Saddam Hussein is RightDo you have to be a bloodthirsty bully to be a conservative? That’s one of the prerequisites, if the rhetoric of many Republicans are taken seriously. My conservative credentials hold up pretty well. If I had things my way, the IRS would be dismantled. The income tax would be abolished. Affirmative action would come to its miserable conclusion. The powers of the federal and even state governments would be dramatically reduced, Roe v. Wade would be overturned, and the nation would be magically rescued from the perverse warriors of political correctness and humanistic new age morality. Indeed, over the past couple of years, I have written quite bluntly on virtually all these subjects without apology. But there is one position I hold which cannot be tolerated by the conservative establishment. It is such a great heresy that it is considered blasphemy by the self-appointed ecclesiastical lords and guardians of "real conservatism." That position is the rejection of the long held right wing doctrine of internationalism and militaristic imperialism. Think that is dramatic and overblown rhetoric? Think again. This country believes it has the right to rape the sovereignty of any nation that fails to succumb to its dictatorial demands. This is a country that has its military in countless foreign lands where it was never invited and never belonged. This is a country that tells foreign powers where and when it can fly its own planes over its own territory, then screams bloody murder when these same people try to protect themselves against US aggression. Just witness the ongoing 11-year rape of Iraq. Since the "end" of the Gulf War, armed forces, led by the United States, have engaged in a ruthless, merciless perpetual war against the Iraqi people. Countless children and elderly citizens have been starved by sanctions. Many civilians have needlessly died in US "retaliation strikes" (retaliation for Iraq trying to free itself from US aggression). Why, just two days ago, the US again bombed Iraq for daring to assert its sovereignly over its own air space. These kinds of events are hardly ever "news" anymore. These stories are buried in the back of our newspaper and rarely receive any attention in the national news because such imperialism is now the norm. Saddam Hussein, an aging and unhealthy dictator who allegedly poses a huge threat to American interests put it this way: "Do you know what excuse was invented this time by the masters of the (White) House? That Iraq is threatening the planes of the US enemy which fly through our skies, our sovereignty and our territory." That is exactly the excuse coming from the Pentagon, the President and from imperialists in both parties. And guess what. Saddam is absolutely, 100% correct. And the United States, as it frequently is on matters of international relations, is totally in the wrong. Which one of you, my fellow right-wing (alleged) lovers of liberty, would like for a foreign power to dictate to us the terms of where we could fly our planes over our own territory? Who are the bold and consistent cheerleaders of US foreign policy that believe that China has the full rights and privileges to send spy planes over US land to monitor our military activities? Conservatives, please raise your hands if you believe that we’d have no right to shoot down such a plane that violated our sovereignty, or that we must follow orders from a foreign state that declared part of our airspace a "U.S. no-fly zone." Would you agree to such terms? Of course you wouldn’t. You would rightly want to fight back against such oppression. So in the name of all that is rational, why is it such a hard concept for some of you armchair generals to understand that other countries also don’t want to be subjected to such tyranny? The response is all too predictable: "You’re comparing apples and oranges you idiot! Iraq is a threat to our national and world security!" This ho-hum argument is getting as tiresome as it is moronic. Does Iraq, or any other country for that matter, possess as huge of a nuclear arsenal as the United States? Is Iraq sending their armed forces all over the globe to topple dictators, settle foreign disputes, and play the god of internationalism? Is it any wonder that Iraq wants to rebuild its military strength when it is being constantly humiliated, provoked and attacked by the world’s greatest military superpower? Have any of you ever stopped to wonder why so many countries hate us and plot terrorist attacks against us? Could it be because of our much cherished doctrine of internationalism which arrogantly tries to control the affairs of the world? You conservatives who buy the official propaganda of the US government could learn from the golden rule of Christ. "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you (Matthew 7:12, NIV)." Nobody in their right mind would want this country to go through the kind of bullying and abuse we have inflicted upon the Iraqi people. It is rank hypocrisy on the part of people like yourselves to give sanction and approval to the deaths of countless of innocent people in Iraq and many other countries. Saddam Hussein, while he is wrong on most everything, is absolutely correct in his assessment of US foreign policy. While Republicans and Democrats are having a shouting and pillow fight match over who the bigger internationalist is, people are dying and injustice is raging because of our arrogant and immoral policies. The saddest proponents of this madness are the people that call themselves pro-life and conservative, who worship state spending on the US death machine and clap their hands in giddy approval every time a bomb is dropped.
August 10, 2001 Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a free-lance writer and co-director of MarxWatch.com. |
You
people are not conservatives. You pound your fists to send late
teens and twenty-somethings into battle to possibly have their young
lives ended to promote imperialism. The State can never spend enough
tax dollars on its killing machine which has long ceased to be a
function for "defense." You demand that other countries
sit back while we occupy their territory, rape their land and violate
their sovereignty, then scream for justice when one of these countries
allegedly spies on us. Whether or not you’d like to admit it, you
are the aggressive imperialists that Saddam says you are.