Posted by
Curt Day on Thursday, November 16, 2006 8:18:46 AM
From the commencement of the Iraq war, our government has called our venture "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Those on the left of my extreme moderate views, from the beginning, have said that this name was a ruse. Those on the right of my extreme moderate views have used the name of this operation as a moral battlecry in supporting this war. Who is right? I believe General Abizaid answered the question this week.
So who is right according to General Abizaid? He confirmed that it was those on my left who were correct. According to our leaders, our goal for invading Iraq, conveniently restated before the search for WMDs, was to liberate Iraq from tyranny and make it a democracy. Also according to our leaders and General Abizaid, Iraq is now the central front on the War On Terror and that if we came home, our enemy would follow our troops to America to fight them here. Isn't there at least one problem with this picture?
Did the Iraqi people vote to volunteer themselves and demand that their government make them the central front in the War On Terror? Of course not. Or did the Iraqi government ignore the wishes of its people and volunteered its own country to become the central front in the War On Terror? This is where we meet just one of many conservative dilemmas.
If the Iraqi government has so endangered its own people by making them targets against their wishes in a war between two foreign powers, then, by definition, the Iraqi government is a failed state--a term borrowed from the title of one of Chomsky's latest books. Thus, the Iraqi government is truly not representing its people and can be regarded by the Iraqis as a dangerous and illegitimate government.
If the Iraqi government has not chosen to make its own country the central front in the War on Terror but has had this forced on them by the US, then it is clear that we went into Iraq to use it rather than to liberate it.
Consider that, for a while, the vast majority of Iraqis have wanted the US out of their country, our presence there prevents rather than promotes democracy. We are only increasing the number of people who hate us, some of which will want to return the favor to us sometime in the future.
To President Bush and General Abizaid, we can only conclude that someone is lying in such a way that not only endangers Iraqis today, but will also jeopardize our own future tomorrow. Will the real liar please step down.