Posted on 12/17/2003 8:04:12 PM PST by Commie Basher
Sunday's capture of Saddam Hussein made it a great day — a great day for empty rhetoric and meaningless posturing by politicians and journalists.
Somehow it was assumed by politicians and the press, without explanation, that Hussein's capture has vindicated the Bush administration's attack on Iraq. But from September 2002 to March 2003, George Bush said nothing about capturing Saddam Hussein. Instead, Bush talked incessantly about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's ability to attack the U.S. with them — as well as Al Qaeda camps in the Iraqi desert. How does finding Saddam Hussein make Bush's claims any more true than they were last week?
We're told that that the Iraqis can see now that Saddam Hussein isn't coming back to power — as though they couldn't figure that out for themselves with 130,000 foreign troops occupying their country.
But in the wonderland occupied by politicians and journalists, the capture of Hussein must mean that all the resisters — also known as "loyalists of the old regime" — would have no more reason to resist.
Some politicians said that if anti-war protesters had their gotten way, Hussein would be in his palace today, instead of in jail. Yes, and if the anti-war protesters had gotten their way, several hundred Americans and thousands of Iraqis would be alive today, instead of dead.
The press played its part in the celebration. Wolf Blitzer of CNN said that Hussein's capture proves to the world that "the President of the United States means business" — whatever that means.
In fact, we've known all along that George Bush means business — the business of getting reelected.
There were plenty of TV pictures of Iraqis firing AK-47s into the air. But no inquiring minds bothered to ask how everyday Iraqis could be carrying AK-47s out in the open, when the American occupiers have imposed strict gun-control edicts and are at war with resisters.
What if Saddam Hussein says that all the dreaded Weapons of Mass Destruction were destroyed years ago? Well, we know that George Bush believes in preemptive strikes, and he's already made one on this front. On Monday, he said of Hussein:
He’s a liar. He’s a torturer. He’s a murderer. . . . He’s a — he’s just — he is what he is: He’s a person that was willing to destroy his country and to kill a lot of his fellow citizens. He’s a person who used weapons of mass destruction against citizens in his own country. And so it’s — he is the kind of person that is untrustworthy and I’d be very cautious about relying upon his word in any way, shape or form.
In other words, "Believe him only if he confirms what I've been telling you for the past year."
Liberation
Donald Rumsfeld said that Hussein's capture means that the Iraqis can now be free in spirit, as well as in fact.
Ah yes, liberated Iraq. It is now a free country. George Bush has liberated it.
How has Iraq been liberated? Let me count the ways . . .
1. The country is occupied by a foreign power.
2. Its officials are appointed by that foreign power.
3. Its citizens must carry ID cards.
4. They must submit to searches of their persons and cars at checkpoints and roadblocks.
5. They must be in their homes by curfew time.
6. Many towns are ringed with barbed wire.
7. The occupiers have imposed strict gun-control laws, preventing ordinary citizens from defending themselves — making robberies, rapes, and assaults quite common.
8. Trade with some countries is banned by the occupying authorities.
9. The occupiers have decreed that certain electoral outcomes won't be permitted.
10. Families are held hostage until they reveal the whereabouts of wanted resisters — much like the Nazis held innocent French people hostage during World War II.
11. Protests are outlawed.
12. Private homes are raided or demolished — with no due process of law.
13. The occupiers have created a fiat currency and imposed it on the populace.
14. Newspapers, radio stations, and TV are all supervised by the occupiers.
This is liberation in the NewSpeak language of politics.
Words like freedom just don't seem to mean what they used to, do they?
Military adventurism is the context of the discussion. We're in this war now because American troops were sent to the other side of the globe to re-install a King to his throne.
I'll ask more directly: Do you agree with Browne's premise that Saddam Hussein should have remained in power?
Browne's premise isn't that Saddam should remain in power, but that the expense and unintended consequences of America removing him aren't worth it to Americans. With that I concur. I couldn't really care less about Saddam Hussien.
Right you are, the American troop presence did force the Terrorists to work "underground" and it did deter outward attacks greatly.
Oh, excuse me! You expect us to believe that our troops presence is what actually caused the Arabic hate for the West?
Unless you are a TROLL and have been geting your "facts" from DU, you had better go back to school and finish your education!
Libertarians wouldn't have put U.S. tax dollars and U.S. troops in the Middle East in the first place. Without involving the U.S. in other people's wars, my liberty is fine.
You just expressed an oxymoron, but we understand what you really meant....
As far as Saddam is concerned, perhaps a million or more Iraqui citizens, who he had executed simply because they did not agree with his political philosophy, would differ with your isolationist indifference.
Personally, being a veteran myself, I truely care about preventing this kind of injustice from occuring in the World. By doing so, I also make my home land a safer place to live in for both you and me!
No, it's just what caused OBL to 'declare war' on the U.S. and start a series of bombings killing Americans.
LOL, I wish I had thought of that one.
In Harry Browne's list of 14 ways in which the U.S. is oppressing the Iraqis, I don't see anything about torture, beheadings, and systematic rapes.
As for gun control (which I am against)--there seemed to be an awful lot of Iraqis running around with guns on Sunday, shooting in the air.
You just expressed an oxymoron, but we understand what you really meant....
Well, it's actually literally true. I could NOT care LESS about Saddam Hussien than I do. If I could care less, it would mean I cared at all, and I don't.
Personally, being a veteran myself, I truely care about preventing this kind of injustice from occuring in the World. By doing so, I also make my home land a safer place to live in for both you and me!
I have no problem with you joining any Abraham Lincoln Brigades you want and going forth to fight in other people's wars. When you want to do it on my dime, and thus put me and my family at risk of retaliation, I have a problem with it.
The attacks didn't come until we put U.S. troops and U.S. tax dollars in the Middle East. Causality is time sensitive.
Not true. I've seen people openly carrying AK's. In some places the local rulers (mafia) run toll gates on the raodways. They let the military convoys through, of course, since a SAW or .50 cal trump an AK any day of the week. Got to admit I get a little puckered when I see guys walking on the road w/ AK's as I drive by. Bottom line is that Browne has sunk below pathetic in his need for some sort of attention.
Libertarianism is the politics (religion) of apathy. A society that embraces apathy is a society that has no shame. It is dead, useless, reprobate, decayed.
In my opinion, each person (and society as a whole) has a destiny. Will we do our part to help the dike hold? Or walk away pretending the rising flood of terrorism is just someone else's problem. The Libertarian will cross the street to avoid tripping over the wounded soul to whom a good samaritan will end up helping.
IMO, the Libertarian philosophy is selfish, dispicable, and treacherously unprincipled. The Libertarian will cross the street to avoid tripping over the wounded soul to whom a good samaritan will end up helping.
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