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Leaving
Iraq
DIGG THIS
The U.S. forces
entered Iraq under false pretensions. There were no "weapons
of mass destruction," and, even if there were, they were not
aimed at this country. It is an illegal conflict, as only Congress
has the responsibility to declare war, and this was never done.
It is an imperialistic "police action," in that it is
based on considerations of oil, and imposing our system of democracy
upon a nation far away from our borders, that had never violated
our national sovereignty, and constituted no threat whatsoever to
do so. We have lost in excess
of 4,000 of our own soldiers, while killing innocent Iraqis in the
hundreds of thousands; according to some
estimates, more than one million people in this country have
suffered the ultimate penalty in U.S. hands.
So, it
is clear, we must leave. With all due deliberate speed. Namely at
once, or, at least, as soon as a retreat from this battlefield can
be accomplished; that is, within days, not weeks.
But while
this step is a necessary one, it is hardly sufficient. Suppose the
Martians were to have invaded the U.S., murdering millions of our
citizens. There were two schools of thought on the fourth planet
about this expedition.
First, consider
the "conservatives." Martian troops must fully prevail.
They should not "cut and run" until the whole job is done,
and the U.S. is fully colonized by the soldiers of the red planet;
until, that is, we Americans fully take on "Martian values,"
whatever they are. (Don’t ask.) Were the Martians to remove themselves
from our territory before that time, it would make a mockery of
the few hundreds of deaths their brave troops had so far suffered.
No, Martians should support "our boys on the Earth."
Now for the
"liberals." In their view, it was a mistake to invade
the third planet in the first place. Yes, the U.S. indeed had "weapons
of mass destruction," and, indeed again, had used them on their
fellow earthlings in 1945. But, the human creatures had never posed
a threat to the fourth planet; in any case, the humans simply had
no way to deliver nuclear weaponry to Mars. Therefore, the Martian
troops should leave. As soon as possible. There was nothing on the
entire earth worth one Martian soldier’s life.
Suppose the
"liberals" prevail. Their starship troopers go back to
their home planet, after slaughtering Americans in the millions.
And that would be that.
How would we
feel about them apples? Well, better the "liberals" should
prevail than, horrors!, the conservatives. But, would the abrupt
removal of the Martian regiments settle the matter? Would justice,
full justice, be done by this liberal plan? To ask this question
is to answer it. Those bully boys had not a scintilla of justice
on their side. Yes, they stopped the horrendous butchery, and that
is necessary for justice to prevail, but it is hardly sufficient.
At the very
least, in addition to the cessation of hostilities, there should
be an apology. Nowadays, apologies are de rigueur for historical
abuses. But, the American violation of Iraq cannot be considered
a historical event. It is occurring right now! If it is justified
for the great grandchildren of slave masters to apologize for slavery,
then, surely, it is required that members of a nation guilty of
mass murder do so for such evil deeds that occurred while they were
alive, and, at least potentially, could have done something to stop
it.
A heartfelt
apology, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. More is needed,
far more. Reparations, too, must be undertaken, if we are to remove
ourselves from Iraq with even a smidgen of justice. From whence
should the funds for such a payment emanate? Well, first, as the
U.S. departs from that hell hole of its own making, it should cede
all airports, runways, buildings, roads, forts, etc., that we built
to the Iraqis. It would ill behoove a country that has apologized
for its imperialistic invasion to remain in these installations
after it had departed, or to maintain ownership over them. Who better
to benefit from these properties than the families of our victims?
 There
is more. An unjust war must necessarily yield up war criminals.
Surely, they would no longer have any right to their lands, properties
and wealth. Of a certainty, these should be taken from them, and
given to the Iraqis. In addition, or, if it is politically infeasible
to effect such transfers of wealth, a collection should be taken
up, on a voluntary basis, from all Americans. No, we are not "all
guilty" of the heinous crimes perpetrated by our political
leaders, and their pawns, American troops. But, on the other hand,
it is not fully clear that we are not guilty, either. Imagine how
it would look to us, to return to the Martian scenario, if we learned
that their elections, while in the course of engaging in massive
murder of us and our fellow creatures, turned on $400 tentacle shaping,
or the precise definition of the word "is" (in Martian,
of course), or on the age of one of the candidates from the Red
planet, or IPAFTA (interplanetary free trade agreement, that they
had cooked up with the Venusians and Jovians).
 No,
apart from seizing the wealth of actual war criminals, these reparations
to Iraq should be financed on the basis of voluntary contributions.
Strictly speaking, no one else is guilty of unjustified violence
against the Iraqis.
So there we
have it. The only moral course of action is to undertake a three
part series. First, leave, forthwith; pull out all our soldiers,
with no exceptions, and do not use them to invade yet other countries
that pose no threat to us. Second, apologize. Third, prove that
this apology is sincere by making reparations. There is nothing
that can completely undo the mischief we have perpetrated in that
now very sad land. The victims can never be made completely whole
by mere payments. But, financial amends are a necessary part of
the healing process.
July
1, 2008
Dr.
Block [send him mail] is a
professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior
fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending
the Undefendable and the newly released Labor
Economics From A Free Market Perspective.
Walter
Block Archives
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