Ignoble, Unnecessary War Hurts America and the Global Community
by Helen Thomas
On March 19, 2003, President Bush launched a long-awaited and unprovoked U.S. attack on Iraq and told reporters: ``I feel good.''
Since he has not had a news conference since Dec. 15, it's hard to tell whether he still feels swell about his historic blunder on the first anniversary of that unnecessary ``war of choice.''
Is there really a cause to celebrate when the human and financial price has been so high? This is one tunnel where the light at the end is not presently in sight.
The White House has tried to put the best face on the preemptive attack on Iraq, but the administration can't cover up the reality that America has lost more than it has gained. Our national credibility is shot and our prestige has been shattered.
The Pew Research Center last week released a survey of the citizens of nine nations that showed the image of America has never been lower.
The center polled 8,000 persons in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco.
Andrew Kohut, who runs the non-partisan center, commented: ''We've never seen ratings as low as this for America.'' The findings also showed a ''long term discontent with America that U.S. leaders have to confront,'' he said.
As Bush and his hawkish advisers tell it, the war is now a ''noble cause.'' That nobility escapes me.
The ultimate price has been paid by the 570 Americans killed in the war in Iraq; 2,822 others have been wounded, according to Pentagon figures. Defense Department officials say they do not count Iraqi civilian casualties but non-governmental organizations say that toll is in the thousands.
The war in Iraq -- allegedly part of Bush's war against terrorism -- is inspiring more horrific acts elsewhere. The train bombings in Madrid killed 202 people; the car bombing in Baghdad earlier this week killed more civilians.
The terrorist acts and the U.S. diminished credibility appear to be weakening the will of the so-called ''coalition of the willing.'' Spain's newly elected President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is ready to pull Spain's 1,300 troops out of Iraq by June 30 if the United Nations is not given a bigger role.
Poland's President Aleksander Kwaseniewski also is having second thoughts. He said Thursday that he may withdraw the 2,400 Polish troops now in Iraq because the United States ''misled'' his country about the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
Since May 1 when Bush declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq, casualties on both sides have continued to mount. The cost of the war so far has run into the billions, climbing at the rate of around $4 billion a month.
In remarks on the night of the invasion, Bush said, ``The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.''
We now know there was no threat against the United States and that there were no weapons.
As the post-invasion reality has unfolded, the administration has been forced to back-pedal quickly, offering a preposterous and ever-changing rationale for the attack.
No weapons found? Well, Saddam at least had ''plans'' for such weapons, Bush insisted. As he put it, ``What's the difference?''
No plans found? Well, Secretary of State Colin Powell came up with the highly spun comment that Saddam at least had the ''intention'' of producing such weapons.
The president surely must know that his preemptive go-it-alone war policy has been repudiated around the world.
Copyright 1996-2003 Knight Ridder
CC |
