Hidden Connection
guest post by awol
"Invading Iraq after September 11th, is like invading Mexico after
Pearl Harbor." --Richard Clarke, Meet the Press, Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Let's see.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda. Saddam Hussein had a primarily hostile relationship to Al Qaeda.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out by Shiite fundamentalists. The Sunni Ba'ath party discriminated against Shiites.
The 9/11 attacks were co-ordinated by Osama Bin Laden. Hussein and Bin Laden were political rivals.
The 9/11 attacks were conducted by ethnically Arabic people. Iraq, save its 20% Kurdish population, is also an ethnically Arabic country.
It's amazing how little our political culture -- even the culture of opposition -- really acknowledges this simple, damning truth.
At the core of the Iraq war, and the 38,000+ killed in Iraq, is an equation that flows necessarily and bluntly through an inescapably racist logic. (A racist and thus hideously malformed logic). But our country has been so cowed by the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent actions of our government that this point has been essentially banned from all but the most marginalized, extreme forms of political or cultural opposition.
It's a pretty terrible thing, really.
"Invading Iraq after September 11th, is like invading Mexico after
Pearl Harbor." --Richard Clarke, Meet the Press, Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Let's see.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda. Saddam Hussein had a primarily hostile relationship to Al Qaeda.
The 9/11 attacks were carried out by Shiite fundamentalists. The Sunni Ba'ath party discriminated against Shiites.
The 9/11 attacks were co-ordinated by Osama Bin Laden. Hussein and Bin Laden were political rivals.
The 9/11 attacks were conducted by ethnically Arabic people. Iraq, save its 20% Kurdish population, is also an ethnically Arabic country.
It's amazing how little our political culture -- even the culture of opposition -- really acknowledges this simple, damning truth.
At the core of the Iraq war, and the 38,000+ killed in Iraq, is an equation that flows necessarily and bluntly through an inescapably racist logic. (A racist and thus hideously malformed logic). But our country has been so cowed by the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent actions of our government that this point has been essentially banned from all but the most marginalized, extreme forms of political or cultural opposition.
It's a pretty terrible thing, really.
Comments