An alternative perspective on the war

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Audrie Krause <akrause () netaction org>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:04:02 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: An alternative perspective on the war

Dave,

Since your stated editorial policy is to supplement mainstream
coverage with alternative views, perhaps you will consider this worth
sharing with the IP list.

Audrie Krause
-----------------

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15663

Why The Anti-War Movement Was Right
Filed April 16, 2003

The Bible tells us that pride goeth before the fall. In Iraq, it cameth
right after it.

> From the moment that statue of Saddam hit the ground, the mood around the
Rumsfeld campfire has been all high-fives, I-told-you-sos, and endless smug
prattling about how the speedy fall of Baghdad is proof positive that those
who opposed the invasion of Iraq were dead wrong.
What utter nonsense. In fact, the speedy fall of Baghdad proves the anti-war
movement was dead right.

The whole pretext for our unilateral charge into Iraq was that the American
people were in imminent danger from Saddam and his mighty war machine. The
threat was so clear and present that we couldn't even give inspectors
searching for weapons of mass destruction -- hey, remember those? -- another
30 days, as France had wanted.

Well, it turns out that, far from being on the verge of destroying Western
civilization, Saddam and his 21st century Gestapo couldn't even muster a
half-hearted defense of their own capital. The hawks' cakewalk disproves
their own dire warnings. They can't have it both ways. The invasion has
proved wildly successful in one other regard: It has unified most of the
world -- especially the Arab world -- against us.

Back in 1991, more than half-a-dozen Arab nations were part of our Desert
Storm coalition. Operation Iraqi Freedom's "coalition of the willing" had
zero. Not even the polygamous potentates of Kuwait -- whose butts we saved
last time out and who were most threatened by whatever threat Iraq still
presented -- would join us. And, I'm sorry, but substituting Bulgaria and
the island of Tonga for Egypt and Oman is just not going to cut it when it
comes to winning hearts and minds on the Arab street.

In fact, almost everything about the invasion -- from the go-it-alone
build-up to the mayhem the fall of Saddam has unleashed -- has played right
into the hands of those intent on demonizing our country. Islamic extremists
must be having a field day signing up recruits for the holy war they're
preparing to wage against us. Instead of Uncle Sam wants you, their
recruiting posters feature a different kind of patriotic image: an American
soldier ill-advisedly draping the American flag over Saddam's face.
The anti-war movement did not oppose the war out of fear that America was
going to lose. It was the Bush administration's pathological and frantic
obsession with an immediate, damn-the-consequences invasion that fueled the
protests.

And please don't point to jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets to validate
the case for "pre-emptive liberation." You'd be doing the Baghdad Bugaloo
too if the murderous tyrant who'd been eating off golden plates while your
family starved finally got what was coming to him. It in no way proves that
running roughshod over international law and pouring Iraqi oil -- now
brought to you by the good folks at Halliburton -- onto the flames of
anti-American hatred was a good idea. It wasn't before the war, and it still
isn't now. The unintended consequences have barely begun to unfold.
And the idea that our slamdunk of Saddam actually proves the White House was
right is particularly dangerous because it encourages the Wolfowitzes and
the Perles and the Cheneys to argue that we should be invading Syria or Iran
or North Korea or Cuba as soon as we catch our breath. They've tasted blood.

It's important to remember that the Arab world has seen a very different war
than we have. They are seeing babies with limbs blown off, children wailing
beside their dead mothers, Arab journalists killed by American tanks and
bombers, holy men hacked to death and dragged through the streets. They are
seeing American forces leaving behind a wake of destruction, looting,
hunger, humiliation, and chaos.

Who's been handling our war PR, Osama bin Laden? The language and imagery
are all wrong. Having Tom DeLay gush about our "army of virtue" at the same
time we're blowing up mosques is definitely not sending the right message to
a Muslim world already suspicious that we're waging a war on Islam.
Neither is Ari Fleischer's claim that the administration can't do anything
to keep Christian missionaries -- including those who have described the
Islamic prophet Muhammad as a "demon-possessed pedophile" and a "terrorist"
-- from going on a holy crusade to Baghdad. You think the Arab world might
take that the wrong way? If there is one thing that could bring Sunnis and
Shiites together, it's the common hatred of evangelical zealots who
denigrate their prophet.

And it doesn't help to have the American media referring to Jay Garner, the
retired general Don Rumsfeld picked to oversee the rebuilding of Iraq, as
"viceroy." It reeks of colonial imperialism. Why not just call him "Head
Bwana?" Or "Garner of Arabia?" I didn't realize the Supreme Court had handed
Bush a scepter to go along with the Florida recount.

The powerful role that shame and humiliation have played in shaping world
history is considerable, but something the Bush team seems utterly clueless
about. Which is why the anti-war movement must be stalwart in its refusal to
be silenced or browbeaten by the gloating "I told you so" chorus on the
right. On the contrary, it needs to make sure that the doctrine of
preemptive invasion is forever buried in the sands of Iraq.

Especially as the administration, high on the heady fumes of Saddam's
ouster, turns its covetous eyes on Syria. I give it less than a week before
someone starts making the case that President Assad is the next, next
Hitler.


------ End of Forwarded Message

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