We will not disagree if we both recognize that our Government is corrupt on both sides of the aisle.
Sure there is corruption Len. Whereever money and power are involved, there will be corruption.
But from my perspective, too often we throw the baby out with the bath water, by failing to recognize the higher priorities.
For example, many people (I believe you included) have asserted the war in Iraq is merely a "grab" for Iraq's oil by the US. And I'm not going to claim that US oil companies would love to be in a position to make money helping Iraq rebuild it's oil infrastructure, as well as forming long-term relationships with Iraq's oil ministry so that they would benefit financially from providing those services required to re-establish Iraq's oil production.
But it's wrong to assert that the US is only in Iraq for the purpose of "controlling" Iraq's oil. There is just no evidence for people to assert this, especially when the Iraqi government is in charge of those oil resources and receives the money from sale of that resource to the world markets. Do American companies want to be the ones who transport that oil to market and refine it into refined products? OF COURSE they do.. Better us rather than the French or Russians who were willing to prop up Saddam's criminal regime for their own benefit. At least we're attempting to create a democratic society where the government will be more accountable to the people who elect their representatives. An accountable government provides a far better chance that the benefits of that incredible oil wealth will filter down to the Iraqi people and not just some small power elite such as Saddam's Tikriti clan.
But there is so much more at stake in Iraq, if not the entire region. So many folks on the extreme left have criticized the US government for supporting or enabling dictatorial regimes (if only by not actively opposing them). And there is some merit to their arguments.. But only if they are willing to recognize that OTHER governments have been ACTIVELY involved in protecting these tyrannical regimes for their own benefits, to the point that they are willing to undermine international law, as well as the struggle to advance human rights throughout the planet. This is what I assert France, Russia, Germany, and China were willing to do when they actively attempted to thwart attempts to hold Iraq accountable to the United Nations and the binding resolutions issued through that organization.
We have to recognize that economically, politically, and socially, the Mid-East lags the remainder of the world when it comes to abiding by human rights and democratic values. ALL the nations of the developed world have permitted despotic and unaccountable governments to accrue tremendous economic power, while not demanding the political moderation and diversity that should go hand in hand with such wealth.
Oil wealth at the hands of non-democratic regimes are a ticking timebomb waiting to blow up in our faces. Al Qai'da has premised its very being at overthrowing the Saudi and installing an Islamo-Fascist Caliphate in that country and creating a world wide Jihad against all the Infidels. They have no qualms about who they overthrow in order to achieve this goal. And they have considerable grass-roots support, fueled by a network of extremist clerics who spread Jihadist propaganda and recruit aimless Muslim youth to wage a Jihad.
And up until the overthrow of Saddam's regime, the US had done very little to advance our own values of democracy and accountable government as a viable alternative to Islamo-Fascism.
In sum, the "marketplace of ideas" has had very little to offer the average young Muslim. It's been a choice between one form of despotism or another. And from this lack of choices has risen the ability of Islamo-Fascists to wage an effective propaganda and terrorism campaign.
What we've long needed to do is facilitate democratic revolutionaries, both political and military, and empower them to wage their own campaign to create a new vision of government for their people.
And along the way, yes.. there will be incidences of corruption as various self-interested parties attempt to profit, not really caring what form of government exists. But eventually, IMO, the best manner in which to halt this corruption, or at least mitigate it, is to help people create accountable governments with a strong and objective investigative media, to expose this corruption and hold the perpetrators accountable to the law.
If corruption is what we wish to root out and eliminate, we must all be in favor of advancing democratic values throughout the world. Corruption will ALWAYS find a welcome home in a non-democratically governed country. The very nature of totalitarianism is corruption.
So all I ask of anyone, left or right, is that we don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. Freedom is worth fighting for, even if, unfortunately, it means having to fight and kill those who would deny it to others.
Hawk |
