Pensieri di un lunatico minore

The Coming Firestorm

I am not one to normally partake of nihilistic fantasies of armageddon, but the current environment has unfortunately brought that fear one step closer to a reality. With each passing day, the United States Government takes one more step towards war with Iraq over something that may in fact be nothing more than a complete fabrication of political convenience.

When we got involved in the Gulf War (more a conflict, but let’s use the common word for argument’s sake), we said it was to liberate Kuwait. This was a ruse, of course, because Kuwait is an autocratic regime and freedom didn’t exist. It was a convenient sham to hide the real reason—-that we were protecting American economic interests, and most specifically the oil reserves under Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. How else could you explain the support of such heinous regimes as these?

After the short war, the UN authorized weapon’s inspectors to survey the Iraqi infrastructure and destroy any weapons of mass destruction. This team was led by Scott Ritter (who is quoted in the article above). While the team was unable to verify 100% destruction, they believe it exceeded 93-95%, and that the rest would likely be unverifiable due to damage during the conflict. While admitting the Sadam Hussein is evil—-something anyone of any moral standing would be hard pressed to disagree with—-he is convinced that he is unable to launch an attack of any magnitude against any of his neighbors. In short, containment has succeeded.

Then September 11th happened, and the Administration was quick to blame Iraq for the anthrax attacks, as well as the attacks by Osama bin Laden’s followers. Unfortunately, as time went by, no actually evidence could be shown, and in fact, evidence came out that the anthrax attack didn’t originate in Iraq, but the source was a US weapons facility in Maryland and a US research scientist. Oddly, the Administration never apologized for the unfounded accusations, nor have they made any arrests, which is either implies complete incompetence, or an intentional disregard for finding out, or wanting to reveal who in-fact was involved.

Instead of pursuing a logical course of justice, the Administration has beat the drum of war to a deafening level, attempting to convince the American people that we must expend any resources necessary to topple Saddam Hussein. And yet the Administration refuses to lay out any evidence, citing “national security” concerns—-and yet it is for national security that we are argued to undertake this massive war, one that will potentially cost thousands of lives on both sides. Never trust someone whose only “answer” is “trust me.”

What then will be the result of toppling this evil tyrant? We might hope for peace in the middle east, but Saddam is the least of the worries for that, with the degrading situation in Israel-Palestine spiraling out of control fueled by irrational hatred and mistrust on both sides. Perhaps a friendly government in Iraq? We know how well that worked in Iran. Saddam has been exceptionally effective and eliminating any potentially strong leaders, by assassination if necessary. That means that anyone who was put into power would be of questionable leadership qualities, and largely would be seen as a puppet.

An American puppet? Isn’t that what Osama bin Ladden said he was pissed off at? American meddling in mid-east politics? The propping up of some governments and topping of others? The end result of a war in Iraq will not be limited to tens of thousands of casualties—-mostly civilians. It will be an escalation of the terrorist activities against the United States. It only adds more fuel to the raging fires, and that’s not what the Administration wants.

Or is it?

More war means more money for the military contractors. More terrorist threats means more fear and the ability to pass more Orwellian laws like the US PATRIOT act. More fear means people will more easily roll over during an unprecedented power grab the likes of which has not been seen since Adolf Hitler. Hitler came to power fueled by the fear of those who had fallen on hard times. He exploited the most basic of fears—-the fear of those who are not like us, more often called xenophobia.

It is something that tears at my very belief of the general morality of people. That when left, in a neutral situation, they will make the right choice, but there is a flaw in this belief. Those who would pursue power are the least deserving of that power. They have demonstrated Greed and Envy, Gluttony and Pride, Lust and Anger, and most of all Sloth.

My greatest fear is that the coming war is nothing more than a political exercise to further consolidate power in those least deserving of it. The path to peace is not through war, but through peace. If we spent 1/2 of what we do on our military on reaching out to truly help those who most need it, in our country, and elsewhere, then we would find that the hatred of the United States would ebb, and the risks that we are so in need of a “defense department” for would slide away, replaced by just the wackos and random people, and not entire nations, entire organizations. The problem is of course that this behavior, while both conservative (in a traditional sense) and compassionate (in every sense) is not to the benefit of those in power, and therefore will never be pursued.

Sad. For a country so bent on defining itself as Christian that we should be so distinctly non-Christian in our treatment of others.