I juts posted a comment in The Jounal of Jennifer Savage about Iraq and terrorism etc. I want to repost it here.
Iraq did not have the 4th largest army in the world since the first gulf war. We killed huge numbers of his troops then. Who were mostly very young. A lot of soldiers then were around 14 years old. The reason for their youth was because of the long-running war with Iran, for which we provided Iraq with all sorts of heinous weapons. They could not manage to win the war with their neighbor and ended up killing many many many young men and boys.
If Iraq could not successfully defeat their next door neighbor, a third world country, even as we gave them weapons and money, how could they possibly pose a threat to us? Al Qeda hated Hussein for being secular. the likelyhood that he would have given them any support was extremely low. Also, he must have recognized that aiding people attacking the US would be suicide.
We spent 11 years bombing Iraq and denying them supplies that could have any sort of military purpose (including bulldozers, nitorglycerine for heart patients, etc), after we destroyed infrastructure in the first gulf war. We came in and blew up water treatment plants, electrical plants, etc and would not allow in the tools needed to fix them in case those tools might also be used for weapons. Hundreds of thousands of people died from these sanctions because they couldn’t get medicine or clean water or whatever.
People who have seen thier family members die from US actions are outraged. If Canada invaded and killed your parents and your siblings died from diareha because Canada destroyed your water system, you’d probably be pretty damn pissed. I know I would take up arms against a country that did that to me. I’m not going to become a terrorist under any sort of normal circumstance. But kill my family, and yeah, I’m going to go looking for some weapons to raise some hell with those murderous invaders. Many Iraqs feel this way. If you radicalize somebody who would have otherwise just minded their own buiness, you’re not killing terorrists “over there,” you’re just radicalizing more and more people. there are more “terrorists” now than there used to be. Because there are more people who want to kill American troops and harm American interests. Al Qeada is as big as it’s ever been. Recruitment is way up, because so many peole are pissed.
So we attacked a country that was no threat to us. This radicalized a bunch of formerly neutral peple. Terrorist groups are at record high membership levels. This is Bush’s record.
And people are complaining that Kerry protested Vietnam. Does anybody really think that the Vietnam war was a good idea? Wouldn’t protesting a morally wrong war be the morally correct thing to do? If I stand in front of the UN holding a sign that says “Peace Now” am I giving comfort to “the enemy” or am I exercizing my constitutional rights? Isn’t it our civic duty to speak up if our government is on the wrong path?
Also, I have to question the idea that muslims are “naturally” terrorists. I just watched a video yesterday that talked about how all Armenians are viscious terrorist killers. (http://www.celesteh.com/blog/2004/09/17/where-ever-there-are-armenians-there/) Any group that has been colonized will have a history of attacking colonial powers. The Middle East was colonized.
And here I want to add that Bush beleives that God wants him to invade Iraq. Which, I mean, we can differ on religious beleifies and that’s ok. If I think I’m doing the right thing, then I would like to beleive that I’m on God’s side. But I think it’s important to note that Bush belongs to an apocalyptic sect. Part of the reason he’s weakening environmental protections is because he doesn’t think that environmental problems that take 50 years to mainfest are a problem. Because we’re in the End Times and the world won’t be around in another 50 years. Once again a difference of beleif, but not necessarily one to be using as a basis for making policy.
Furthermore, Bush sees the end of the world as a desireable event. This again, is a difference of beleief. However, in addition to eagerly awaiting Jesus’ arrival, Bush is taking actions which he believes will fulfill prophesies that must be fulfilled before Jesus can return. Many of these prophesies involve the Middle East. Put simply, part of Bush’s plan for the Middle East is designed to end to the world. Given the level of nuclear proliferation in that region, he may succeed in his goals.
There are many reasons to like or dislike Kerry, but one major point in his favor is that he’s not trying to bring about the apocalypse.
