---- Edmund Storms <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The idea of good guys and bad guys in war is useless and > distracting to what is actually happening. War is a means to > gain power over others. War no longer makes a distinction > between those who are fighting and those who are not. Both > are killed with equal intensity, although it is still > fashionable to claim the fig leaf of unintended collateral > damage or a tragic mistake. Make no mistake, as the tools > of war become more efficient and terrorism, which is the > counter to those tools, become more universal, no one will > be safe. We are passing through a transition period which > has to end by people insisting on methods be used to avoid > war and the resulting terrorism. But then, every one knows > this, yet we go on supporting people who insist that war is > necessary because it is very profitable for them. They are > able to continue their policy because they know how to > manipulate our fear and paranoia. But you say, real threats > exist against which we must be defended. Of course this is > true, but this is a never ending path that can not be fixed > just by making every country a democracy, as Bush plans. > The obvious consequence of this naive approach is being > demonstrated every day in Iraq. We need to use our > creativity to explore another way. Think about that rather > than the Segway. >
Ed Storms recent comments bring to mind the movie documentary I viewed last week, "Why We Fight" now available on DVD. I highly recommend it. A warning. It was depressing to watch. What really was brought to home for me was a comment made by an analyst near the end of the film where he described the United State's current actions in IRAQ as the equivalent of a nation practicing colonialism. Call me ignorant. Call me naïve as well, but in all honesty I hadn't really viewed our tragic military campaigns in IRAQ in terms of colonialism. It fits, tragically so. Our nation is forced to build up and then maintain huge troop strengths in a foreign country, all in order to prop up "cooperative" government so that we can sell products to them and, in turn, purchase natural resources at bargain basement prices. That colonialism. Its pretty obvious to most of us that we didn't invade Iraq for the sake of spreading democracy in Middle Eastern countries. It's also now pretty obvious to most of us that the excuse we had been given, the one that had been carefully orchestrated for public consumption, for the removal of WMDs, was in fact a gross manipulation of the actual facts. We are now painfully becoming aware of the fact that there actually existed strong evidence indicating that no WMDs actually existed in Iraq, evidence for which the administration had in their possession at the time critical decisions to go to war were being made, and which were deliberately and tragically ignored. Once we got in and, predictably, no WMDs were found, it really didn't matter. Bush Jr. can pontificate endlessly all he wants about the lofty ideals of spreading democracy across the planet, and particularly in a number of Arab countries. I'm sure George's handlers carefully fed him those ideals in the hope that he would start having fantasies of becoming THE president who goes down in the history books as having initiated the Bush Doctrine, where democracy would finally begin to took root and spread across the planet, particularly when all of his predecessors had failed in this noble task. Regarding the ideals of spreading democracy, I couldn't believe how naive Bush was in some of his prelude to invasion comments when he described how western "democratic" political systems should begin to take root in countries like Iraq after we pushed Saddam's regime out of the way. Of what value are the complicated checks and balances that make up the messy political structures we call "democracy" to a population that for decades has experienced nothing but a sta! te of totalitarianism, the equivalent of a family run mafia business. How could anyone assume that the majority of Iraqis who have experienced nothing but a totalitarian regime for most of their lives would quickly chose to embrace "democracy" as a better form of government. How could anyone expect "democracies" to suddenly take root in country where a new political system is literally forced upon the population by external forces, an invading nation. True democracy has always been a home grown process. It must grow from within. "Democracy" deliberately injected into any country by an invading nation is: Colonialism. It only sparks an insurgency to oust the invaders, the infidels, so that they can get back to business-as-usual. Contradicting myself somewhat, I suspect, as much as Iraqis would have despised our presence occupying their country I suspect the vast majority of them would have chosen to keep their justified outrage in check had our administration had the foresight to plan for an orderly transition, be it the form of martial law, or some other form of military presence in every corner. If our administration had gone in with specific plans after we pushed Saddam's regime out of the way to control an orderly transition, so that shops could remain open, so that kids could go to school and businessmen could head to work without fear of being kidnapped, where the building power lines and pipelines could commence after decades of decay, where the rebuilding of a traumatized infrastructure could begin, I suspect a good portion of the Iraqi population would have perceived the unpleasant "occupation" as a lesser of two evils. Unfortunately, Bush's bid to enter the presidential fame of fame in the history books has hit a little snag along the way. But then maybe that's what those who manage business of war had intended all along. Who knows for sure. It is also a stark reminder to the voters of this country (or any country for that matter) to never, EVER, elect any man to the highest office of a nation who has not personally experienced first hand the autocracies war will inevitably bring forth, no matter how noble and justified the original intent may have been to go to war in the first place. Having on your resume that you were a weekend warrior does not count. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.Zazzle.com/orionworks
