George Bush, you are so amazingly full of shit. And I know it, you know it...I just don't know how to tell you. If you want to know the true nature of our foreign policy towards Iraq, see this analysis of Bush's Oct. 7th speech.

I'm not your everyday bleeding heart -- I'm sadly skeptical of *everything* these days. But many of the hipocracies echoed in the analysis of Bush's rhetoric are things I've known about for years, independent of September of 11th.

Our nation is constantly using the rhetoric of human rights and improving the lives of others to justify its power grabs and oil plays. Bush says that we're friends of the Iraqi people, and removing Saddam is not only in service of our interests but the Iraqi's rights to freedom. But we've been bombing Iraq, killing those civilians not starved by sanctions, for years since the Gulf War. Collateral damage?

And we're selective in this freedom that we purport to bring to the world. We backed Indonesia for 25 years during their occupation and torture of the East Timorese, despite the Security Council's resolutions ordering Indonesia to withdraw from the freed Portuguese colony promptly invaded by Indonesia. Bill Clinton explained to one congressman (whose letter I read four years ago, and can't find now) that Indonesia is an important trading partner, which must be considered when considering the situation in East Timor.

I know that we can't save everyone, but it just kills me how we play the self-righteous imperial missionaries, sent to bring enlightenment to opressed masses, when our policy makers shamelessly lie as they make doe-eyes to the constituents. It leaves me in a place where I can't believe the government even when they are telling the truth.

And I am torn. Sadaam Hussein is an asshole (that we supported against Iran in the 1980s). But I think we're missing the point in targeting him. Giving the benefit of the doubt and saying that Bush really wants to improve the lives of the Iraqi people, then he still has plenty of work left to do in Afghanistan. Once a nation without law, the Taliban brought deadly, oppressive order, and now Afghanistan is lawless and just as dangerous in different ways. (To Afghanistan and Back is political cartoonist Ted Rall's graphic novel travelogue describing day-to-day sights experienced by journalists covering Afghanistan, as well as the area's history.)


We're hastily chipping away at the Middle East like a little kid running through a sand castle. But the problem is that you can only move so many stones in a tower before it begins to crack and topple. And nobody knows how and where the pieces will fall, or who they will crush on the way down.

I just want to know what to believe. If only it were that easy. And who will hear my voice? How can I divert this flood?
- posted by gleemie @ 4:22 AM