After 9/11 I remember the outpouring of goodwill and sympathy for all those innocents lost and injured in the attacks. Friend and foe alike condemned those who would indiscriminately punish civilians for ideological reasons. There was truly a chance for world leaders to reach out to each other to try and prevent more unnecessary violence. It was said that such an event was intolerable.
As I read and see all the Right's (Wrong's) hype on who is responsible for the recent developments in Iraq and about the growing number of extremists throughout the world I feel it is important to understand how that moment of unity vanished.
In their arrogance and feelings of inadequacy in allowing an attack on US soil President Bush, Dick Cheney and their advisers were willing to accept any intelligence that would allow them to strike out at anyone perceived as the enemy. UN be damned, they would do it on their own if need be. Coalition forces were duped into fighting a war for profit, a foothold in the oil rich Middle East and a chance for redemption, i.e. reelection.
Then came the need to feel superior. Mission accomplished. One set of laws for us humans and another set for those who were called terrorists. Detainees to be kept in secret, tortured and never to be released. Drones, Abu Ghraib, Saddam hanging, one war crime after another. Is it any wonder that we are not looked upon as liberators ?
The great shame is that we need not have based the public relations of this war on weapons of mass destruction. The evidence of Saddam Hussein's crimes against humanity was there. I remember pictures of mass graves and chemical attacks against Kurds. Pallets of cash unearthed in concrete bunkers and opulent palaces. The shoe throwing at and pulling down of statues.
We could have left once Saddam was captured, although this is what has left the power vacuum that is resulting in the current situation, accomplishing what Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf (R.I.P. to a man of honor) had said was one thing left undone in Desert Storm but he also said it would have been a massacre to continue to Baghdad and that doing so would have left us "like a dinosaur in a tar pit, we could not have gotten out and we'd still be the occupying power and we'd be paying one hundred percent of all the costs to administer all of Iraq." Instead Bush Jr. ignored what Bush Sr. perceived was not possible. A puppet government in a land of many religious factions was and is unsustainable. The same holds true in Afghanistan.
The trillions spent so far on war has just left us in the untenable position of fighting an unending war on terror. Will we continue to spend $1 trillion per year on national security defending ourselves from the hate we have incurred ? That would surely keep the war profiteers happy. Or will we go against those who say "Don't give humanitarian aid those who hate us" ? Forget the targeted attacks, logistics, training and military aid. Once again that is us choosing who we would have in power and has been shown to cause the opposition in foreign lands to continue to hate us. I for one feel food and medicine would go a long way towards gaining back the goodwill that once was. If that type of aid does not get to where it is most needed just keep the kindness flowing until it does reach them. It will be cheaper in the long run and we just might not end up in a hell of our own devising.
