Justice and Memory

I remember the first Iraq war. I was about 10 years old, and I was a big sharp shooter with my 22 caliber rifle. Somebody bought me a whole bundle of targets with Saddams face on them. So I've shot at this man before. Back in those days, I guess I bought the whole "this man is the enemy" thing as much as a 10 year old can buy anything.

I think the first President Bush made a good decision not pushing onto Baghdad and toppling Saddam 16 years ago. In part, he said it was because there was no viable exit strategy. We are now in a position to feel what that's like. We are about to send 10's of thousands more of our soldiers into a country in chaos, and we've been in there for more than three years. If we want to be honest with ourselves, we are forced to admit that three years post Saddam, the country is a whole lot worse off than when he was it's leader.

I'm not saying that we should praise Saddam, or not hold him accountable for his crimes as a leader. I'm not saying that he was a "good guy." I'm just saying that when we look at the facts we might admit that the American government is responsible for as many Iraqi deaths as he was, maybe more. Someone might respond: "well Andrew, wait, he was an oppressive leader, who kept most Shiite Muslims out of the political elite. He crushed would-be opponents, he did not allow free elections, he violently kept the Kurds from separating into their own nation-state." I would be forced to respond: "you bet. That's all true." But he also kept the country at peace for more years than it was at war. He was a leader who protected a Sunni minority who would have been oppressed more under Shiite leadership than the Shiite majority were oppressed under his leadership. Baghdad was a bustling metropolis, with a beautiful museum, nice restaurants, shopping districts, and electricity 24 hours a day. Their weren't curfews, you could go shopping without fear of a suicide bomb exploding you into a million different pieces, Al Quaida was not a welcome entity. In fact, Saddam considered fundamentalist religious/terrorist organizations as enemies to his regime, and did not allow them to exist under his watch.

He came to power from humble beginnings, born into a family of shepherds. He fought his way up, educated himself, with the help of the CIA, studied law in Egypt observed by US and Egyptian intel during an exile there, returned to Iraq, and there helped repair a country in tatters. He did terrible things, ruled as a tyrant, but it would seem in retrospect, he did it, not only in his own benefit, but also that of the country. Under the Arab Socialists, (of which he was a part), Iraq came to have free health care for all citizens, free education up to the highest levels, he helped modernize Iraq's economy, worked with many of the world governments, meeting with the highest officials of France and the US, for example, on many occasions. He did more for women's freedoms than maybe any other Arab leader.

Should he be hanged for his crimes. Maybe. But as we, America, are now experiencing, Iraq is no easy place to get under control. How are we now trying to impose order in Iraq? With violence and killing even more drastic than that used by Saddam himself. Why aren't our leaders going to hang? Figuratively I think they should, but literally, probably not. People do make mistakes.

As Ghandi said: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

US State Capitals

Show me an American kid this age who can rock this knowledge! I bet there are a lot of Americans who could list the whole Mcdonalds menu though. Bad sign. How many Americans can even name one region in India? All i'm saying is we should spend a bit more time branching out and learning more about the rest of the world and a little bit less time celebrating our fictitious superiority.

Why Virgil is the Anti-American One

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat..." This fella Goode is a damn fool, and no damn good! Americans are afraid that we are a terrorist target for Muslim extremists. Yes we are! Bombing the Middle East, I can promise you, is the last thing that will remove us from their bulls eye; but pressure from moderate Muslims will, in the end, be the only thing that ends the violence, and prevents more terrorist attacks on American soil.

Goode said: “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped,” and he vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office. I fear that people like Mr. Goode, with their prejudiced attitute, are risking my own, and other Americans lives by inciting the hatred, against us at home and abroad, of people who have a right to believe what they choose to believe. The more Muslims we have in our country, and the more we welcome them and treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings, the less of a terrorist target we will be. Our Country was built upon a foundation of freedom of religion, the right to practice one's own faith and not to be persecuted for it. If we were to live up that foundation, and not allow fanatics like Goode to get away politically unscathed when they subvert the American way with hateful rhetoric, we would also be protecting ourselves from future terrorism. We should remember that Thomas Jefferson, one of our celebrated founding fathers, kept a heavily read copy of the Koran, and studied it. If we as Americans showed more interest in the Koran, and were more welcoming to the Muslim community, we would be doing a great service to ourselves by demontrating that we might not be deserving of the wrath the extremist Muslims are hell bent on incuring against us.

The more American troops who are killed in Iraq, the more of an outcry there is at home to end the war. Nobody likes to see "their own" under fire and dying. While I subscribe to the belief that all humans are brothers and sisters, that there is no "us and them," I am well aware that this is not a prevelent view-point in practice. Generally we separate ourselves on customs, social values, religion, or color, but across the board people generally don't like to be blown up, shot, gassed, or chopped. I'm certainly not a big fan of living in fear of being murdered because somebody thinks i'm different.

America should embrace Muslim people, if we elected a Muslim president, I can almost guarantee that extremist Muslim terrorists would have a much harder time garnering support for their terrorist operations against us. If the majority of Muslims felt like we, as Americans, (and we should remember the great number of American Muslims who ARE AMERICANS) were not against "them" and their way of life, they would be far friendlier towards us, and the extremists in their midst would have little support for their murderous ways. The fastest way to bring about that change is to actually be welcoming to the Muslim people, to do the opposite of this idiotic Representative, and show them that we are not their enemy, instead of giving them evidence that we are.