Bush's Winds of War

Today in his remarks at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement President Bush conveniently revealed unclassified material regarding al Qaeda that he believes justifies the continued war and bolsters his position on Iraq. The U.S. Military also today released drawings (repeat drawings not photos) that were allegedly found on a computer at an al Qaeda safe house in or near Baghdad that depict various gruesome torture techniques. It would seem the Bush Administration is stepping up its anti-terrorist rhetoric to support its position on the war and its no-compromise attitude toward any troop funding legislation.

However al Qaeda is just one aspect of the problem in Iraq. It is irrational to justify the war based on the activities of actual terrorists like al Qaeda when the major problem in Iraq is the conflict between Sunni and Shi'a who are each engaged in a struggle to make sure that they are not forced into oppressive rule by the other. This violent situation is occurring largely because of our actions after we invaded their country and took over their government.

It has now been recognized by most Democrats and many Republican that debaathification and the disbanding of the army , two actions taken by J. Paul Bremer soon after the official end of the war, added to the chaos and violence that helped create the current conflict in Iraq. Debaathification resulted in the government being essentially dismantled because most civil servants including teachers were members of the Baath Party as a requirement of their jobs not because the were necessarily loyal to Saddam. The disbanding of the military especially without the confiscation weapons, resulted in thousands of armed, able young men being let loose, without jobs and with little possibility of employment which from a security and law enforcement standpoint would be a dangerous situation anywhere in the world. While al Qaeda has become increasingly active in Iraq after we invaded they were not active before; the lack of government, social structure and security that came about after we took over the country allowed al Qaeda to gain a foothold in Iraq.

Bush's remarks today at the United States Coast Guard Academy included the following: "In Iraq, we removed a cruel dictator who harbored terrorists, paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, invaded his neighbors, defied the United Nations Security Council, pursued and used weapons of mass destruction." There is no proof that Saddam harbored any terrorists even though Bush has long suggested that Saddam allowed members of al Qaeda to enter Iraq. Saddam did pay families of Palestinian suicide bombers and he did invade Kuwait.

And while Saddam may have on occasion defied the United Nations, the United States itself while not explicitly defying, circumvented the wishes of the U.N. by not seeking a U.N. Security Council vote before invading Iraq. Saddam was being truthful when prior to the Iraq War he told the U.N. that he had complied with their order that he disarm -- we have found no WMD despite the Bush Admin insistence that he had not at the time gotten rid of the weapons. It was the U.S. who came up with questionable evidence, presented by to the U.N. by Colin Powell, that Saddam had not complied. And it was the U.S. who along with Britain didn't seek the approval of the U.N. Security Council before going to war because they knew they would not vote in their favor. In September 2004, then U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan said that the war "was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal."

What I find most disturbing about the President's rhetoric is that it is almost impossible to determine who and what is a real threat and what threats he is exaggerating or distorting for political effect. He or his representatives have on recent occasions accused Democrats of political theater regarding their opposition to funding the war without accountability and to their inquiry into the U.S. Attorney firings by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. However, the Democrat's political theater is an attempt to bring much needed accountability to the Bush administration while Bush's political theater is about instilling fear with vague threats and not about realistically informing the American people regarding the real world threat from al Qaeda: "Here in America, we're living in the eye of a storm. All around us, dangerous winds are swirling, and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."

By not realistically addressing the terrorist threat he endangers the U.S. even more than actual terrorist could ever hope to: by spending billions of dollar unnecessarily but even worse, by sacrificing the lives of thousands of U.S. troops and by disabling 10's of thousands of others. Not to mention the deaths of possibly 100's of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

It was also announced today that Gen. Petraeus is attempting to implement a new plan of action in Iraq which includes negotiating cease fire plans with those factions which were willing to do so. This is a reasonable plan if it is not too late for it to be implemented. If we manage to quell the violence between the Sunni and Shi'a factions in Iraq -- who are not terrorists but are for the most part legitimate residents of Iraq fighting a civil war -- we can then possibly focus on al Qaeda who have become a strong presence, especially in Diyala, and are a threat to both Sunnis and Shia's as well as to the rest of the Middle East.