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Worldview Blogby A Concerned Citizenback to the Worldview Menu |
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Worldview Blogby A Concerned Citizenback to the Worldview Menu |
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The Democrats and Iraq 26 November 2007 Since their takeover of House and Senate in the 2006 midterms, the Democrats have distinguished themselves by their cowardice on Iraq. Perhaps they really approve of US imperialism, as did JFK and most Democratic presidents since. Perhaps they wish to please the military industrial complex, which always benefits from increased defense spending. Or perhaps they wish to please powerful hawkish Israel lobbies like AIPAC, which want us to march on to Iran (or at least bomb their nuclear facilities). To be fair, another possibility is that the Dems fear that things might soon go well in Iraq after all, and they might suffer from the political repercussions, as discussed, for example, here. Lately, there does seem to be a lull in the violence, if only because the Sunnis and Shias have, in effect, been ethnically cleansed. Suppose some semblance of democracy does arise and the war is declared a 'success'. Then the Republicans might enjoy a propaganda blitz, making the Dems look as though the were obstructing the progress of 'freedom', for pure political gain. The basic point, which keeps being forgotten, is that the war was immoral, regardless of the outcome. It is clear that the WMD evidence was cherry-picked and hardly sufficient to declare war. The links between Saddam and Osama were equally bogus. Hence, the war was one of aggression, not unlike Pearl Harbor. It does not matter how poorly it was executed or what blunders were made. What matters is that the war was precisely the kind of crime against humanity outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. But since when do we care about the Geneva Conventions or the United Nations, unless it serves our purposes? There's something else about the political psychology which needs to be said. The Dems complain that they don't have the votes to override a veto. But suppose they had bravely and clearly made the case that the war was immoral from the beginning, not just misguided or poorly executed. Could public opinion not have been swayed, to the point where even the Republicans had to cave in? I cannot but believe that there are enough decent Americans, whose hearts could be changed, if only the case were made to them in simple and unambiguous language. Indeed, polls suggest that there already are. Yet even Obama waffles on the legitimacy of the war, for fear of later being labeled unpatriotic. And Hillary treats AIPAC like a third rail, even though polls have shown that American Jews remain basically liberal and antiwar. The selfishness and cowardice of the Democrats is the worst disaster in American politics today. They share a large portion of the blame for the 600,000+ innocent Iraqi deaths, as reliably estimated by The Lancet, which is Britain's most prestigious medical journal. One cannot help but conclude that the Democrats have been thoroughly corrupted by money, in the form of campaign contributions. They have no conscience left, least of all Hillary. Perhaps we are witnessing a major tragedy in human history: the awful realization that money is killing the greatest democracy ever.
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