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CounterPunch
November
16, 2002
Scoring the US / Iraq War
by WALT BRASCH
Now that the police believe they have in custody
the Suburban Sniper, George W. Bush can once again try to get
the people to focus on his message that as many as 24 million
Iraqis need to be wiped off the earth in order to destroy Saddam
Hussein and avenge the uncompleted work of George the Elder.
Saddam, with a Florida-rigged re-election,
has done more to destroy human rights in Iraq than any other
leader in that nation's 70-year history as an independent kingdom.
So far, the U.S. has been unable to remove Saddam by assassination
or force. So, to kill Saddam, President Bush plans to destroy
his country.
Beating the war drums at political pep
rallies and at State dinners, the President has prepared Americans
for war by declaring that Iraq has chemical, biological and,
maybe, nuclear weapons. He says we are already fighting a war
against terrorism. But, more than two dozen countries now have
biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons, and there is no credible
evidence there are links between Iraq and the terrorists who
destroyed about 3,000 lives on 9/11.
The talk of war with Iraq to stop terrorism
and the possible use of weapons against the U.S. is probably
the President's smoke screen to divert attention from the oil
slick lobby, which has a long fiduciary interest with the President
and his aides. It is also the failure to deal with international
terrorism and critical domestic issues. The U.S. hasn't destroyed
al-Queda, nor has it located Osama bin Laden, who may be dead
or hiding in a country that was far less capable of waging war
than Iraq. But, Iraq does have industrial complexes that blow-up
much nicer than do caves for the 6 O'Clock News. Underlying all
of these reasons is that the President wants to end the work
his father failed to finish more than a decade earlier.
To assure compliance with his wishes,
President Bush--with the rabid encouragement of the Vice-President,
defense secretary, and attorney general--none of whom ever saw
combat--has tightened the noose around the Constitution, declaring
that dissent is unpatriotic. They have ordered new restrictions,
scripted by the fear of "terrorism," to be enforced
against bookstores, libraries, and American citizens who once
thought they were living in a democracy, and not in a nation
that has adopted some of the tactics against its own citizens
that dictatorships use against theirs.
When the U.S. finishes its sabre-rattling
and when the President, backed by a waffling Congress, launches
an invasion, we will learn that a war against Iraq may cost $9-$10
billion a month. We will also learn that a "pre-emptive
strike," the kind President Bush proposes and which Japan
once launched against the U.S., will undoubtedly bring in additional
countries on both sides, escalating the war, the financial cost,
and the casualties. To make sure everyone knows we won, we will
keep score.
Because most Americans didn't understand
the Vietnam War, and most came to oppose it, the government,
aided by a gullible media, turned the war into a sporting contest,
with points scored based upon body counts. The more "body
kills," the higher the score. By the end of the war, if
readers believed the media and the military, they would have
learned that every North Vietnamese and Viet Cong civilian and
soldier was killed at least twice. Even accounting for inflated
figures, the final score was about a million of the enemy and
our allies killed vs. "only" about 54,000 Americans.
During the Gulf War, which helped restore
American pride from what is now conceded as a military and diplomatic
loss in Vietnam, "only" 282 of the 50,000-120,000 killed
were Americans. The military had prepared for Dover Air Force
Base to receive as many as 20,000 body bags. We proclaimed victory,
but Saddam continued his dictatorship.
By the end of the U.S.-Iraqi War, we
will destroy Iraq's infrastructure, its businesses and homes;
we will kill more civilians than military, and write it off as
"collateral damage." Then, as President Bush promised,
we will rebuild Iraq at a cost of $150 to $250 billion, more
than the President will budget for health care reform or educational
improvements; more than he thinks appropriate to improve the
transportation system or to reduce the levels of poverty in the
United States. The $127 billion budget surplus, which vanished
under this President's stewardship, has been replaced by a $157
billion budget deficit, a reminder of the President's dismal
economic, domestic, and foreign policies.
For at least a decade, the United States
will expend funds for an occupation army that future administrations
will have to deal with.
Opposing the upcoming war are numerous
military leaders who have distinguished themselves in battle
and don't believe a "pre-emptive strike" is necessary
or wise. Among those who oppose the President's call to arms
without provocation are Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security
advisor to this president's father; Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf
who led the Coalition force against Iraq in 1990-1991; and, for
the most part, Gen. Colin Powell, currently secretary of state,
who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Gulf War. They
are well aware we may still need those 20,000 body bags for a
war the enemy did not start.
But the only voice that counts is that
of a former jet jockey for the Texas Air National Guard who never
saw combat outside of a bar, and seems to think putting more
than three million Americans in harm's way justifies killing
one dictator from the "axis of evil."
Final Score: President Bush, 1; Everyone
else's opinion: It doesn't count.
Walter Brasch,
professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, is the author
of 13 books; his latest is "The
Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era"
a probing and witty look at the Clinton administration. He can
be reached at wbrasch@planetx.bloomu.edu
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