The war in Iraq has crippled the country
in countless ways and has emboldened Islamic extremists throughout the
world -- this is not a sign of stability. It is startlingly clear that
the Iraqi people have not been “empowered” nor been given the chance to
own or control anything. The war, combined with the effects of U.S.
backed sanctions, has ravaged Iraq’s economy, particularly its
agriculture, depriving people of the ability to feed themselves and
control food production. Since the invasion, the number children who are
starving has increased, and over 25% of them are chronically
undernourished, according to a recent UN report. Unemployment has
skyrocketed directly because of the policies of the occupational
authorities. In Iraq, the ability to determine one’s own fate is, like
clean water and access to electricity, a completely foreign concept.
Not only are current terrorist “breeding grounds” not subsiding in
activity, but new ones are being created at frightening rates in
previously secular areas. New crimes committed by the U.S. emerge each
day, ranging from torture to secret prisons to the use of white
phosphorous in Fallujah, an incendiary and toxic chemical that would be
in violation of international weapons treaties. Islamist terrorism
existed before the invasion, but the invasion is a continuation, in many
ways a climax, of our disastrous policies in the Middle East.
The Bush administration has constantly changed its justification for the
war, employing whatever propaganda it felt would be most effective, with
utter disregard for truth. Dick Cheney explicitly said that there was a
direct link between al-Qaeda and Iraq, and now he accuses the massive
and growing anti-war contingent of immoral “revisionism.” He, of course,
also said that the insurgency was in its “last throes.” These comments,
to say nothing of the litany of other lies, distortions, exaggerations,
etc., starkly spell out this administration’s deceit and incompetence.
Now the justification du jour for the war is this modern “domino
theory,” that it will save the region from falling into the hands of
Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Unfortunately, this is just another
hawkish attempt to salvage a failed war campaign and a failed
presidency. Judging by the numbers who still support the President and
the war, the people see no bright vision of stability and democracy;
this time, they’re not buying it.