A Middle East Story

Repost from 1/30/07. This 7th Anniversary of this horrible day I think its important to remember what we lost that day and the days following. I am sick and tired of the Bush administration and its spokes arm Faux News perpetuating this myth that the Right/Republicans are better at managing war. The facts just don’t belay that reality. We had a great opportunity and had a true leftist been in power, we would be stronger and more successful in the “war on terror” than we ever could be now. Remember back if you can, it's September 12, 2001, the world is in shock as a brazen attack on innocent civilians brought down two trade marks of the New York City skyline. The logistical head of US military-mite was in flames, and there was a huge hole in the ground in the rural fields of Pennsylvania from the wreckage of a plane supposedly headed for the White House. The world rushed to our side in complete shock of the horrific events of September 11th the day before. Not a regime in the world wanted to be on the side of a people that could do something so horrific. While a few people in the streets of Gaza were cheering the attacks, regimes from Cuba to France to the whole of Africa were giving their support to George Bush and the American people. Even Afghanistan’s Taliban government wanted to distance itself from the actions of the terrorist group they allowed to rein free in their country. I was in South Africa at the time, and people on the streets would rush to give their support and ask if my family had been spared the horror of the day. It may have been an attack on the US, but it truly was an attack on the decency of the world. People from all over the world, not just the US, died an innocent death that day. With patience we may never see again from the Bush Administration, they waited a month before gathering support for an attack on the Afghani Taliban government and the subsidiary Al Qaeda regime. I supported that war, what a naive time that was. I saw it as an opportunity for the world to come together. The Taliban regime was horrific, the treatment of women, the public hangings and beheadings, the denial of education and medical care simply because of gender was disgusting. This regime was the definition of repression that should be lovingly crushed from the world. We all thought what a wonderful opportunity to create a stable democracy from the ashes of the world’s most oppressive regimes. With military support followed up with financial backing from all parts of the globe, Afghanistan could be transformed from a country destroying the relics of other religions to a beckon of what the world can do when it comes together after violence is perpetuated on it. Boy were we all wrong. The Bush administration cynically told the world where it could shove its support. They told the American people that 9-11 changed everything except the parts of their lives they should rededicate to “buying things.” Instead of sacrificing for the betterment of our country, or creating an avenue for service to our country. Not by creating a corp followed up with money to help rebuild Afghanistan, but to just go to the Mall. That is what changed in the post 9-11 world, we need to shop more. After outsourcing the operation, trying to rebuild on the skimp, telling NATO you handle the terrorists who attacked us, we turned all our attention to Iraq. Not the country or people who attacked us, “Dead or Alive, Smoking him out.” Not that guy, a guy that out of the Axis of Evil posed the least threat, whose oppression was on the fall and who an internal opposition force could actually be mobilized to oppose him. Iraq was not a threat, and a diversion from the people who actually attacked us. I understood that then. People on the left were screaming it on the streets. I said it here, here, here. We on the left were completely right about the war (something the media cynically never mentions). More importantly Iraq was a complete disaster for our country. Before Iraq we had a unified world, universal support for a war on the perpetuators of terrorism around the world. Terrorist organizations who were allowed to operate in obscurity now had a spotlight upon them highlighting the need to stamp out this violence on innocent civilians. Imagine if we had taken that support to push for greater Democracy around the world, use our goodwill to fuel opposition groups to authoritarian regimes, and support a war on those who would attack the innocent civilian. Imagine if we had the philosophy of attacking civilians for political change on the run. Because following 9-11 that was the effect. And regimes that supported these terrorist groups were on the run. Iran was scared of a unified world opposed to terrorism in support of US action. North Korea would be scared of US forces not bogged down in Iraq, but spread out around the world supported by NATO fighting extremists in Malaysia to Sri Lanka, forcing peaceful settlement. Instead we have a country in complete turmoil with our forces embroiled in civil war. A destroyed infrastructure without any immediate future of being rescued, oil revenues from Iraq that were supposed to fund the war are at their all time lows; an electricity scarce, and innocent civilians being murdered daily. More menacing, we are not a strong feared America with world support. We are an isolated country with a depleted army unable to fight a major action. Iran is not scared of us, they are laughing at us. They showed they can destabilize the Israel/Lebanon border as it wishes and bog down one of our key allies in an un-winnable war it does not want to fight. Even better for them, they have a neighbor once a dangerous enemy now aligned and controlled by Tehran. Bush successfully changed Iraq from a country that fought a devastating war against Iran to one controlled by it, think about that. And our troops could become the target of Iran’s efforts to destabilize the country further if it wished. Iran has no fear of developing a bomb because it faces no real threat. It is using its ability to enrich uranium as a means to secure support for the Ahmadinejad regime just as Bush does to scare us. But it is a bargaining tool that in the immediate world following 9-11 it would not have had the gall to try. North Korea is not scared of us either. It saw the weakness of the US position, the shifting of forces from the 40 year old armistices border to Iraq. It knows it could get a better deal and decided to threaten us as well. Israel America vs. Lebanon Iran I didn’t think America’s position could be any weaker but we are. What was made clear this past week is that far from using 9-11 to stamp out acceptance for terrorist acts, we have only fomented it. There is no better recruiting tool for extremists terrorists than having George Bush speak and news of Iraq. While Bush speaks of isolating terrorist regimes, it is we who are isolated. The fact of the matter is our Terrorism President has made us weaker and less safe. When it comes to securing our future, the Left understands the need for pragmatic answers to a dangerous world but at the same time balance a real need to not just fight our battles with weapons. While the Main Stream Media continues to perpetuate the myth that the right wing is better equipped to fight the wars, the fact of the matter is that we on the left who deal in reality and compassion are the only successful overseers of peace and if need be, war. RSS