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One of the really nice things 'bout bein' featured by The Daou Report is that I was reminded that dude links far and wide, to both the Left and the Right.
There're more "Cloaks of Deception" fallin' off all the time it seems. This is why I don't accuse perpetrators, of even the most inarguably evil of acts, of being purely evil themselves. People make mistakes. They believe in things which are good or progressive, and then go and use that profound and humane belief as an end to justify insanely horrifying means.
We've all got our faults. It's just that most of ours don't involve mass murder, in illegal wars, under highly dubious circumstances. Most of us, when we are catastrophically wrong, only invite personal catastrophies.
Most of us, anyhow...
... Reeling from a visit to Saddam’s Iraq, I knew that Iraqis didn’t care why their dictator was deposed, they just wanted it done, now. As I thought of the ethnically cleansed Marsh Arabs I had met, reduced to living in a mud hut in the desert, I thought that whatever happens, however it occurs, it will be better. In that immediate rush, I – like most Iraqis – failed to see that the Bush administration’s warped motives would lead to a warped occupation. A war for oil would mean that as Baghdad was looted, troops would be sent to guard the oil ministry, not the hospitals – a bleak harbinger of things to come.
But it is easy for me to repent at leisure. Just as the opponents of the war would never have faced Saddam’s torture chambers, I am not hiding in my home, rocking and clutching a Kalashnikov. Millions of Iraqis are, and many thousands more did not live to see even that future because of the arguments of people like me.
Kudos to Johann Hari for owning, and withdrawing, his emotionally conceived support for the Iraqi invasion. I've never read him before this story, but I'm glad that I've now had the pleasure. I really enjoyed his writing style, regardless of the bold and balanced content of this piece. I'll be sure to read more, even if I find it less agreeable than the ideas in this one post.
And, while you're reading, note the comment from an Iraqi at the end of the post. His oppressor deserved dethroning. Our incumbent wanna-be oppressor lied through his teeth and abused his power to do it.
It. Is. Not. Worth. It.
Period.
Wow, congratulations !! Featured Blog !! Very cool.
ReplyDeleteDid you hear that Bush said yesterday NOT that it was the third anniversary of the war in Iraq.....but, the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation in Iraq?
ReplyDeleteNo matter how hard that boy tries, he'll never be as good a BS'r as Clinton. Ever.
Thanks Anita! Yah, I've always thought Salon was cool, so being featured by 'em does Feel really cool. Diggity! lol
ReplyDeleteBG,
Never ever and not Ever!
Right you are.
The thing is, a lot of good people on the Right ask "how could W have made it through Yale, been the CEO of a couple of comp'nies, owned an MLB team and been elected both Gov of TX and Pres of US if'n he's so dumb?"
But that just shows how A) willfully ignorant such folk are and B) how torturously sad is the state of our electorate; not our nation; our electorate.
GW Bush is a medium IQ'd psuedoredneck (of Massachussettes Old Money) who twice failed miserably as CEO - unless you were a main stock holder, of course, and knew the "tax" plan of dismantlement - whilst using his "folksy charm" and superficial understanding of the issues of the day to convince a lot of good but ignorant folks that "innalectchules" don't know nuthin' 'bout "common sense".
Believe it or not, I would shake the man's hand. I'd just be shakin' my head and telling him how ashamed of his neolithic thinking I truly am whilst doing so.
I'd say do the same to Slick Willie for not supporting Feingold's call for Censure by divorcing Hill over her own contemptible cowardice.
Eh... that last bit sounds about right anyhow. {-; I'd more likely swoon to his inimitable agreement with everything I'd charged him with! LOL!