A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government. -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)
I have been wanting to write about the current US political situation for quite some time. As I said in a previous post, I'm very unhappy with the direction my country is taking - especially since 9/11.
I opposed the war in Iraq, and continue to oppose our occupation of this country for a number of reasons. Although I agree that Saddam Hussein was a horrible dictator and probably a monster, I do not think that the US - acting on our own - had any right to invade Iraq to depose him. I did not, at any time, believe the President's assertions that he was a credible threat or a "clear and present danger" to the US. I have done a lot of reading on the subject and I have come to the conclusion that he never had "weapons of mass destruction" capable of reaching our shores. He may have had such weapons in the past, but I don't think he ever had a delivery system in place that would have put our safety at risk.
I believe that the previous Gulf War, the UN weapons inspections and the embargo destroyed what weapons he had, and acted both as a deterrent and a barrier to the continued development of such weapons.
I also never believed that Hussein was providing such weapons - when he did have them - to Al Queda. I know that political situations often make strange bedfellows, but my research leads me to believe that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were not working together. On the other hand, since most of the 9/11 hijacker/terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, I do wonder about our continued "friendship" with a country that seems to produce such hostile (to the USA) elements. I also wonder why my government is not more concerned with terrorists obtaining weapons from the former Soviet Bloc nations.
Getting back to the situation in Iraq, I would not have been so opposed to a war with this country had it been sanctioned by the UN. I would not have been opposed to our answering a cry for help from a strongly supported group of revolutionaries within Iraq who were trying to over throw that oppressive and terrible regime. I do oppose my government's arrogant position that we are some kind of savior for the world. I do not think we have the right to say to other sovereign nations that we are right and they are wrong - even it this is true. I think that we need to cooperate with the nations of the world, who do think like we do, who do appreciate human rights and the democratic government, but I think we need to do it through a global body such as the UN and the International Criminal Court (which we have rejected). We can not, and we should not do it alone. Simply because we have the might does not, make our actions right.
I am not at all surprised to find out that our government lied to us regarding the seriousness of this threat. I have read that even before 9/11 neo-conservative groups within or connected to our government were pushing for a war with Iraq. The tragic events of September 11, 2001 provided a perfect cover for them to push their own agenda.
(to be continued)
Posted by Cyberkat at August 24, 2003 2:00 PM | TrackBack