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who was right about iraq?
Anti-War Movement Wins the Ideological Battle
By Rob Welsh
Since the U.S. led war against Iraq has ended national pundits and
political analysts have continuously clamored about the tremendous
military victory, both over the economically collapsed Middle Eastern
country and the international anti-war movement. Opinion columns in
regional and local newspapers reflect this position over and over
again as their authors demand or insinuate that the anti-war movement
apologize or at least admit that this invasion was triumphant.
Although this war has proven to be a swift military victory, the
proverbial jury is still in recess deciding precisely what this
means. The U.S. government and the corporations whose interests it
serves have won the war, but the international anti-war movement has
won the ideological battle.
From the very beginning the anti-war movement based its critiques of
this war upon a wide range of reasoning. Thus far, the anti-war
movement has been proven correct in all of its fundamental critiques,
which is surprisingly prophetic.
George Bush and his gang began the pro-war rhetoric by stating that
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. To this day the U.N.
inspection teams have found very little evidence to substantiate this
claim. Now that the U.S. troops are occupying Iraq, still no weapons
of mass destruction have been located. It stands to reason, at least
the reasoning of our nation's leaders, that since Saddam Hussein was
such an "evil man, capable of gassing his own people" (which,
incidentally, the U.S. knew about but did nothing in response) he
would have used his supposed stocks of weapons against the invading
U.S. troops. The anti-war movement proclaimed that there was no real
proof that Iraq possessed such weapons and today we find that we were
correct.
The anti-war movement also predicted that the U.S. was not interested
in "bringing democracy" to the Iraqi people. Three weeks after the
war, there has been no signs of a real democratic governing body
arising from the Iraqi people. Instead, the U.S. has sponsored an
interim government made up of hand picked Iraqi exiles (members of
the Iraqi National Congress), a few Kurdish leaders, and token
Shi'ites. When one takes a closer look at the personalities that
make up this cumbersome coalition it can be seen that it is made up
of very dubious elements that directly serve the economic and
strategic interests of the U.S. Indeed, a real democracy that would
respect the self-determination of Iraqi people, particularly the
Kurdish population, is something that is fundamentally
counter-posed to U.S. interests. The mass rallies that have been
taking place throughout large cities in Iraq, where the people have
been calling for U.S. departure, seem to highlight the fact that the
Iraqi people do not see the U.S. as a bearer of democracy.
Ultimately, the anti-war movement, to varying degrees, described this
invasion as a war for oil and control over a profitable economic
market. This was clearly demonstrated by the U.S. in the chaotic
days after the "fall of Baghdad" when troops were stationed outside
the ministry of oil and oil fields while museums, cultural centers,
palaces, and most abhorrently, hospitals were looted. In one
reported case, when doctors from a major hospital in Baghdad
requested protection by U.S. troops from looters they were told
(paraphrased) "we can not provide that function." The result was the
spectacle of doctors shooting looters and then carrying them in to
treat them! The U.S. military, which is the largest, most advanced
military the world has ever seen, capable of destroying a nation in
three weeks, told Iraqi doctors that they could not protect a
hospital. Such ridiculousness casts a grim light on the future.
In all, the anti-war movement has nothing to apologize for. If
anything, we have been vindicated by the actions of our government
which have proven that are analysis of the situation was, for all
realistic purposes, correct. Things have shuffled out,
unfortunately, the way that we had imagined. Weapons of mass
destruction have not been found, real democracy has not arisen from
this war (neither in Iraq nor in America), U.S. economic and
strategic interests have been procured, and finally the world is not
safer. Be this as it may, the real struggle continues. The Iraqi
people remain our brothers and sisters and we should continue to
oppose our government that seek to undermine their
rights to self-determination.
