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May 15, 2004 Saddam Hussein was a paper tiger; one that had the world and most importantly the American president fooled into thinking he had much greater capability than he did. The governments and politicians feared this man as a supporter of terrorism and a producer of weapons of mass destruction. Now that he has been toppled we find no WMD, no biological weapons or facilities produce them and no great love for Al Quieda in any of the captured paperwork. That the man was brutal dictator is not in doubt by any but them who enriched themselves through his regime. Among them, French, German and American companies who all did business with him. But it turns out and is rarely spoken of, that the sanctions of the last decade did have the effect of containing him. That the Kurds whom he brutalized were living in relative safety thanks to the “no fly zone” patrols of the American and British military. Hussein, while a terror to the people of Iraq, had in reality become something of a minor annoyance to the world at large. He was not a supporter of terrorism of the Osama brand; the two idiots were diametrically opposed to each other in both ideology and politics. The most export of terrorism Hussein conducted was that he paid a reward to the families of them who conducted suicide bombings against the Israeli’s. At best the dictator of Iraq was an Israeli problem. In reality though Saddam was an Iraqi problem. One that if the citizens of Iraq really wanted taken care of they should have been willing to throw off the mantle of his repression themselves. With or without support from the international community. No matter the cost to them personally. After the gulf war fought to liberate the oil fields of Kuwait, some Iraqi's did try to rise up and fight. They were brutally murdered by Hussein, but where was the American response then? Did that generation of Iraqi's not deserve our support? What is it about this generation of Iraq citizens that changed the picture? We had troops and weapons in Irag and the support of the international community at that time but a president without the nerve to complete the mission. Just like Viet Nam. What changed between 1991 and 2003? Hussein was not an American problem until George W. Bush entered the White House. Then he became an American priority as well as an American problem. Why was this? Pol Pot killed as many and he was not taken out. Idi Amin killed his citizens and he was not taken out. Joseph Stalin Killed more than Hussein and he was not taken out. Poppa Doc Duvalier killed his citizens and he was not taken out. Manuel Ortega didn’t kill nearly as many as die in American traffic accidents in a year and he was removed. Why the picking and choosing, as to which nation we will serve up freedom too? What is it that turns American policy? There seems to be no logic or reason for the aiding the desires of one people afraid to take out there dictators and ignoring another. So what is the cost of this incursion into a sovereign nation? What is the cost of serving up war to another generation of American men and women? We will love them and support them as we are able when they return but how will we stop their nightmares of what they have been forced to live through? We are now, after having “liberated” the people of Iraq, embroiled in further hostile actions trying to install a government with a bent towards democracy, while the citizens are rising up and acting as if they would prefer a theocracy like that of there Shi’a neighbors Iran. We Americans are fools; fools for sending our children to Iraq to liberate a people who now fight against us and against our form of democracy instead of spending our overwhelming time and energy on getting the one that actually attacked us, Osama bin Laden. If we had sent and kept a hundred and thirty five thousand troops to find him in the mountains or Afghanistan I dare say he would already be standing before the bar of American Justice or rotting in his grave. Instead we took off after a paper tiger and now can’t seem to find a way to let go of it’s tail. Beyond the greatest cost of this war, which is the lives of our children, we will be paying for it for the next forty years. The same debt of self doubt and castigation we paid after the incursions into Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. Those wounds, while a generation ago are just now beginning to heal. The scars of them on the American psyche are still soft and pink. It takes a long time for a nation like ours to not question and second guess, that in a way is a part of strength. That we look at ourselves, not having to be forced to it by them outside our borders, is one of strengths of our democracy. Yet in the mean time we have to live with the decisions made by them in the administration for whatever reasons no matter how incomprehensible they are to those of us without a top security clearance. We now have to live with a world much changed since the dawn of the new millennium. We are not secured by the oceans. We are not safe from terror strikes. We are not as free from government incursion into our private lives as we once were. We have been forced once again to look at ourselves and find that we are not the shining armor clad knights that bring freedom to the damsel in the tower. We are simply Americans who will have to go on and pay the cost of this war, whatever it is. ------------ About the author Mark C. Durfee: 49...stopped doing what I was doing before to become an unpublished, unemployed writer. Looking for an agent or a publisher(AAR). I have written four full length novels with a variety of themes. Email: mcd5255@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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