I have been proud to stand with Larry Ingle and others in opposition to Bush’s illegal and immoral war for oil each Wednesday at Miller Park - and will continue to do so. There are heartening honks and waves from many dozens of citizens to express their support during the time we are there. Of course, there are always those few who can only express themselves by shouting epithets from their car quoting Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage’s quips of the day. And, of course, there is the obligatory street preacher doing his best to convince the assembled clergy among us that his vindictive god is perfectly comfortable with the prospect of Iraqi children being vaporized and American soldiers being killed attacking a country which poses no threat to America whatsoever. (There can be no doubt that it does pose a threat to Israel, however, and that is more probably at the root of the issue.) There seems to be a unanimous mood among us, however, that his god is not in any way related to theirs. Not recognizing one at all, it’s all a matter of amusement to me.
The cause to which Bush is committing our military is unjust, plain and simple. Despite the despicable nature of Saddam Hussein, Bush cannot justifiably prosecute this war against the sovereign country of Iraq and its people without the endorsement of the world community, of which he can only fondly dream.
It has even been soundly condemned by the Pope, himself. Of course, for born-again Bush, the Pope is nothing more than a pimple on Pat Robertson’s behind. But one wonders what he would do should the pontiff go to Bahgdad, as he is being asked to do by millions the world over.
As yet another member of our foreign service resigns in protest of Bush’s oil war, talk has turned to the possibility that our president and his cabinet could be branded war criminals and brought up on charges for crimes against humanity. I think it’s a real possibility, despite Bush’s attitude that everyone else in the world is ‘irrelevant.’ The words of diplomat John H. Brown’s resignation lay out the logic for such a move. In a letter to Colin Powell, he said: “I cannot in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against Iraq…Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The president's disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century.”
The letter of his colleague John B. Kiesling was even more pointed: “We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to do to ourselves.”
As an educated American citizen, I refuse to be lured into the arrogant attitude of ‘America right or wrong.’ As an American taxpayer, I object to my required citizenship fees being devoted to a violation of our country’s most fundamental principles and the concurrent erosion of our freedoms and First Amendment rights. As an American freethinker, I condemn the obvious and very well documented degree to which Bush is playing his role in our name under the delusion that it bears some mark of divine purpose.
These are perilous times. The blind corporatism and arrogant callousness exhibited by our country’s leadership should bring thousands to Miller Park. When the Bush plan to unleash 3,000 bombs in 48 hours on a city of five million people not unlike you and me is reported to have begun, I believe we will be officially living under our own brand of a dictatorship. And it will be a very sad day for the world.
Bruce Wilkey
Signal Mountain