War and Other Disorders
Only Democracy and the Iraqis suffer

Jonathan Hershfield, DMY Columnist, 3-31-03

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When you have an original thought, you are fascinated by it. Your brain came up with it and then told you that you should be fascinated. That is why we elect leaders. So they will fascinate us. Our leaders are supposed to be the brains of the people. And they should either fascinate us or convince us to be fascinated. That is what is so disappointing about Bush. Even his genuine attempts to fascinate me have left me feeling only dreadful.

For example, while discussing the various outcomes of his illegal invasion of Iraq, Bush likes to toss around the term "biological warfare". It sounds vaguely entertaining. Like maybe it refers to Martians adjusting the Earth's climate to prepare it for colonization (not the Martian people of course, but their government). It's generally used in the same sentence as "chemical warfare" which seems to mean the use of, well, chemicals to damage people's, uh, biology. Few people doubt that a monster like Saddam Hussein would use biological warfare, if for no other reason than his army sucks.

But I have to ask, is it not biological warfare when the US military specifically targets and damages electrical plants that subsequently shut off the power to hospitals, thus putting civilian BIOLOGY at risk? Or more obviously, when we specifically target and damage Iraqi water supply so that explosive residue, human feces and drinking water spend an awful lot of time together. Is it not further biological warfare to prohibit the importation of the chemicals and machinery needed to decontaminate this water? If this isn't a war on the Iraqi people, then what the hell are they supposed to drink?

And lastly, when we find that the majority of domestically produced agriculture in Iraq is coming from radioactive soil because of toxic dust left behind by our military over a decade ago... which is only still there because sanctions prohibit the importation of the necessary equipment to clean it up... and as a result the child CANCER rate in Iraq has gone through the roof... how is this not biological warfare? Please to explain...

Interesting how Bush has the gall to refer to the Geneva convention when he laments over the treatment of the American POW's he put there. It's no shocker that Hussein is torturing these men. It's not like we hadn't watched him do it for decades in the same way we currently watch the Colombian government. But how can you honestly accuse Hussein of war crimes when the whole war in and of itself is nothing more than a big crime? How can Bush break every respected law of war and then hold Hussein at a higher standard? If, for example, this were some legitimate war, where maybe, I don't know, Iraq had threatened us or there was some need to protect a certain allied country, two sides would engage in battle and both would be expected to obey the rule of law. The saying may be cute, but all is NOT fair in love and war. That's just stupid. But when war is used, when our MILITARY is used, for the illegal rejection of internationally accepted boundaries, this makes the entire situation a war crime and by force of logic makes every damn thing fair game.

Even the Conservative News Network (CNN) and the Microsoft News by Corporations (MSNBC) channels don't believe this to be a real war... despite themselves. Has anyone picked up on the fact that we rarely (if ever) see the term "War with Iraq"? No, we either see "War on Iraq" or "War in Iraq". This is subtle, but extremely significant. We are not at war WITH Iraq. The Bush regime is simply having its own war and it happens to be IN Iraq.

So aside from the five of us who listen to Pacifica Radio, why should any of us know anything about what's really going on? Most of our information comes from the kind of people who'd tell you smoking is good for you because it makes you go outside in all weather conditions. They'd say it's good for your immune system. Why not? These are the same guys who use moral superiority to wage war on Saddam Hussein while having defended people like Pinochet and Suharto. The same guys who just can't give enough love to Saudi Arabia, where most of the terrorism is sprouting from and where women have the freedom to go outdoors and get arrested when not accompanied by a man. The cynicism is making me queasy.

What a tragic waste this president has tattooed Americans with. I mean, for those who lean farther to the right and truly believe that the US has generally done the fair thing throughout history, this president is really making you look foolish. No matter what happens to George W. Bush, whether he is successful in achieving whatever the hell his goals are in Iraq, whether he can find a resolution to the Korean problem, even if he one day manages to bring us all health insurance, history will record him as a liar and the American that changed the very global idea of war... for the worse.