What's Ahead Now That We've Destroyed Iraq

IRAQ

I think this will be my last post on Iraq.
I opposed the war from its inception.
The reason given for the war - the presence of WMDs- I believed to be false based on the fact that the UN weapons inspectors had been in the country for nine months and clearly stated they found no indication of them.

This assumes the UN weapons inspectors actually knew how to inspect for weapons. I guess we did not think they knew how to do it.

I wondered at the so-called intelligence. The clear and unambiguous intelligence we had we chose to ignore. If it was difficult to get intelligence, as has been stated, this meant that we had no intelligence, we ignored the excellent intelligence we did have, and listened to Chalabi who was in D.C. I did not believe in the purported connection between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein.
The religious fundamentalism of Osama did not set well with the secularity of Hussein. There was never a report of any connection before our government decided it needed to establish one. Before the war started in 2003, Bin Laden put out a video that was widely shown on the US media. In this video he stated that Saddam Hussein was Hallaal. This is not really like slapping him on the back and saying he is kosher. Hallaal meant that Saddam Hussein's neck could be put under the butcher's knife. Hallaal meant that it was O.K. to slaughter Hussein.

And the interpretation put on this video was that Bin Laden and Hussein were friends! You had better hope the mortality figures of over 600,000 are not correct. You heard correctly: YOU had better hope. The ultimate responsibility falls on our shoulders. We allowed this to be done in our names. We cannot wash the blood from our hands. I remember Christmas of 2004 arguing the war with a friend from Cleveland. It ended up by him saying: "Oh, heck! You read everything about it!"

So we looked at each other and laughed. No more war discussion. I read the BBC every morning. I probably always will. I learned in the 21st century to not trust the media of my own country. Phil Donohue and Bill Maher lost their shows over inappropriate criticism and lack of idealogical correctness. It was just like being back in the USSR. There is talk of impeachment of the President. I do not want this. I wish he would resign. That would give us Cheney. He'd last for a month then he'd resign and go sit on the boards of numerous corporations. We have utterly wasted 5 years. We have not even learned anything from our disaster.  

HOPE and CAPITALISM
Muhammad Yunus and his creation of the Grameen Bank received the Nobel Prize recently. Please read about it if you wish. This is the type of Capitalism which works to alleviate the rural poverty and years of neglect which exist all over southern Asia. There is a clear difference between Bhopal - where local people are seen as inconsequential, so much so that we may establish toxic factories without safety measures standard in the world of the rich - and the Grameen Bank.  

SPACE
Check out the new National Space Policy signed by the President on October 18. If the President were Eisenhower, this policy would seem reasonable and innocuous. When the President is someone of a far different caliber and outlook, this policy takes on a more sinister tone. The main player in space will probably be China. China has just recently had the surprising yet edifying spectacle of a neighbor who has planned and worked and waited 50 years to develop an atomic bomb in order to deal with the USA. We must not allow yet another area of the universe be opened up to mindless aggression.

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