No, Virginia, the Earth Is Not Flat ... They Just Believe It Is
Press Action
Saturday, November 20, 2004
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/jackowski11202004/
By Rosemarie Jackowski
Shocking as it may be, there are still those who believe that we are slaughtering people in Iraq because of 9/11. Then there are those who still believe that Iraq had WMDs. Also there are many who believe that we are fighting for “our freedom,” or to spread democracy. We are at war to keep us safe. That is what the government tells us, so it must be true. There are also those who believe that we are fighting for oil for our people.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. It may seem like a waste of effort to, again, address the 9/11 connection to the war, but someone better do that. The evidence to disprove the 9/11 argument for the war is readily available. Just read PNAC, written years before 9/11, or better yet, read Blowback by Chalmers Johnson. It, too, was written before 9/11 and explains how U.S. foreign policy would threaten all of us at home and abroad.
What about the argument that we are fighting for our freedom and to spread democracy? The facts speak for themselves. Are we more “free” now? And about the democracy explanation, remember Iran in 1953. Remember how the U.S. destroyed the democracy there. History proves that the U.S. is not above killing, in order to prevent democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere.
What about the argument that we are fighting in order to keep us safe? Having become the most hated nation on the planet should dispel that argument. Our government has painted a target on the back of every U.S. citizen in many ways. For example, most areas in the U.S. are of mixed use, civilian and military. That means that most population centers are legitimate military targets. Even in some of the smallest towns and most rural areas, there are military contractors or subcontractors. How many military functions took place in the Twin Towers? Think about it.
What about the oil connection? Well, yes, oil is a consideration but the story does not end there. It is not oil for the people that the government wants. The need to increase profits from the oil for the corporations is the big motivation.
It is the quest for profits that causes war. It is just that simple. It is not some murky, complex ideological difference between Islam and Christianity. I need a bumper sticker that says, “It’s not about Christianity. It’s about Capitalism.” Before it was about oil, it was about banana plantations. In the future, when there is no more oil, it will be about something else...maybe clean water or broccoli. The choice is an easy one...either expose capitalism for what it really is, or leave a legacy of endless wars, exploitation, and death for those who come after us.
These facts are so well known that it is almost embarrassing to restate them here. I will, no doubt, take a lot of flak for stating what is so obvious in this article, but it is important to consider the mindset of such a large percentage of the U.S. population. As badly as I want to shout, “There is no 9/11 connection”, I want even more loudly to shout, “They think there is”. If they think there is a connection, then that issue has to be addressed. If half of the population thought that the Earth was flat, then the issue of the flatness or the roundness of the planet would have to be discussed.
During an interview back in the early 1990s, Colonel David Hackworth is quoted as saying, “In war some people die, and some people get rich.” Col. Hackworth is not a member of the anti-war movement. Indeed, he is a highly decorated military man, definitely not a pacifist, just a realist who opposes the current war. The point is that no matter where you are on the anti-war pro-war curve, there are reasons to oppose the war in Iraq.
Actually the use of the word “war” is incorrect. How can there be a war if only one side is armed? How can a nation, which has already seen its military destroyed, be at war? If one side has DU, robotic assault weaponry, massive tools of terror and every kind of weapon that can possibly be imagined, and the locals are defending themselves with small homemade weapons, can this be called a “war”? In the most recent, caught-on- tape war crime, the unarmed Iraqi civilian was killed because he was breathing. When breathing is interpreted as an act of aggression, it is time to examine the Pentagon’s Rules of Engagement. This is a slaughter, genocide on a grand scale.
What the U.S. is doing in Iraq is a moral, legal, and diplomatic failure but beyond that, it is also one of the biggest strategic blunders in military history. Wars can be won or lost. The relevant question that no one is asking is, “How do you win a slaughter?” The simple answer is that a slaughter can never be won. Even if the U.S. killed every civilian in Iraq, would that be a win? Face it, the U.S. has already lost in Iraq. The killing will continue, but there will never be a victory for the U.S. There will never be a victory for the U.S. in Iraq because the entire world, with the exception of those in the U.S. (where the news is tightly controlled), has seen what the U.S. has done. The whole world is watching. Whispers of, “Never again,” are being heard from every corner of the globe. The international image of the U.S. will be tarnished for generations. Unlike previous atrocities committed by the U.S., this one was caught on tape.
In the anti-war classic, War is a Racket, the author, while discussing the cause of war states: “...A few profit, and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can’t end it by disarmament conferences. You can’t eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can’t wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war...”. Those words were written by USMC General Smedley Butler in 1935.
Rosemarie Jackowski is an advocacy journalist living in Vermont. She can be reached at dissent@sover.net.