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Monday, March 17, 2003 |
Bush orders Saddam to quit. US President George W Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war, in a televised address to the nation. [BBC News]
The coming war in Iraq is a defeat for all of humanity. It is a defeat because the international community established the foundations of Saddam Hussein's power at the beginning of the last century through arbitrary borders, unfair oil deals, and appointed despots. It is a defeat because the United States, eager to pick its next target in the war on terror, decided long ago that the Spring of this year would be the time for war. And it is a defeat because in the end, the appeasement of most of the world's nations made war more likely, rather than less.
The entire world shares responsibility for what is about to happen in Iraq. Let us pray for a quick war which will spare the Iraqi people even more suffering, and keep casualties to a minimum. And let us pray that the world (in this case, primarily the United States) makes up for the mistakes of the past by giving the Iraqi people their country back, and helping them to rebuild it.
6:18:58 PM 
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This is a good bit scarier than "freedom fries." But if you think the xenophobia-passing-as-patriotism we're seeing now is just "one idiot yahoo out of a population of 275 million," there I have to disagree. How about this story--also from Texas, though I'm sure that's a coincidence--about somebody spray-painting "Scum Go Back to France" on the garage door of a woman who moved to the US from France 23 years ago? Just another single idiot yahoo? Or is there something a bit bigger and uglier afoot here? [IsThatLegal?]
Sadly, it seems that many Americans believe that the Constitution is not relevant in times of war or national crisis. For those people, disagreeing with government policies is "un-American," and being from a country which disagrees with U.S. policies is reason for suspicion.
Many times, these types of folks will tell people who disagree with U.S. policy that "if you hate this country so much, why don't you move to <substitute dictatorship here, currently Iraq>." But it could be argued that similar reasoning applies to those who wish to clamp down on Constitutional rights (namely, "freedom of speech" and "presumption of innocence"): "if you hate the Constitution so much, why don't YOU move to <substitute dictatorship here>."
Now I'm not calling for anyone to move anywhere, but I think that certain elements of our society need to remember the ideals that the United States was founded on and change their behavior accordingly.
1:10:58 PM
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