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Counterpoint: The Iraqi War

Guest writer: Jason Schwartz



 
  3/31/03
I have to disagree on the merits of this war--even if it ends quickly and successfully. This really appears to be a transparent power/money/oil grab predicated on intentional deceit. The administration's rationale for what we're doing has changed way too many times to retain any credibility.
First it was the anthrax attacks...which of course turned out to be the handiwork of an American right wing whacko. Next it was the Iraq/bin Laden connection documented by British Intelligence...which turned out to be plagiarized text from the doctoral thesis of an anti-Saddam Hussein Monterey student.
Then it was the chemical/biological weapons of mass destruction verified by the testimony of an escaped scientist...who in the same breath affirmed that the same weapons had since been destroyed, though the administration chose to reprint only the part of his testimony that served their needs.
Then it was the nuclear weapons of mass destruction evidenced by official plutonium purchase documents sent between Niger and Iraq...which turned out to be ridiculously bad forgeries created by American or British "intelligence."
And now it's the liberation of the Iraqi people which I suppose could be lauded from a humanitarian viewpoint but is probably the least cost-effective humanitarian gesture we could make in a world where starvation, AIDS, illiteracy, and so many other ills are pervasive.
All the proof I needed that this was a dirty war was the Day 5 awarding of Iraqi Oilfield rebuilding contracts to Dick Cheney's Halliburton Corporation. Coupled with the installation of the ex-Unocal executive (Hamid Karzai) as the figurehead of Afghanistan, it seems crystal clear that our War Against Terrorism and our Operation Iraqi Freedom are really just incredibly demented Goldberg machines crafted to take our money and place it in the pockets of the oil and munitions industries.
Jason