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fyi - best, felicity a. ---------- From: Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@yahoo.com> To: r_rozoff@yahoo.com Subject: Where Is Our Outrage Over Iraq? Date: Sat, Sep 1, 2001, 10:08 pm Denver Post Where is our outrage over Iraq? By Reggie Rivers Denver Post Columnist Thursday, August 30, 2001 - Sometimes I think we've stopped paying attention to the number of rounds that are fired and the number of people who are killed by our law enforcement agencies. Do we really care how far things go? Do we worry about the constant monitoring? The invasions of people's homes? The continuous threat of violence? I know that we care domestically. When the police shoot someone, there are stories and investigations. We might not be satisfied with the results of those investigations, but at least someone is taking a look. It's been more than 10 years now since the United States initiated the embargo against Iraq and started patrolling no-fly zones. And it seems clear to me that most of us just don't care a lot about it. The stories hit the paper and we flip through them as if nothing is happening. The headlines read: "Coalition planes fire at Iraqi air defense sites." "Air Force drone missing over Iraq." "U.S. launches major air attack on Iraq." "Allied jets hit Iraqi targets." How much longer do you suppose we're going to continue to violate the sovereignty of Iraq? How much longer are news stories going to describe the troops as "coalition" and "allied" forces to make it sound as if this is a United Nations' effort when really it's always been just the United States and our British lap dog that have initiated and maintained these no-fly zones from the start? Every time I pick up a newspaper and read another of these stories, Iraq is portrayed as the aggressor and we're cast as the innocent victims who are merely trying to defend ourselves. The stories have a how-dare-they tone as they describe Iraqi attempts to shoot down U.S. or British aircraft. Yes, Iraq was denounced by the entire world for invading Kuwait in 1990, but does that mean that we can forever ignore the sovereignty of the Iraqi border? The United States was denounced by the entire world for invading Grenada in 1983. Does that mean it would have been reasonable for some other country to establish no-fly zones in the air space north of Denver and south of Dallas? I know. I know. Might makes right in the big, bad world. The reason that it's OK for us to do this to Iraq is that we have the power to do whatever we want. The reason it wouldn't have been OK for someone else to do this to us is that no one has the power. Yes, I'm naive, but not completely. I like the life that we have in this country. I love our wealth, our safety and our position at the head of the world's table. I understand that maintaining our comfortable lives requires a lot of brute force. What disturbs me is not the vicious reality of geopolitics, but the ambivalence that we demonstrate as citizens. We're like the children of drug kingpins who love living in big houses and having private planes, and somehow manage to block out the fact that Daddy had to kill a lot of people to get where he's at. And that Daddy has to kill a lot more people to "protect our interests." I don't know the answer to the Iraq situation. I can't make recommendations about how we should conduct ourselves in the world because I'm not an expert in that field. But I wish that we, as citizens, would show as much concern about our military deployment in other countries as we do about domestic issues such as tax rebates, Social Security, education and health care. If the National Guard took over a small U.S. town and controlled the movements of its people for a week, we'd be out of our minds with outrage. But if our forces fly into another country and maintain a no-fly zone for a decade, we barely look up from our Cheerios. Former Denver Broncos player Reggie Rivers (reggierivers@clearchannel.com) writes Thursdays on the Post op-ed page and is a talk host on KHOW Radio (630 AM, weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m.). Ý __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk