I am certain that people such as Ann Coulter, Bill O’Leilley, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would accuse me of being unpatriotic at best and treasonous at worst for the ideas that I express in these four confessions. But I feel that these things need to be said. And if right wing idiots think that saying them is unpatriotic or treasonous, I take that as a complement.
I believe that the deaths of Americans are no more tragic than the deaths of other peopleThe deaths of more than 3,000 American soldiers in the Iraq War doesn’t seem to have had much influence on George Bush’s determination to keep the war going until he “wins” it. He does, however, recognize the political effects of those deaths as an obstacle to maintaining support for the war, which is why he
refuses to attend the funerals of our dead servicemen and women.
But what about the
deaths of a hundred times that many Iraqis? Through
U.S. bombing campaigns, the
use of chemical weapons, ferocious
U.S. attacks on populous cities, and the
destruction and
failure to reconstruct the Iraqi infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died. Given that George Bush claims that we invaded Iraq in order to bring democracy to Iraqis, shouldn’t we have made a much more vigorous effort to avoid killing them? You can bet that if several hundred thousand Americans had died in this war it would not be tolerated by the American people, and it would have ended a long time ago. So why should so many Iraqi deaths be tolerated? Because we’re fighting for democracy in Iraq?
I believe that Americans should not have immunity with respect to the International Criminal Court for war crimes or crimes against humanity I noted in
a recent post that George Bush has
unsigned U.S. membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has vigorously attempted to sabotage it. His main problem with the ICC is the possibility that Americans may have to answer to the Court for crimes against humanity or war crimes that they may have committed in the past or may commit in the future. That would undermine the “flexibility” and “independence” that the United States needs to defend its interests, says Bush.
Well, I see no reason why Americans who are suspected of war crimes or crimes against humanity shouldn’t have to answer for those charges just like anyone else. Does Bush think that Americans are so special that they’re not capable of committing those crimes? Or does he believe that it’s ok for Americans to commit those crimes because we have to protect our interests, while other countries don’t? How can we expect others to take international law seriously if we say that Americans are above the law just because they’re Americans?
As long as United States is under the control of “leaders” who have no respect for international law or generally accepted standards of morality I hope that it lacks the military strength to accomplish what those leaders wantLike almost all Americans, I want our military to be strong enough to protect us from our enemies. But the U.S. military is much stronger than that. It is not only strong enough to protect us from our enemies but strong enough to undertake imperial adventures at the whim of irresponsible leaders who may come to power from time to time, on occasion through defects in our election system.
As long as our country is in the hands of responsible leaders, the only problem with having a military that is much stronger than needed is that it is very expensive to maintain and takes money away from other needed government programs or prevents us from making progress in paying off our substantial national debt. But in the hands of irresponsible leaders an excessively strong military is a great danger, not only to the rest of the world but to Americans as well.
That is unfortunately the present status of our country. Our current leadership has taken us into a disastrous war under false pretenses, and the resulting deaths of hundreds of thousands of people doesn’t seem to bother it much. On the contrary, it is contemplating an
escalation of that war, as well as
additional wars.
In addition to the international crime of aggressive war, those leaders have suspended international rules for the protection of human rights and have consequently
unlawfully and indefinitely detained, abused and tortured hundreds or thousands of people, without even charging them with an offense or giving them a chance to defend themselves. By so doing, they are a disgrace to our country, and they have ruined the international reputation of our country.
They have also substantially weakened our country militarily, by virtue of the fact that few or no other nations trust us anymore, so are unlikely to help us voluntarily. But that’s not what I’m worried about. Under the current circumstances I would much rather that our country be weakened militarily than that it have the power to continue to wreak death and destruction on the rest of the world. Unlike some right wing nuts, I get no satisfaction whatsoever from seeing my country’s leaders achieve their imperial ambitions at the expense of the rest of the world and future generations, or from seeing them “
kick ass” as George W. Bush would put it, or “win” wars. Except for a very small number of Americans whose corporate interests are served by our leaders’ imperial ambitions, the rest of us American citizens will not benefit at all from that. George Bush and his cronies care no more for the average American than they care for the rest of the world, and they
care no more for our own Constitution than they care for international law. Any law based system of justice is simply a barrier to their ambitions, and something to be overcome at any cost. Almost all of us are their victims.
I hope we do not “win” our war in Iraq – by George Bush’s definition of “win”George Bush has repeatedly attempted to rile up the “patriotism” of Americans by speaking of our need to “win” the war in Iraq. But more of us should carefully consider what he means by “win”. It is obvious from the actions of the Bush administration over the past several years what George Bush means by “win” the Iraq war. The
attention given to the oil industry in Iraq and the Bush administration’s vigorous
attempts to control that industry speak volumes about what George Bush means by “win”. The insistence on
building permanent military bases in Iraq shows that maintaining an indefinite military presence there for military geo-strategic reasons is a large part of the definition of “win”. And the billions of dollars worth of
fraud committed by Bush/Cheney supporters who have been given no-bid contracts for reconstruction in Iraq also shed much light on what the Bush administration means by “win”.
Given that definition of “win’, I want no part of it.
We went to war in Iraq
on false pretenses, and the Bush administration is keeping us their under false pretenses. The
Iraqis do not want us in their country. Because they do not want us, we are a
major source of the violence in Iraq (See page 3). Our presence in Iraq is serving to
recruit thousands of new members for international terrorism.
Admittedly, there is no easy way out of Iraq. There is now a civil war raging there, and that civil war is likely to continue whether we stay or go. But a moral definition of “win” would mean giving due consideration to what the people of Iraq want and discontinuing our presence there as quickly as possible, while doing what we can to keep the violence to a minimum.
A few final words on voicing disagreement with one’s governmentGeorge W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their followers are fond of accusing those who disagree with them of being unpatriotic or “hating America”. If we’re not with them, we’re “
with the terrorists”, they tell us. And right wing nut case Ann Coulter
has said “Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy.”
In his efforts to manage public perception, George Bush has established “
first amendment zones” to prevent those who disagree with him from being heard by others. He has even
threatened to jail journalists who go beyond his conception of propriety in what they write, claiming that such writing can represent a threat to our national security. He is unconcerned that such actions and threats violate our First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of the press. He is unconcerned that his
warrantless spying program violates our Fourth Amendment rights to be free from reasonable searches and seizures. He is unconcerned that his
abuse and torture of people he deems to be “
enemy combatants” violates our Fifth Amendment right to due process, our Sixth Amendment right to face one’s accusers, and our Eight Amendment right to be protected against cruel and unusual punishment by our government. He is unconcerned that he brought our country into a needless and catastrophic war by lying to Congress and to the American people. He is unconcerned that his negligence resulted in the
ruin through flooding of a great American city and the
failure of his government to save the lives of those who were trapped in that city.
Well, I have news for George W. Bush and his followers and collaborators. We do not hate
America. What we hate is what he and his collaborators are
doing to America – and what they are doing to the world as well. We are not “with the terrorists”, as George Bush says. But even in countries who are our closest allies, a solid majority of citizens see George Bush’s himself as
a threat to world peace. And they are correct in seeing it that way.
George Bush’s contempt for the laws of our country and our Constitution are destroying the foundations of our nation. His contempt for international laws is helping to destroy an international system that has been built up over the past several decades in a valiant effort to make the Earth a more decent place to live for most of its inhabitants. In the process, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their collaborators have made the world a much more violent and dangerous place.
So, if the views that I expressed above are seen as unpatriotic or worse by those people, then so be it. George Bush is not the King, and he does not own our country, as Keith Olberman has so
courageously pointed out. As Will Pitt said,
the greatest sedition is silence. Those of us who express our concern about what George Bush and his collaborators are doing are just trying to make our country better or prevent it from getting worse.
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