The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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The right-wing US foreign policy, and especially Bush's, has been particularly characterized with believing and distortion, from the cock-eyed theories of Leo Strauss to the "threat" of the rebels in Central America, and now to Iraq's WMD and dancing in the streets. The current story is not much different. While there may well be criminals, nasty Ba'athists, and foreign terrorists involved, the complete dismissal of any possibility that at least some of these attacks are by ordinary Iraqis, and with the support of ordinary Iraqis, can lead only to further disaster. Surely Iraq is not Vietnam, but the great similarity between the two is US denial and continuance of "The Bush crowd hurtled into Baghdad on the law of Disney: Wishing can make it so." Wouldn't it be nice if all the attacks were by the "gansters"; but by applying the law of the jungle in indiscriminate bombing and blowing farmer's fields, by ringing a city with barbed wire and requiring identification and permission to pass checkpoints, by shooting and mistreating civilians, the result will not be improvement, but further deterioration. The Chicago public was outraged at the gangsters after the St. Valentines Day Massacre, in which all but one of the victims were other gangsters. Is it so realistic to think that Iraqis are enraged when the US kills their relatives and friends? Hardly! The first law of the jungle is to be "street smart" and see the reality. By the US not recognizing that it, itself, is behaving as, and seen by many as, the gangsters and not the good guys, it not only strengthens the "bad guys" but creates more support and recruitment for them. That's what ignoring the rules of engagment turns one into: just an American verion of Saddam and his thugs. If Ms. O'Dowd wants to refer to Disney, she should remember his animation of Joel Chandler Harris's "Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby" ( http://www.otmfan.com/html/brertar.htm). Time for the US to retreat back into it's briar patch and let the UN handle Saddam's tar baby trap. >November 9, 2003 >OP-ED COLUMNIST >The Chicago Way > By MAUREEN DOWD [...] >so. Now they're ensnared in the law of the jungle: the rules of engagement >don't apply with this scary cocktail of Saddam loyalists, foreign fighters and >terrorists, who hold nothing sacrosanct, not human rights organizations, >humanitarian groups or Iraqi civilians. >The gangsters are getting ever bolder about picking off our soldiers on land [...] _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk