all its effects?
What are they happy about other than the removal of Saddam? And
many Iraqis supported him. Of those "celebrating",
how many have been touched by the death and destruction? How
many even know about it? The US bombed Iraqi and Arabic
TV off the air fairly early on for much of the country. Much
of the telephone system was another early victim.
As an American, I might also celebrate
if the cruel and ignorant tyrant occupying the White House were
overthrown. But not if my house were demolished and my city were
bombed. In any event, I'd keep most of my joy in reserve until
I saw who and what replaced the tyrant. Like in Iraq, it would
likely be a conservative Republican.
However, I'm being light here. No changes
in Iraq justify the American onslaught. What kind of world would
we have if any country could invade any other country because
it didn't like the leader of that country? And in this case,
the United States was not motivated at all by Saddam Hussein,
or his evilness, or his alleged weapons of mass destruction,
or his alleged threat to the US.
William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue
State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc
Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.
He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
Yesterday's
Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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