Wednesday, 31 July 2002

The Build up to Iraq

I supported and still support the war in Afghanistan. Iraq however is another matter entirely...


This is a rant that I rather hoped I wouldn't have had to write. You see, about a fortnight ago I sat down to write something about current affairs that was brimming with optimism. I didn't expect it to be hugely difficult; my personal and professional life are good, and I expected my general good mood to be reflected in what I wrote. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I was wrong. That particular rant is still sitting in my Drafts folder gathering whatever passes for dust in a computer hard drive. And it's not like I didn't try; I started the damn thing 2 weeks ago and I've come back to it 8 or 9 times since. In that time I've managed to add one sentence. As I'm sure you can understand, this has caused no small amount of frustration; I've been banging my head against a brick wall trying to figure out a way to write down what I wanted to say. And now I've stopped trying. Why? Well, happy though I am with my life at the moment, it seems that I was rather foolish to think that this would allow me to obscure world events in the same fluffy pink fog that envelops one when one is personally very happy indeed. So I thought that I'd try a different angle; what in the hell is going on in the world that won't allow me to conclude a rant with the words "Hey, everything is going to work out just fine! Relax! Enjoy your life!"

Amazingly enough, the source of my deep-seated concern lies over the Atlantic in the personage of the US Government. (I was going to say a little something to stress that, despite my loathing of their current government, I'm not anti-American. However, seeing as the type of person who would scream at me for being some sort of Arab-loving, liberal, commie, subversive idiot would do so if I did anything less than praise the Land of the Free unconditionally whilst ignoring the catalogue of hypocrisy, arrogance, and political shortsightedness that has become the trademark of the Republican and Democrat parties...well, you'll excuse me if I'm inclined to think "Fuck 'em" and plough on regardless). The reasons why I am growing increasingly nervous are neither new nor particularly special to America. It's just that the possible consequences are enough to allow me to preserve my hard-won veneer of cynicism in the face of my actually being genetically indistinguishable from a pig in shit these days.

So, what the hell am I talking about? Astoundingly enough, bearing in mind that I'm talking about a government who's leader is widely regarded as heroic in his efforts to push back the boundaries of incumbent stupidity (and as he has Ronnie "Alzheimer" Reagan to compete with, this is no mean feat...) I'm talking about America doing it's level best to start another war. Apparently Afghanistan was merely an appetiser to those good old boys in the White House; all it did was give them a taste for blowing the hell out of little brown people attending wedding parties. The main dish is, of course, Iraq.

Here in the UK, we have been made vaguely aware that Dubya is trying to whip the nation into the kind of jingoistic fervour required to get popular support for a war. I say vaguely because the mainstream media, perhaps aware of the significance of the UK being drawn into a conflict that has barely any international support and that is almost certainly illegal under international law, has spoon-fed the great British public with stories of such huge significance as "Man Feels Queen's Arse" and "Big Brother’s Jade: Why I'm not a Minger". I don't mean to denigrate people for lapping up these stories (because I know I do), and I don't mean to sound as paranoid as I actually am, but doesn't it concern anyone that, whilst our attention has been distracted ("Hey, dumbass! Look at the pretty story! You looove Pop Idol...listen to Will wax lyrical about the significance of whatever sweltering turd he's inflicted on the charts! You think animals are cuuute...here, here's a story about some poor whales getting beached and nice people trying to save them, isn't that nice? Yep, the world sure is great folks, so don't you worry about a thing. And especially don't worry about what YOUR government that YOU allowed into power are doing, 'kay?") ,that nice Mr. Blair has all but choked on Dubya's dick in his eagerness to involve the UK in a war against Iraq? I mean Jesus Christ, one can almost hear the sucking noises on the rare occasions that Blair is on TV explaining how we're going to be backing America all the way.

Now then; why should anyone care that a war on Iraq seems to be imminent? Who cares if Saddam Hussein is toppled from power? What does it matter if America is choosing to fight the good fight and release the Iraqi people from virtual slavery? I'll deal with America's motivation for wanting a war in a moment, but firstly I have to confess; I'd love to see a change of regime in Iraq. I have a long-standing hatred of dictators and totalitarians and it would be a delight to see the moustachioed old bastard standing trial for the long, LONG list of atrocities that he is responsible for. However, these things have to be done in a certain way. When the first Gulf War was fought, it was fought with a UN mandate and an international coalition with America at it's head. There was a clear objective, widespread support from Iraq's neighbours in the Middle East, and whatever opposition to war that could be mustered was quickly marginalised due to it's impressive refusal to accept the facts and the reality of the situation. This war, if it is fought, will do so without reference to the UN, a coalition consisting of some gung-ho American and some reluctant British troops, no objective beyond "Saddam must Die!", and no support (in fact, there will probably be active opposition) from Iraq's neighbours. This time, it's not the opponents of war who have closed their eyes to reality.

Essentially, America is talking about ignoring the will of the rest of the world and doing what it wants because it believes it to be the right thing. Again, not necessarily a bad thing (as Winston Churchill discovered), but why exactly is the US government so determined to stick 2 fingers up to the world and behave in a manner not unlike the sports 'jock' stereotype that can be found in every bad American teen movie since the 70's? There are two schools of thought on this. One says that America is being true to the ideals of freedom and democracy on which it was founded, that it is acting in the defence of a poor and oppressed people and...I'm sorry, even as I was typing that I found myself chuckling. It's quite clearly a large and unmistakable pile of bullshit isn't it? The land of freedom and democracy has toppled democratically elected governments on a whim and, as a result, reduced the freedom available to huge swathes of people across the planet. They've done plenty to advance the cause of oppression (currently they're opposing an international agreement to end the use of torture by governments. There reason for doing so is that they don't want foreign observers allowed into US prisons. Way to stamp moral authority on your regime Dubya...), so all the protestations by Rumsfeld et al that they're doing this for apple pie and liberty sound rather hollow.

The other school of thought is a little fragmented, but runs thus; America is currently reaping the whirlwind caused by decades of corporate greed. The stockmarket is crashing, people's savings and pensions are being devalued to the point of worthlessness, and all the while a few CEO's are stuffing their cavernous pockets with money. Unsurprisingly, people are not happy about this. When they are not happy, they tend to register their disapproval in the time-honoured tradition of blaming the president for everything. Dubya's approval rating is falling (something that, after September 11th, no-one thought would happen for years) and he needs something that will send it shooting back up to election landslide levels. Happily, his Dad left unfinished business in Iraq, and so what better way to make people forget about their raped economy than a war with a country that coincidentally has huge oil reserves. What would help repair the economy better than a new supply of oil that would free America from it's need to keep it's Arabian allies sweet?

This sounds a little more believable, doesn't it? Perhaps a little too harsh in places (I can't bring myself to believe that their government is composed entirely of soulless monsters who believe in nothing more than their own self interest), but all in all it's a hypothesis that holds a lot of water. So that is what America is doing. It is willing to risk causing civil wars across the Middle East, a massive increase in terrorist recruitment, and a ruining of the economy that will make the current crash seem like a particularly nice dream involving 4 Playboy Playmates, some whipped cream, and a red snapper. All because a group of stupid white men want to cling on to their power and influence in America, and fuck the rest of the world if they don't like it. Yet the UK is supporting all of this. And I'll bet most of us didn't even know that we were.

It does seem that war is inevitable. It also seems that we in the UK are going to be part of it. If that does happen, then I'm patriotic enough to want 'us' to win; only a fool would wish defeat on his own country. But if I'm honest, I wish that Tony Blair would grow some balls and tell Dubya that we want no part of his attempt to win the approval of his Daddy and the American Public. We've supported his War on Terror, and that is all well and good. But we avoided the first Vietnam, so it would be nice if we could avoid their next one. Let's not support his War on Common Sense, eh?

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