ConNiPtioNs

Some more thoughts on invasion...

I think that everyone agrees that Saddam is (was) a bad man. Are most Iraqis happy that he is gone? Yes. My point all along has been that the US government has handled the situation very poorly.

We learned that there was a plan to invade Iraq by Bush's war team in the works for years. There are other ways to effect "regime change" than to roll into a sovereign country with hundreds of thousands of troops. What Bush and company attempted to pass off as diplomacy failed miserably.

So what is the story that we are going with now? Weapons of mass destruction? September 11? Liberate the good people of Iraq? And now that the people are "liberated" what next? Will we do for them what we did for Haiti when we "liberated" them?

In December 1989 the Romanian people managed to free themselves from the repression of their dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. They did it in less than two weeks and without Uncle Sam's tanks and troops. Also in 1989, The Velvet Revolution (November 17 - December 29) brought about the bloodless overthrow the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Again without American troops, bombs and tanks. My point is that it is possible for people to free themselves from oppressive governments without direct American military action.

So now that we've killed over a thousand civilians, over a hundred coalition troops, thousands of Iraqi soldiers, Kurds, and journalists in the process of removing one man from power, now what? Will we install another puppet leader? Will Iraq end up with an opressive theocracy once we pull out? Will Bush start another preemptive war with Syria or Iran or North Korea? Should we liberate the people of Cuba?

I know, I ask a lot of questions. More people should ask questions. I do give the Bush Administration credit for understanding its subjects supporters. If they say "evil", "regime", "terror", "liberate", etc enough times the people start believing them. Are there that many unthinking, uneducated people in this country who will blindly follow this guy in whatever he does?

Yes, that's another question. Feel free to let me know what you think. All views are welcome.