I should have been clearer - I agree with Hitchens and his diagnosis that it is both sinister and masochistic. In this debate on what to do in Iraq the Left is preoccupied with this idea that America is at fault and is creating terrorism instead of fighting against it. Commentators from Hans Blix to Kofi Annan to Bill Maher suggest that Iraq would be better off today with Saddam Hussein in power. That is unthinkable to a conservative and even one who disagrees with the war and the way it has been handled. Saddam Hussein was a brutal and ruthless dictator that suppressed free speech, imprisoned and killed political dissidents, murdering and torturing thousands. But, like James Baker, these are people who worship at the altar of stability. As long as that dictator provides stability, we like that dictator, no matter the cost.
You misrepresent two facts here: that we started the "murder" in Iraq and that there was ever a war against al Qaeda. Make no mistake, the U.S. did not start the murder in Iraq - Saddam Hussein did. The American military does not target civilians like Saddam and our terrorist enemies do but moral idiots like Howard Zinn cannot see that. In fact, we are probably the most humanitarian military of our strength the world has ever seen and operate, by-in-large, under restrictive rules of engagement that hamper our ability to crush the enemy. Robert Kaplan writes about this in his book Imperial Grunts: The American Military On The Ground where he talks about laboring under "the tyranny of one casualty" where the boots on the ground want to be used as they were trained and the politicians, and sometimes the military brass, fear political fallout of bodies coming home.
As an extension of Andreas's thought that anyone who supports the war but does not go to war is a liar and a coward, what does that make you and him and all others who are strongly anti-war? Surely you are also liars and cowards for not volunteering to be human shields.
~Brian Birmingham, AL On Dec 12, 2006, at 7:40 PM, Mike Geary wrote:
I'm not sure whether Brian agrees with Zinn or Hitchens. But it doesn't matter. The Bushies so screwed up the war against Al Queda with their little adventure in Iraq that nothing can save it. A decade or more of horrendous civil war is all we have to look forward to now, a war that might well engulf the whole of the Middle East -- as they world warned them before their illegal invasion. I say the blood is on our hands as well as on all others who are involved in the killing. I'm guilty by paying my taxes, but I don't have the integrity of the brothers Berigan or Thoreau. It's not my loved ones being killed. Feel terrible about it. Say so. Shrug it off. Go to work. Life of a Liberal.We started the murder in Iraq. I agree with Zinn that Bush should be tried by an international court and I don't understand how anyone who believes in human rights and international law could disagree.
