Let the War on Iraq
Begin!!
On ONE Condition!!
by Jerre Skog
Dissident Voice
February 17, 2003
As grown-up
people we are expected to take full responsibility for our actions. Especially
so in a capitalist society that is proud of its independent strength, and
empathy or solidarity is seen as creeping socialism. Should an overworked
single mother fail to pay her rent she is out of her flat on her ears very
quickly. A jobless worker who steals a loaf of bread to feed his family can
easily get a few years behind bars, and not the nice sort of bars either. We
don't expect others to solve our problems. If I give a gun to a well-known
murderer I'm likely to end up as accomplice for the crimes he commits with it.
I can't expect Mrs. Wilson next door to pay the price for my stupidity nor can
I get away by declaring that the fellow I gave the gun promised to use it only
against my imagined enemies. If such was the case we would of course be
declaring the nanny-state. Everybody has to take responsibility for his or her
actions, not only workers and single mothers or people who give guns to
killers. If you cause a mess, you put it right! That's the American way! You
don't run whimpering to daddy, the taxpayers or the US Navy!
In this vein of common sense and being sober and of sound and just mind I propose that we agree to let the planned war on Iraq proceed without further protests on ONE very important condition. That condition is: Let the ones responsible for the Iraqi mess do the fighting and pay the funding themselves! The young American and British soldiers sent out to kill innocent Iraqis have not armed Hussein or put the Ba’ath-party in power. Why should they have to clean up after those who did? Why should the American and British public have to foot the multibillion dollar bill for the war when they are not the ones who reaped the profits from selling lethal knowledge or wares?
Normal
people know that after all the weapons inspections and sanctions and wars that
Iraq has suffered, and the unrelenting monitoring by satellites and planes and
spies, the country is probably less dangerous to the world than a bunch of
drunken KKK hoodlums in Georgia. Hussein's regime might have a few tons or
litres of nasty stuff, if it still is functioning is another matter, but it
poses no real threat. The US and British administrations SAY it does. If so,
post and present US and British officials and businessmen are the ones mainly
responsible for the mess. OK! Let them clean it up! It's the American way!
We know
that many in the present as well as in the earlier Bush administration were
responsible for selling or approving sales to Saddam Hussein's Iraq of
chemical, biological and nuclear technology, material and know-how. Almost
every US administration since the early 70s were involved in backing Hussein
during his misrule and tyranny of Iraq, even during and after the Iran-war and
"gassing his own people". No protests or discomfort was shown when
Hussein pursued weapons of every sort. No concern for the Iraqi people was
evident and no problem was seen in cooperating with a dictator known for his
cruelty and ruthlessness. Not THEN! We know that many American, British,
German, French and other companies sold potentially deadly products or lent
their scientific expertise to developing them. These are the people who have to
start growing up and take responsibility. If they don't do it now they will
never learn! They helped a murderous regime and they better be the ones taking
care of it. We don't live in a nanny-state. May they stand up and be counted in
their white hats! May their fortunes come to good use instead of being squandered
on mansions and Rolls Royces!
The forces
attacking Iraq could well be a few thousand strong if all those responsible for
arming Hussein with the wrong stuff or approving it did join. Which they, as
upright citizens with plenty of moral fibre and deep concern for the
repercussions of their earlier folly, naturally will. They say they are
patriots. Trust them to set things right! Or at least muddle the issues
further.
So here we
have the nucleus of a cleaning-up force of men who always have been prepared to
deal with death as long as they were behind desks on the delivering side. Let's
give them the opportunity to deal with it personally and directly:
In the
lead of the force have to be all the American and British politicians who
approved or aided the sales or even directed them to be made. Bush Sr,
Thatcher, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell and some hundred more. Some prominent
figures were perhaps not directly involved in earlier crimes but their fanaticism
for the war is so great that they deserve to be allowed to serve. Thus there
will no doubt be "kitchen jobs in helmet" or latrine-digging for
Blair, Negroponte, Straw, Hoon, Perle, Bush Jr, Rice, Howard and the other
hawks.
The best
would be to appoint Colin Powell supreme commander. I know that technically Bush
Jr outranks him but on the other hand we don't want the mighty force of stupids
to attack the wrong country. Should Rumsfeld or Bush lead, there's also the
added risk that they will never reach Iraq as they have to stop and shout abuse
at everybody on the way while hiding behind Powell. He at least ought to know
which end of a gun makes a rude noise even if the others don't.
Assisting
them by polishing their shoes and licking their asses would be jobs fit for
Spain's Aznar and Italy's Berlusconi and the latter's good mafia-connections
would be a fringe benefit for the forces. They could get cheap substandard
cement for bunkers.
Making up
the middle ranks of the force (remember these are guys used to chauffeur-driven
limousines and champagne and caviar) will have to be: The CEOs of Honeywell,
Spektra Physics, Semetex, TI Coating, UNISYS, Sperry Corp., Tektronix,
Rockwell, Leybold Vacuum Systems, Finnigan-MAT-US, Hewlett Packard, Dupont,
Eastman Kodak, American Type Culture Collection, Alcolac International and
Consarc. Add to those above the distinguished death-merchant CEOs from many
British and German companies (very notably German Degussa AG). Throw in
some French and other highranking executives and all the scientists connected
to these or other companies, involved in the sales and building and teaching
the Iraqis. An added advantage for these people is that they can look at their
old sales records and find out what went where when and wipe everything out
after they secured the oil fields, deposed the "after ´91 monster"
Saddam and introduced democracy, freedom and market economy.
Since most
of the above people are more into dishing out commands than obeying them, the
footsoldiers will have to be made up by the editors of the most war-feverish
dailies, channels and magazines. They will at long last have a chance to put
their money where their mouths are as a variety to putting their foot there.
The politicians in eastern Europe, coerced and bribed into supporting Bush,
will unfortunately find themselves in this group too. If only they had listened
to their electorate!
We can
assume that the combined might, fake patriotism and brain power of the
repentant expeditionary force might get them a few miles on the right way
before complaining about hardships and they ought to be able to pool their
resources to get some transportation and simple weapons if they really are as
keen to kick Saddam's ass as they appear to be in front of cameras. Remember,
they're supposed to fix it themselves, so no running to US Army begging for a
few nukes or battalions is allowed! Any F16s used has to be owned privately and
flown by themselves! It's their mess and no one else's!
Remains a
serious question. How will the nation get along without its leaders? Will the
economy crash, the terrorists attack or North Korea invade? The answer is NO!
The economy might, if the present junta is gone long enough, recover. The
terrorists won't have any reason to attack once the Bushes and their friends
are gone, and North Korea is too busy acting like they have nukes to have time
to invade.
After all,
nukes are the only things that can stop countries from being attacked by the US
under the "leadership" of the pre-emptive
teflon-"president" Bush.
Jerre Skog is a Swedish writer, musician and
independent observer living in Germany. His writings, politics and satire, can
be found on www.skog.de and comments are
welcome at jerre@skog.de