[December 16-19, 1998] I remember watching CNN repeatedly asking my parents why they call it a “no-fly zone” when clearly there are planes, and lots of them. Not just flying, but exchanging fire with the city of Baghdad. So began my first taste of US foreign policy — as an 8 year old sitting on my living room floor l firmly grasped the extent to which adults will use self-deception to make a mortal truth easy to swallow. For being a “no-fly zone,” a term which conjures up the image of some mosquito-free oasis, the images beaming to my television set looked exactly like War.
This was Operation Desert Fox, a three-day bombing campaign targeting specific sites in Iraq. President Clinton claimed that the Iraqis were not complying with inspections, but the Iraqis had complied with 98% of the inspections — only refusing to let inspectors into Ba’ath Party HQ. The inspectors, who were later revealed to contain CIA operatives, determined from “a source” that there were missiles in the basement of Ba’ath Party HQ. And so we bombed them, launching 65,000 American service-men-and-women into action. In response to this criticism, President Clinton later claimed that the goal of ODF was to destabilize Iraq and overthrow S. Hussein. We know that wasn’t true: Henry Kissinger (of all people) responding that a three-day bombing campaign would never achieve that goal.
12/19/1998 day this bombing campaign ended was the very same day Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for lying to the American people and obstructing justice. The only justification to come out of this murky, shady use of military resources reads: ”the impeachment scandal is heating up, let’s distract everyone with expensive fireworks.”
Since the ends justify the means — what might those ends be and how has it destroyed the Democratic Party in the process?
It is now 2016: the Middle East, despite trillions of dollars of United States “investment”, still has no foundation for secular democracy. Poof, money gone. When will our leaders practice what they preach? Are the principles of nonviolence are as sound for foreign policy as they are for domestic? Can our beloved “boots on the ground” participate in the construction of civilization rather than its decimation? Maybe foreign aid can come in the form of construction equipment and not ‘F-15 Tomcats.’
In spite of my hope for defense strategies that are as neutral as they sound on paper — I am also aware that propagandists and pundits are masters of selling fear
The enemy grows bolder and more defiant in their stronghold.
The smoking gun might come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
I will leave you with this quote
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” Carl Sagan
