September 8, 29 J.E.

As I write this, we are still embroiled in the Iraq fiasco. I may be a little bitter about the fact that yet another one of my infallible psychic predictions has proven to be all-too-fallible, but I was never particularly thrilled with the Iraqi war, anyway. When North Korea is threatening to lob nukes over the Pacific, Iraq is not my top priority.

Saddam Hussein was certainly an asshole, no doubt about it, and the world will be a better place once they've fed his rotting corpse to some dogs. Still, is it worth any American lives to get rid of a leader who obviously has enough support in his own country to lose two big wars in 10 years and still be in power? If we went after every 3rd World asshole dictator, we'd be better off making a list of countries not to attack. Besides, the Iraqis whom common sense would dictate would be grateful that we got rid of Saddam are protesting the American presence in Iraq. Well fuck 'em then. I knew they'd be pricks about it.

I suppose the most ironic thing is all of the peaceniks chanting, "No blood for oil" and similar drivel. Hell, if the war WERE about oil, that at least would be a GOOD reason to fight. If Hussein was somehow threatening our country's economy and standard of living by closing off our access to oil, we'd be more than justified in going in there and kicking his greasy ass. After all, what's the military's job? To protect American interests. That's it. Our job isn't to go around recreating countries no matter how nasty the dictator. The people wouldn't appreciate it anyway.

"But Saddam Hussein had WMDs!" shrieks the fanatically devoted young republican.

So does China, Russia, India, Pakistan, North Korea, France, etc. Frankly, I'm more afraid of Pakistani or Russian nukes falling into the wrong hands than anything going on in Iraq. Besides, after months of searching, they STILL haven't found any evidence of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The way I see it, this whole mess started way back with George Bush I. Iraq invaded Kuwait and threatened our interests, and we properly kicked their asses back across the border. That should have been the end of it. But no. "Hey," somebody with more power than sense said, "let's try to support an uprising in Iraq and get rid of that jerk Hussein." Thus started years of "No-fly zones", occasional cruise missile strikes, futile arms inspections, and page 3 newspaper stories about how much Iraq sucks. What a waste of time and money.

Now, instead of being just another crappy country we didn't like, Iraq became public enemy #1. I've never missed the USSR more.  Polls sagging? Slow news day? Lob a couple of cruise missiles Iraq's way. Clinton milked that cow for 8 years. Then George Bush II, the sequel, decides it's time to butcher the old cow. God, I hate politicians.

Now we're stuck occupying what is basically a spawning ground for fanatical thugs in the forlorn hope that we can make it a good country with kind and responsible leaders. At least, that's the story. I don't know why they really decided to invade Iraq. Maybe G.W. wanted to settle an old score. Maybe it really was about WMDs. Maybe it was show of strength. Maybe it was some attempt to strike at terrorists (which it seems Hussein also did not have a connection to). Maybe they got tired of flying in those no-fly zones.

If only it were about oil. At least that would be a good reason. 

 

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