Shame to see that nobody seems to be studying history these days. Back in the days before the great nation that is USA existed, a bunch of farmers and settlers were running around trying to get their independence from the British. That the French intervened on their side and assisted them is one of the prime reasons why we have the US of A today. So WW2 is more like evening the score.
Also, we won't get into the fact that the US did nothing when the Germans invaded Poland, Belgium, Holland, France, etc, etc, etc. The European war carried on for 2 years before the Japanese were stupid enough to bomb Pearl Harbor. The only reason the Americans ended up liberating France was because the Germans were allies of the Japanese. If this wasn't the case, the French would be wearing jackboots and eating wiener schnitzels instead of berets and croissants. So the allies weren't liberating France as much as they were invading Germany, it was merely a beneficial by-product of the war.
As for the current events in Iraq, Firstly, 1991 was a political shambles that should never have happened. The Iraqis actually asked their then allies, the Americans, whether they would react to the annexation of Kuwait. The Americans actually approved it, then realised that their ally would also probably also take Saudi Arabia, which was an unacceptable state of affairs, given the oil reserves in the three countries. If the original Bush administration had foresight, they would have never have allowed Iraq to invade.
(We won't get into the conspiracy theory here that the US had decided that Saddam had outlived his purpose as an American ally, and that letting him take Kuwait was just a ploy to give him enough rope to hang himself, and disarm him of all the WMDs that the Americans had sold to him in the first place.)
In the end, the coalition did the world a great service when they re-took Kuwait, and succeeded in largely disarming Iraq. But this was again a by-product of a greater aim, to ensure the stability of global oil production and distribution. Without the oil, nobody could have cared less whether Iraqis, camels or Klingons invaded Kuwait.
This time around, matters are even more convoluted. The intention of Resolution 1441 (is that the right number?) is to ensure that Iraq is disarmed of WMDs. At no point does it refer to liberating Iraq from Saddam's tyranny. This is for one critical reason. No matter how noble, or even how moral, it is an illegal act under international law for any country to interfere with another country's sovereign rights. Not that I like lawyers at all, but laws are laws, I'm afraid.
There are other reasons why we should shy away from pretending to liberate Iraq. In the Despot Hall of Fame, Saddam is but a bit-player. Compared to Pol Pot's killing fields in Cambodia, Stalin's gulags in Siberia, and Hitler's concentration camps in Europe, Vlad the Impaler, Rome's gladiatorial slaughters, even the Catholic Church's persecution of the Jews, he's bad, but not that bad.
Also, we should take into account Iraq's history, with over 100 years of systematic invasion and occupation by a host of countries, especially Britain. The Iraqi people hate invaders of any sort, and for any reason. And they especially hate Britain and the US. There has been, in certain areas, a significant increase in infant mortality and deformities in certain parts of Iraq since 1991. These places coincide with areas where a lot of depleted uranium shells were used. Many Iraqis believe that the US actively tried to poison them by using these munitions.
As the situation stands, I can't see a way in which anybody will win. Ideally, Saddam and his family will be killed either by coalition bombs, or by a member of his military followers. In this situation, the coalition should make hasty their departure, and let the UN and aid organisations rebuild the country's infrastructure. But will they? Doubtful. The Bush administration wants to eradicate every component of Saddam's regime, even if a part is involved in killing Saddam. In this situation, the Iraqis will feel invaded yet again, breeding further resentment against the West, building further willingness to act, creating further branches of terrorist cells and networks. This will have a significant impact on us for years to come.
In the meantime, let's not forget why we're there in the first place. Disarming Iraq of WMDs. But this whole area is being studiously avoided by the Bush administration, and for good reason. What if there are no WMDs left in Iraq? Not only would this negate the only legal justification for war, it would also make the administration, the American military and the CIA look incredibly stupid. Almost as stupid as the systems that allowed 9/11 to happen in the first place, even when there were enough clues to stop it. And if there are any WMDs left? It's hard to see how any officer or scientist in charge of a hidden stockpile somewhere in the far corner of the country would resist the offer of a million dollars from a representative Mr bin Laden to give him the keys to the armory.
Hate him or loathe him, Saddam is a stabilizing influence in Iraq. As long as he's in power, no terrorist networks will be able to access them, because their mutual hatred exceeds our distaste for Saddam. Also, of what WMDs he has left, there aren't enough to use for any purpose except as a last-gasp means of avoiding invasion. So as long as he's there, we can keep an eye on them. Get rid of him, and the task of securing WMDs fast enough to ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands becomes impossible.
I honestly hope and pray that all coalition soldiers come back safe, they're doing their duty and they should be proud of that. But the short-sightedness and incompetence of the Bush administration in ignoring the long-term impacts of going into Iraq is tragic. The $90 billion spent on this folly would have been much better invested in understanding and negating far more significant terrorist threats to the US.
I'm not bothered about being flamed, what I am bothered about is the blind faith of people in an administration that is driving the country to ruin, and ignoring the real threats while putting the lives of good soldiers from all countries at risk for this folly.
My $ 0.02's worth.
Topic: No letters from Philadelphia. (Read 5710 times)