John Bartow
john at winhaven.net
Wed Apr 9 14:11:58 CDT 2003
Lately, I my mailbox has been deluged with pro-war/anti-war propaganda (including people's sigs). Whether you're for the war or against it, just remember, there's a little bit of truth in anyone's propaganda - that's why so many people will believe it. I have served four years in front line combat units. (101st Airborne Div and 2nd Armored Div(FWD.) I defended everyone's right to disagree with me and their govt. I don't like to see people saying support the govt. or leave - that's not democracy. I don't like to see anti-war protests get violent or break the law, that's not being a pacifist. My younger brother is still serving in the armed forces. In fact, he had just returned from Afghanistan last week. Yes our soldiers are still fighting in Afghanistan too! Or did everyone forget about that because its not on the 5:00 news every night? He became ill during his last week there and is still ill. The best we can figure is that when the Soviets occupied Afghanistan in the 80s they doused the entire region with chemicals to kill the vegetation so the local partisans could not hide there. Where he was based there still wasn't any sign of vegetation. Previous to the 80s it was a wooded area. I suppose the chemical residue coul dmake a person sick. I have seen the effects of war and I don't believe war will ever bring lasting peace. Yet I also see that we have allowed a horrible situation to develop in Iraq. We didn't get involved in WWII because of the concentration camps - we didn't even know about them. We do know about Iraq's govt. abuses to humanity. On the face of it: France Germany and Russia take the moral high ground. Behind the scenes: France and Russian both have huge trade contracts with Iraq - hence they're against it not for moral reasons but for monetary reasons - much the same reason the US govt. is for it. They both had as much or more to do as the U.S. did with the rise of Saddam Hussien in the first place. They however allow their monetary reasons outweigh their morality. The govt. of Germany seems to hold the moral high ground in this case. Some in the USA think we did a good job over the last 50 years turning the most aggressive people in the world into pacifists. However, they are still recovering from absorbing communist Germany into their economy. And they too have large business dealin gin Iraq. Basically they can't AFFORD to support this war, monetarily or politically. These countries all supported the economic blockade of Iraq which, of course never hurts the dictator or the (contracts he provides) but really decimates the common and poor people of the land. If they were such moral govts. they would have never allowed these blockades to go on this long. France and Germany were both delivered from a ruthless dictarship with outside help. I would hope the people of those countries aren't as calous to Iraq's needing freedom as their govt. is. On the face of it: US and UK want to remove a dictator who has no regard for life and can threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction by supplying terrorists with them, much in the same way that he supports human bombs in Israel with cash rewards. This I support. Behind the scenes: There are many aspects of why our elected govt. supports this war besides the publicly spoken reasons. A few: The U.S. supported Sadam Hussien's political party in order to replace the Soviet Union's puppet dictator there. They also supported Saddam directly when he was at war with Iran. (Among other mistakes.) They are trying to clean up their mess. Just like they did in Panama and so many other places. Yet they continue to get into this type of "mess" in other countries by supporting the "worse of two evils". The U.S. needs Iraq for a political presence in the mid-east besides the locally hated Israel and the insignificant state of Jordan. Do we want their oil, sure. Do we need it, I don't think so. I wish our govt. leaders stop choosing the worse of two evils Given all that, I absolutely, without a doubt support our soldiers. They have a duty to respond to the publicly elected official's orders. Nothing worse can happen to a country than to have the military disregard the elected officials. This would put the military in control of that country and no matter what the public facade, the country would then be a "military state". The proper way to prevent our country from going to war is not by disregarding our soldier's duty as honorable but by voting and being involved before things happens.