Iraq
Here are my beliefs on why everybody did what they did over Iraq.
Bush: Wanted revenge for
whatever he thought Saddam did to his father
Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle: Foreign
policy hawks, just looking for an excuse for war. Perhaps motivated
more by the economic benefits to their constituents (the military
industrial complex) than anything else.
George Tenet, CIA and other Western
Spies: Nobody gets fired for saying weapons exists when they do
not. But people do get fired if they did and spies failed to detect
them.
Tony Blair: This guy is hard
to understand.
Powell, Rice: Just didn't have
the spine to stand up to the radicals. Tried to salvage their own
repuatations, by trying to appear reasonable. But I think the damage
has been done to their careers anyway. I'm also distrustful of people
whose political views differ from a majority of the people of their own
race/culture. I must admit Noam Chomski is an exception :)
Democrats: Same problem as
Powell, Rice. They didn't stand up to Bush when they needed to.
Average Urban American: Probably
knew Bush was smoking something. But it didn't matter much to them. War
makes cable TV more interesting to watch.
Average southern rural American: I
don't understand them either, but they seem to be more like Bush - easy
to be led into a war. Probably willing to pay more lives per gallon of
gas.
Saddam Hussein: The character
on most of the toilets in the white house, pentagon and downing street,
as well as old Iraqi dinars. If there is one thing everyone agrees
upon, it's that this guy is evil. I'm sure this guy is a baddie. But is
he as bad as American media and politicians tell you he is ? Why him ?
Why not the Saudis and Pakistanis ? Often, the Bush/Blair guys hide
behind Saddam (you can't be wrong for attacking Saddam) when on the
defensive.
After the Pakistani nuclear episode, one thing is clear. That WMD was
not the rationale for the Iraq war. Oil and perceived strategic
interests are. There seems to be a belief in the press that the
administration knows more than ordinary people do. So when they do
counterintuitive things like attacking Iraq and defending Pakistan,
editorials gush that there must have been a deeper reason for doing it.
But successive American adminstrations (especially Republican ones)
seem to have commited so many mistakes that I don't trust them at all
on this one.
Last Modified
Sun Feb 8 14:25:45 PST 2004
Arun Sharma
<arun@sharma-home.net.nospam>