The Iraq War and American Idol
By Joel Turtel (01/21/07)
The Best Way To Stop Wars Like Iraq - In President Bush's Iraq speech on Jan. 10th., the President took "responsibility" for his failing Iraq policy. Did he really?
President Bush pushed us into the Iraq war on seemingly poor, false, or skewed intelligence information. It seems there were no weapons of mass destruction aimed at America, except a few empty aluminum pipes laying around in the desert. Nor was there any plausible evidence that Al Qaeda was using Iraq as a base of operation. As a result, telling us that Iraq was a “grave threat” to America was just a scare story. Therefore, there was no justification for invading Iraq.
One excuse for the war was that Saddam was a brutal, vicious dictator who tortured and murdered his own people, which he did. Is this something new in the Middle East, or have I been missing something? Are we to believe that political torture or murder do not occur daily in Iran, Syria, and other Middle East countries?
If the purpose of the Iraq invasion was to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, then why are we limiting this global mission to spread democracy, to Iraq? By my calculations, three-quarters of the people in the world live under brutal dictatorships.
What about Africa? It is riddled with warlords and dictators. Let us invade and bring democracy to the entire continent of Africa while we’re at it. What about Cuba, China, Russia, and North Korea? I think we should invade them also. Shouldn’t a billion Chinese and North Korean peasants also enjoy the fruits of democracy?
George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address, said that America should “avoid entangling alliances” and foreign wars. Where did President Bush get the odd, not-mentioned-in-the-Constitution notion that America is morally and financially responsible for bringing democracy to every nation on Earth? Why are we now our global-brother’s keeper? Are we now expanding our own welfare-state to the rest of the world to bankrupt us ahead of schedule?
When we elected President Bush, did we or Congress give him permission to start a war in Iraq that has already cost 3000 American lives and over $300 billion? Did
Congress declare war, as the Constitution requires? Did Iraq invade us? Did Iraq send the 9/11 terrorists to America, or did most of the terrorists come from Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan?
I feel nothing but pity and sorrow for the millions of people now living under brutal dictatorships around the world, like the Iraqis who lived under Saddam. But are their problems our responsibility, at the cost and sacrifice of American lives and bankrupting our nation?
If the purpose of the war was to protect America from future terrorist attacks on our shores, then Al Qaeda, not Iraq, should have been our primary and continuing target. For a fraction of $300 billion and no loss of American lives, we could build twenty fences between us and Mexico and Canada to keep terrorists out. For a fraction of $300 billion, we could pay for machines to scan every package coming into every airport, and every container coming into our ports, ten times over. For a fraction of $300 billion, we could pay for thousands more immigration agents to find and expel every illegal alien from the Middle-East in this country, and for thousands more CIA operatives to hunt down Al Qaeda terrorists around the world.
As for bringing democracy to the Iraqi people, like most Moslems in the Middle East, the Iraqis have lived under Islamic law for over a thousand years (except under Saddam Hussein). What President Bush doesn’t seem to understand is that Islam and democracy are like oil and water—they don’t mix. As I understand it, Islam means total “submission” to the will of God (as interpreted by ruling mullahs). Islamic law seeks total control over it’s subject’s lives. Islamic political regimes have contempt for the American ideals of inalienable individual rights and limited government.
If Moslems want to bind themselves to Islamic law, let them. Should we lose precious American lives and spend $300 billion and counting to bring Moslems a “democracy” their religion has nothing but contempt for?
As for President Bush taking full “responsibility” for his actions, did he? What does it mean when someone takes full responsibility for his actions? In the real world, not the Alice-In-Wonderland world of politicians, if you deliberately or negligently harm someone, you’re in real trouble. The law will punish you severely if a jury finds you guilty.
Are millions of American taxpayers allowed to file a class-action lawsuit against President Bush for tax refunds for the $300 billion and counting of our hard-earned money already spent for this war? In what way is President Bush held legally responsible other than giving us empty words that he is “taking responsibility?”
Most Americans now disapprove of the Iraq war or how Bush is handling the war. What we have here is a President who thinks he has the arbitrary right and moral duty to “spread democracy” to people who don’t have the word “democracy” in their dictionaries. Even worse, he insists on “doing good” with other Americans’ lives and hard-earned money. The only real “responsibility” he will take for pushing us into the Iraq war and spending $300 billion is that he won’t be re-elected. Oh, I forgot—he’s a lame-duck President and can’t get re-elected anyhow.
One final suggestion—I think no President or Congress should be allowed to declare war without Americans directly voting yes or no for war in a national referendum. Hell, Americans now elect the winner of American Idol every year. Isn’t going to war almost as important?
(Printer friendly version) Email: Joel Turtel
