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Back to politics

I try to avoid the issue of Iraq, but I can't. It's become a significant part of my life; I care about this issue that much. But I try to be balanced and (perhaps egotistically) informative. Here's a link (via Instapundit) of a cross-blog debate on the issue. The hawk side weighs in here; the doves weigh in here.

Read them carefully. I'm obviously biased, but the hawk side seems more reasoned and backed by evidence; the dove side is mostly congratulatory posts on successful protest marches and such. And I highly recommend Instapundit, it's the center of the punditry weblogs (and he links to right and left blogs).

Here's an excerpt from a letter sent to Tony Blair from an Iraqi exile:

The anti-"war" feeling prevalent amongst people I speak to seems to me totally misjudged and misplaced. I have to be honest here and say that I feel it is based partly on a lot on misunderstanding of the situation in Iraq and partly on people's desire to seem "politically rebellious" against the big, bad Americans. And let me say, that I also agree the American government is indeed big and bad; I have no illusions about their true intentions behind an attack on Iraq.

.....

I remember when I was around 8 I went along with my father to a demonstration against the French embassy when the French were selling Saddam weapons. I know of the numerous occasions my father and many, many others haves attended various meetings, protests and exhibitions that call for the end of Saddam's reign. I have attended the permanent rally against Saddam that has been held every Saturday in Trafalgar Square for the past 5 years. The Iraqi people have been protesting for YEARS against the war - the war that Saddam has waged against them. Where have you been?

Why is it now that you deem it appropriate to voice your disillusions with America's policy in Iraq, when it is actually right now that the Iraqi people are being given real hope, however slight and precarious, that they can live in an Iraq that is free of the horrors partly described in this email?

Whatever America's real intentions behind an attack, the reality on the ground is that many Iraqis, inside and outside Iraq support invasive action, because they are the ones who have to live with the realities of continuing as things are while people in the West wring their hands over the rights and wrongs of dropping bombs on Iraq, when in fact the US & the UK have been continuously dropping bombs on Iraq for the past 12 years.

Of course it would be ideal if an invasion could be undertaken, not by the Americans, but by, say, the Nelson Mandela International Peace Force. That's not on offer. The Iraqi people cannot wait until such a force materialises; they have been forced to take what they're given. That such a force does not exist - cannot exist - in today's world is a failing of the very people who do not want America to invade Iraq, yet are willing to let thousands of Iraqis to die in order to gain the higher moral ground. Do not continue to punish the Iraqi people because you are "unhappy" with the amount of power the world is at fault for allowing America to wield. Do not use the Iraqi people as a pawn in your game for moral superiority - one loses that right when one allows a monster like Saddam to rule for 30 years without so much as protesting against his rule.

There is something important to notice here. For five years, Iraqis living in Britain have rallied at Trafalgar Square to protest Hussein's government. Where were the anti-war protesters then? Where were the papier-mache puppets and crazy costumes? Where were Sean Penn and the rest of the glitterati? Where were the anti-semites from ANSWER?

Posted by Miguel at 01:26 PM

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