Dear Mr. Zakaria,
I read you avidly, look for you on T. V., and fondly hope your influence completely replaces that of the hyphenated Americans of split allegiance whose ideologies now drive American foreign policy.
Today I want to address two points you make. On page 51 of the 12/29 Newsweek issue you say, "Many of those against that [Viet Nam] war were against all war," and, "Arguing against it [the current undeclared Iraq war] is re-fighting history rather than presenting a vision for the future."
Working the quotes in reverse, the principles misguiding the current invasion of Iraq must be dragged, spitting and kicking with all their pseudo-Republican venom, from beneath the layers of pretext and prejudice into a bright new daylight. Only by vigorous discussion and debate can they be exposed and rendered now and forever powerless to bamboozle well-meaning peoples everywhere aspiring to a civil existence - America in particular!
First, of course, we must dispatch the issue of Saddam's violent propensities. Abhorrence of torture and Ashcroft-style secret prosecutions is the primary bait that has hooked American public opinion into supporting Saddam's overthrow. But, mild mannered leaders have never succeeded ruling the Babylonian cradle of civilization. The violence of the dislike directed at the American occupation and the usurping puppets illustrates why. Had a Saddam-like figure not been in place for the decades when America supported or tolerated Hussein, the Sunnis and Shiites, whom Winston Churchill glommed artificially together into one country with the unrelated Kurds after World War I, may well have extended their fierce old feuds into a religious blood-bath. It would unavoidably draw into the maelstrom Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and the nuclear bomb-bristling instigator Israel. Libya, Turkey, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Russia, and the United States would not be far behind, in one order or another. Nuke bearing Pakistan and India would be hard-pressed to stay out. Even if the chain of escalation were interrupted before every country with an army or a bomb had them committed to one side of the jihad or the other, a population many times in size the quarter million of his detractors that Saddam tortured and killed would have been gone from the earth. Who will keep the lid on the pot now?
As every un-neo-conned literate human knows, neither terror nor WMD were factors in the Cheney-Rumsfeld determination to exploit to the maximum the undertaking begun, perhaps with the gambit of April Glaspie, US ambassador in Baghdad, who told Saddam Hussein, on July 25 of 1990, "the President [Bush] personally wants to expand and deepen the relationship with Iraq ... We don't have much to say about your Arab-Arab differences, like your border differences with Kuwait... Secretary [of State James] Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, ... that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America." Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, with its American green light, created justification for the first American invasion of Iraq.
"Brother's-Keeperism" also played an insidious part in promoting the present military blunder. Aging right-wing religious do-gooders fell over one-another to cheer from safe sidelines while the children of others would kill and be killed as proxy for the old fundamentalist passion of Crusadacost. Nothing about the current war relates to American values of truth, justice, or rule of law, or religious and spiritual freedom. Nothing about it advances any moral, strategic, or even casual American interest. It merely gratifies the tragic vanity and rancor of highly placed American officials.
Moving on, most Americans who opposed this and other undeclared wars are not pacifists. Whether by resignation or by moral indignation, these real patriots exemplify the common sense and opposition to tyranny that until so very lately made America history's greatest beacon of hope and freedom.
Yes, we need to move on. The United Nations and NATO should have major roles in the clean-up. Is it not duty of every sensible intellect and every defender of the American Constitution, to the extent personal safety allows, to be heard with voice and vote, in this increasingly dangerous time?
Sincerely,
Tobey
