31.3.06

'I was a supporter of the invasion of Iraq: what a mistake !'

This is a title for a piece written by Johann Hari, columnist at The Independant. The piece appeared on March 20th and it is in Le Monde in french Today. Hari was for the invasion because, despite being aware of its initial flaws, he thought that we ought to oust saddam Hussein and liberate the Iraqi people from his tyranny.

Hari makes a harsh assessment of the war three years on:

150000 dead Iraqis civilians and still going on either at the hands of american soldiers or militiamen through daily terror attacks;
Islamists imposing their rules on social and personnal aspects of everyday life;
Insecurity;
Unaccountability for the crimes
60% unemployement
Ethnic tensions
Privatisation of the economy
Irregular distributions of water and electricity
lootings
And Le Monde announces today: 'A heavy feeling of a Civil war settling on a background of terror in Iraq'

And with all that:
80% of Iraqis want american and english troops out immediately;
72% of american soldiers think their country should leave Iraq this year.

Hari blames Bush's men for the catastrophe.
Shouldn't we blame him and blame the ideological people like him who, whenever they think of the middle east, feel that they have a quasi-missionnary obligation to 'liberate', 'educate', 'democratize' and spread the 'good', all in the name of western neocolonialist values ? Because if we 'clean' all the arguments for the invasion from kind western sentiments and values, all is left to judge it is international law. And in regard to international law, this invasion is illegal and it has produced so far deaths, torture and misery, more than what Saddam have ever been able to achieve and inflict on his people.

3 comments:

Cosmic Duck said...

Apart from the desert, it is more and more like Vietnam. According to the media today 400 American soliders or would be soldiers have fled to Canada, applying for political asylum. It is understandable that sensible young people won't take part in Bush's absurd war.

Sophia said...

Lets hope that after the Vietnam debacle and the coming Iraqi debacle, american imperialism will die forever which may lead to a just solution in the middle east. But I am only dreaming ! They will not let go the oil and the will not let down their zionist friends !

Gert said...

With renewed rising of "leftism" (to give it a loose term) in Latin America, the US hawkish quacks are already warning of the "dangers to the free world" and, what else... "Commies!!"...

So, no, they aren't about to learn a lesson...

Uncle Sam, as so comically parodied in the Muppet Show, is still alive and well.

When Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, the conservative blogosphere chimed in unison: "let's do it!" "Apparently he's got ties with al-Qaeda!" Ding Dong.

Decades of republican propaganda during the Cold War has poisoned the conservative American soul to such an extent that it will take even more decades to expunge this bile from the mainstream.

 
Since March 29th 2006