As I was leaving my office last Night...
...I overheard a very heated conversation between
several security guards. Knowing how the Iraq situation
has stoked emotions, I wondered if they were talking
about the U.S. offensive. Sure enough, I heard someone
mention weapons of mass destruction, then one of them
said: "If they didn't have them before, they'll
have them by the end of this!"
Good point. Rank-and-file Iraqis, reputed to be an educated and resourceful people, now have a reason to turn their talents against us.
So how do things play out from here? The power of war as an addiction is well documented, an insatiable sickness that feeds on itself (like the canine progenies of incest seen by Milton in 'Paradise Lost' - Book II, 648-659, 746-802).
After Afghanistan and Iraq, who will be next? The lead candidate is Iran. Convenient in proximity to Iraq, where the U.S. will already have a vast occupying force, it offers the appealing prospect of additional oil resources, along with the convenient pretext that it may be trying to become a nuclear power. Iran is also considering switching its oil trading from dollars to euros, following the same fatal mistake made by Iraq in 2000.
Ah, but what of the expense of war? Goliaths are expensive to feed, even when matched with these pygmy opponents. This is where it gets tricky. The U.S. administration clearly has no compunction about taxing the poor and squandering precious resources, financial or otherwise, to fund its military adventures, but the cost of a second escapade could so accelerate our path to bankruptcy that it could outweigh Bush's war dividend for the next election in 2004.
Thus, the U.S. might need to temper its unilateralism just enough to get European help for its "War on Terror". But how could it engineer such a volte-face among nations implacably opposed to the current course, especially France? Even that boy-wonder Blair might balk at such blatant nation-rape.
The answer is as simple as it is deadly. Stage catastrophic nuclear events in Paris and London and make them look like the work of state-sponsored terrorists from your scapegoat of choice. Enrage the French to hurl their Mirages and Exocets at the offending country, and all will be right with the world and the dollar again.
Think I'm mad? Given the administration's callous disregard for foreign life -- a disregard nourished by ignorance of other cultures -- and its pattern of shifting the justification for murder according to expedience, and when there is no justification to switch to a lie, and when the lie fails, to go ahead anyway, it is no great stretch of the imagination.
I was scared to say this before, for I have weathered bitter accusation from some acquaintances that support current U.S. foreign policy, and I sometimes feel very alone. Indeed, I have been disappointed by the ignorance and complacency even among some of my friends. Why do so few bother to look beyond the surface of things?
But after joining hundreds of thousand of protestors in New York City last Saturday, many of whom, like me, have never gone on a march or demonstration in their lives, I am encouraged that so many U.S. citizens see the wolf beneath the sheep's clothing at the White House, and I am emboldened to sound the alarm. Among the marchers, I was joined by a friend who had tried in vain to warn fellow citizens about the dangers of Milosevic when he lived in the former Yugoslavia. He describes current conditions in the U.S. as "déjà vu".
Think we're all loonies? Think we are fools that we don't nod our heads in sage agreement with the so-called experts and generals on T.V.? If so, consider what the Good Book has to say about us fools: "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are." (1 Corinthians 1:26-28)
My friend also brought to my attention this excerpt from Hitler's address of Sept. 1, 1939, prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland that began World War II.
"I am wrongly judged if my love of peace and my patience are mistaken for weakness or even cowardice ... we will carry out this task ourselves ... until the safety, security of the Reich and its rights are secured."
Let me also add that my opinions do not come from a knee-jerk antiwar prejudice. Indeed, when the Bush administration first broached the subject of invading Iraq, I was cautiously supportive, even though I detested every other aspect of Bush's foreign-policy. But I have peeped through a few keyholes since then (metaphorically speaking, of course) and heard some of the whisperings in dark rooms and secret corridors. Read a few good books, and you can do the same. As one of the protest posters declared: "If you're not enraged, you're not paying attention."
Peace.
Ian.
March 23, 2003
