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CounterPunch
October
8, 2002
"Now We
Claim to Care"
Different Standards for Different Nations
by
Rep. CYNTHIA McKINNEY
I share the same revulsion that many others have
toward Saddam Hussein. We all know that he is brutal and that
his regime has terrorized the Iraqi people and the peoples of
nearby countries.
But there was a time not so long ago
when, despite all of this, we chose to allow him to be our friend.
There was a time when we supplied him with chemical weapons and
other military technologies.
If our nation really cared about Iraq's
neighbors, we would never have supplied him the military arsenal
that we did. And if we really cared about his people we would
have done something to alleviate the suffering of the Kurds who,
for years, have been brutalized by the Iraqi military. If we
cared about the Iraqi people we would have done something to
lift the burdens imposed on them by the UN sanctions which, to
date, have claimed in excess of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children.
But the truth is we didn't really care
about any of that suffering.
Madeleine Albright even said that the
price of 500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it.
Now, however, we claim to care.
Now, Saddam Hussein has just become another
name on a long list of other tyrants who we once aided and abetted
but now oppose. But what to do? In the past, other tyrants we
have grown tired of were assassinated, like Jonas Savimbi; or
charged with war crimes, like Slobodan Milosevic; or forced from
power through US backed uprisings like Mobutu Sese Seko.
President Bush is confronted with the
"what to do question." He appears to be choosing war
to get rid of this tyrant and of course he has to justify it.
That's the public relations part of the equation.
The words "Gulf of Tonkin"
have echoed around Washington this last month with many people
concerned that the Bush Administration is now manufacturing an
international crisis in order to launch a pre-emptive military
strike against Saddam Hussein.
In 1964 there were some courageous members
of this House who knew that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a
political ruse being used by the Johnson Administration in order
to justify the United States going to war in Vietnam. For their
courage to speak out and resist, they suffered a tidal wave of
public ridicule.
But we now know that they were right
and that the Vietnam War was a monumental mistake that cost the
lives of some 60,000 brave young Americans and hundreds of thousands
of Vietnamese.
And still, we have many Americans and
Vietnamese who suffer the health effects of Agent Orange and
other toxins faced on the battlefield. And all across the American
and European landscape today, veterans still suffer from Gulf
War Syndrome and exposure to depleted uranium.
Will we let this President create yet
another generation of veterans to whom we break our promises?
I see too many of these veterans sleeping
on our streets. The President can see them--too if he would just
look. They sleep on the sidewalks, benches, and heating vents
just across the street from the White House.
Mr. Chairman, do we give this President
the green light to go to war on Iraq based on evidence which
many weapons experts believe to be exaggerated? Are we now turning
a blind eye to another Gulf of Tonkin type incident? Shouldn't
we trust the legal and diplomatic means of the United Nations?
Do we give the President the green light
to go to war on Iraq because it has refused to comply with UN
Security Council weapons inspections resolutions? At the same
time Israel refuses to comply with UN resolutions with respect
to the Occupied Territories.
Do we have different standards for different
countries?
Mr. Chairman, if the Cuban Missile Crisis
and the Gulf of Tonkin taught us anything, they taught us the
dangers of choosing the military option over diplomatic and legal
alternatives.
The current terrorist crisis confronting
our nation is so much bigger and more complicated than this call
for war on Iraq. Should we miscalculate our military actions
in Iraq, we could cause many American service men and women to
lose their lives. Needless to say, we could also cause untold
numbers of Iraqis to be killed or injured. Worse still, instead
of solving the current threat of terrorism against us, going
to war in Iraq might well make things far worse for us both at
home and abroad.
I hope and pray that we choose our options
carefully.
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October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
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Norman Madarasz
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Gary Leupp
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Will Youmans
The New
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Deb Reich
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Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
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Kurt Nimmo
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