Good one ! Thanks for the post and ping !
Posted on 01/20/2004 2:09:51 PM PST by Byron_the_Aussie
Most Americans still think Bush did the right thing in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, writes Caroline Overington.
There is going to be a presidential election in the United States in November and George Bush is going to win. President Bush's approval rating is around 60 per cent. That's comparable with Ronald Reagan in 1984, who redefined the term "landslide" when he won 49 of the 50 states.
Naturally, this makes some people crazy. How can Americans vote for a guy who went to war over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist?
First, the US economy is growing at an estimated 5 per cent a year. Interest rates are low. Bush's tax cuts are in people's pockets, and they are spending happily.
Second, Americans like Bush. They see him as patriotic, family-centred and self-disciplined. He is also teetotal, conservative, and Christian. He supports marriage, and opposes abortion and homosexual marriage. There are people who think this makes him a bit old-fashioned but millions of Americans like old-fashioned values.
Most Americans also support Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq. They are not stupid. They know that the so-called intelligence about Saddam Hussein was wrong. Despite this, 67 per cent still believe the US did the right thing.
Because I live in New York, I rarely get to hear the voice of this majority. Instead, I get magazines such as Vanity Fair, which last month had a column by the editor angrily listing statistics from the war in Iraq. Such as: number of American soldiers killed: 500. Number of weapons of mass destruction found: 0.
But, as some readers pointed out, there were statistics missing from the list. These include: number of mass graves uncovered in Iraq: around 260, containing as many as 20,000 bodies. Number of people liberated from brutal, murderous leadership: 12 million. And number of times Bush lied about receiving oral sex from a White House intern: 0.
The Iraq war has cost the lives of about 500 American soldiers. Some would have you believe that this makes Iraq a quagmire. But the truth is, if Western nations have come to the point where 500 deaths is an unbearable war-time loss, then we should also say we are no longer prepared to fight wars, because about the same number of soldiers die every year, in peacetime.
Americans are not casual about casualties. Each and every one of the lives lost was precious to them. I remember sitting on a small plane, travelling from North Carolina to New York, when the war was a few weeks old. I was reading USA Today and, as I opened it to study a map of Iraq, one half of the newspaper fell into the lap of my fellow passenger. I turned to apologise, but he said: "No problem. Actually, do you mind if I have a look?"
Together we studied the picture, trying to work out how far the Americans were from seizing power. It was clear from the diagrams that troops were near Saddam's airport, and close to the centre of Baghdad. I turned to my seat mate and said: "I don't think this is going to be a long battle, after all."
It was only then that I noticed, with horror, that he had started to cry. And then I noticed something else: a photograph, wrapped in plastic, pinned to his lapel. It was a picture of his 20-year-old son, a young marine who died in the first days of the war. The man's wife was sitting across the aisle from us. She had a round bowl on her lap, filled with water and some drooping tulips. The movement of the aircraft was making the water slop around. She was trying to wipe her hands, and her tears.
The couple told me they had just been to a private meeting with Bush to discuss the loss of their son. At the time, it was already clear that Saddam didn't have any weapons of mass destruction.
"But I never thought it was about the weapons," my seat mate said. And, although I can't remember his exact words, he also said something like: "We have always stood up for freedom, in our own country, and for other people."
Any student of history knows that this is true. America saved the Western world from communism. America saved Australia and, for that matter, France from a system that would stop you from reading this newspaper.
Americans support the war in Iraq and, by extension, Bush because they see it as part of a bigger picture. Like everybody, they now know that Saddam was not the threat they thought he was (at least, not to them) but they still think it was a good idea to deal with him, before he became one.
The price of freedom is high. You might think you would not sacrifice your life for it, but maybe you don't have to. After all, 20-year-old Americans are doing it for you, every day.
Caroline Overington is New York correspondent for The Age.
What a beautiful article. Gently stated, factual, and bearutifully written.
it's we who should be thanking you, Angelwood.
My thoughts are that it's human nature, to take our freedoms for granted. one never appreciates something of value until it's gone. The liberty we enjoy has been won by those who often gave the supreme sacrifice, like this boy in Iraq. I think not just of those at the sharp end, Omaha Beach or whatever, but people like the unsung heroes who spent countless hours staring at a radar screen at some Godforsaken NORAD base in Alaska, for example. Their contribution infers a obligation on the rest of us to repay a debt. If you don't repay your debts you are without honour.
Thankfully, we don't have to risk life and limb. It might be something as simple as freeping a poll, calling a talk radio station, or writing a letter to the editor. Anyone doing those kind of things is repaying their debt, in a small way. You personally have done so much more that I put you in the first category- we owe you.
Actually, a little more than twice that. Although the Kurds were semi-free before the war.
In 1992, I went around asking my co-worker what the ten most important issues in the election were. I then asked them which candidate supported their side of the issue best. Only a couple had Clinton at more than 3 in 10. Yet when asked who they would vote for, overwhelmingly, the answer was for Clinton. When asked why, I'd often get some form of "he's for the people". "You?" "No." "What people?" -blank stare-
Women tend to be drastically less informed than men. Democrats less than Republicans...and Independents even less.
Good one ! Thanks for the post and ping !
That is a very simplistic, and fallacious conclusion. In fact Saddam did have such weapons.
I could very easily have been in the same position as that parent of the hero who was killed. My son was very involved in the early stages of that war, and in fact was nearly killed. Nevertheless, I supported the war in Iraq, and I also support action against other regime that would threaten our way of life.
We are talking about survival here. These primitives who have engaged us in Jihad, know no sort of honor at all. They shoot down freaking Medivac Helicopters for crying out loud.
Saddam has used WMD against his own citizens, and to enunciate the ridiculous platitude that there were no weapons is sheer audacity. A professional journalist wrote that? Perhaps that Writer might want to consider some of the tapes and images that have been widely available for years which display the results of the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam did not have.
When the terrorists do attack one of our cities with a biological or chemical weapon are people going to say that it was not a WMD because it was not a nuke?
Thanks for pinging me to such a moving article.
You don't know that. I'm confident that after the recent scandals her editors would have sought further verification before going to press. Seek treatment for your cynicism issues, mate.
I'm sorry you've chosen to focus on that tiny aspect of such a great story, Radix.
But since you have, where are the weapons?
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