A touching op-ed in the CS Monitor:
Since Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, started warning that a US invasion of Iraq would “open the gates of hell,” the retort that has been flying around Iraqi exiles’ websites is, “Good! We’d like to get out!”
It got me wondering: What if you antiwar protesters and politicians succeed in stopping a US-led war to change the regime in Baghdad? What then will you do?
Will you also demonstrate and demand “peaceful” actions to cure the abysmal human rights violations of the Iraqi people under the rule of Saddam Hussein?
Or, will you simply forget about us Iraqis once you discredit George W. Bush?
You are irrelevant. The election in 2004 and world opinion is what is important to the left.
Via Neal Sheeran
Paul
While the liberation of Iraqis is the most cited reason for war at the moment, it’s a latecomer. Neither Bush nor other conservatives cited it until fairly recently, you included, I’ll wager.
It certainly wasn’t a priority before Sept 11.
Fact is, even rule under a dictator is preferable to being crushed under a falling roof, or watching your kids die of dysentery. The fact that the people will suffer terribly from the style of warfare we currently use is reason enough to oppose the war.
And as psychotic as Saddam is, Iraq may be analogous to Yugoslavia under Tito. Once it’s broken up, its supressed factions may turn on one another creating far greater horrors than the current police state.
Forgive me for failing to be utopian about this.
As for what I’d agitate for, post-climbdown, I guess I’d be in solidarity with Dick Cheney’s position when he headed Haliburton: ease the sanctions. Bring Iraq back into the economic fabric of theworld. Give Saddam something to lose if he misbehaves internationally. And continue diplomatic pressure, support opposition groups, undermine his rule by funding dissidents, as Reagan did to the Soviet Union.
I dunno. What would you do, if some factor prevented invasion? Is it, has it always been, The Only Option? If so, Bush has been dishonest.
John Cole
Liberation of Iraq is simply one of many reasons to depose Hussein, not simply the ‘latest excuse,’ as some might suggest.