The Saudis, of which we've heard little, are cruel, backward, intolerant, anti-democratic, misogynist, fanatical, and thoroughly dislikeable.
Moreover, they were the Taliban's model, and major financial sponsor.
So lets get bombing Riyadh and oust the Saudi family, in favor of an elected government with a commitment to equal rights for women? While democracy and human rights are preferable to Saudi Arabia's absolutism and human rights atrocities, only the cruel and irresponsible would recommend a military strike to oust the Saudi family in the name of "liberating" the country. We already bombed 5,000 Afghans to death who had nothing to do with the Taliban, except as victims. Should we do the same to 5,000 Saudis?
Iraq has attacked its neighbors, treated people under its jurisdiction atrociously, has a fondness for weapons of mass destruction, and ignores UN resolutions.
Israel has attacked its neighbors, treats people under its jurisdiction atrociously (the dropping of a one-ton bomb on a densely packed Gaza neighborhood being one of the latest instances in a depressing decades-long string of atrocities committed against Palestinians under Israeli occupation), has a fondness for weapons of mass destruction (including an arsenal of at least 200 nuclear warheads), and ignores UN resolutions.
Should Israel be attacked? Of course not.
And that's because crimes aren't committed solely by people we don't like. They're committed by everyone, including our own governments, and their allies. It's simply a matter of drawing attention to the cruelty and irresponsible acts of enemies while shielding allies, and ourselves, from similar scrutiny.
It’s funny how we never actually think isn’t it? We know Saddam’s a cunt, we know he's killed hundreds of his own people in horrific ways. I’m not going to talk about those hundreds of controversial cases of American atrocities that I know about, I can’t prove them and so they’re not useful here, if you want to know about them they’re not hard to find. Instead why don’t I just point out all those little ones everyone seems to ignore?
The crimes of Democratic administrations include the detainment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps during W.W.II; the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulting in the death of millions; the creation of the Neutrality Act that worked in favor of Franco's fascists during the Spanish Civil War; the engineering of counterinsurgency programs in Third World countries; the Vietnam War; and the Clinton administration's illegal acts of aggression, including the bombing of Yugoslavia. Of course that’s all excusable because... Well I forget why...
Well I think that for this atrocity the reason should be obvious. It’s oil. Washington’s own official documents say toppling Saddam Hussein and killing tens, even hundreds of thousands, of Iraqis in the process, has nothing to do with the Iraqi leader being a dictator, or gassing his own people, or defying the UN. Oh, you cant prove that, you’ve just heard that on TV, etc, etc.
Read:
Central Command (Centcom), headed by General Tommy Franks, is the United States military command in the Middle East and East Africa. It has formulated a "theatre strategy" based on "the broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President's National Security Strategy."
Centcom's theatre strategy is built around "dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran...to protect the United States' vital interest in the region - uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil."
For emphasis, Centcom adds: "Primary among U.S. interests in the USCENTCOM [operating region] is uninterrupted secure access to Arabian Gulf oil."
And this, the Middle East command plans to achieve, by ensuring "free market economies ... take root and flourish," consistent with the President's emphasis on using the US military to preserve and extend free markets and free trade, an emphasis articulated in his recently presented National Security Strategy.
A government that lets it be known it's prepared to destroy whole populations in first strike attacks to enforce the primacy of US values of open markets and free trade, can hardly be expected to be incensed by Iraq's regrettable record of human rights violations and military aggression.
Well, at least petrol will be cheaper...
Reply if you want; call me a hippy fuck-wit, call me a sad boring bastard, or support me and help end any chance of this ridiculous conflict.
Think. And think about peace.
Daniel