The
Law of Holes
By
Uncle Bill Warner
In
1998, former President George H.W. Bush and his former National
Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, collaborated on the book: A
World Transformed, a political history covering significant
world events which occurred during the first three years of his
presidency. In Chapter 19, he discusses the 1991 Gulf War, which
he orchestrated, ostensibly to liberate Kuwait from the invading
Iraqis. The US-led coalition forces stopped short of going on to
capture Baghdad. The following quote was prophetic:
"Trying
to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation
of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives
in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have
incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him
was probably impossible. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad
and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed,
the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as
well. Under the circumstances, there was no viable "exit strategy"
we could see, violating another of our principles.
"Furthermore,
we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling
aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq,
thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have
destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression
that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the
United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a
bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different
and perhaps barren outcome."
In other words,
don't dig a hole for yourself in Iraq!
Well, here
we are in 2004, sweating out the very scenario President G.W. Bush's
dad had foreseen after the first Gulf War. Our "coalition"
in the present situation is a farce. We have had to go it alone,
in defiance of international law, which forbids pre-emptive war
unless there is an imminent threat of invasion. GWB&Co. ignored
the millions of people who took to the streets opposing the U.S.
invasion. We are trying, unsuccessfully at the moment, to "rule
Iraq", either through the current puppet governing council
or a future puppet government, similar to the unpopular Saudi Royal
Family, or the former Shah of Iran who was deposed by a popular
revolution because of his U.S. ties.
The US has
never much cared for freedom or democracy so much as control. After
the first Gulf war, the Sabah family returned to ruling "liberated
Kuwait" as a feudal kingdom. We will support anyone. We supported
this "demon" dictator Saddam Hussein when he was helping
to keep Iran in line. Our main ally in the region is a despotic
family, sitting on top of the world's largest oil field in Saudi
Arabia. They do things like cutting off the hands of thieves (the
ones that steal bread, not the big boys like Ken Lay) and dumping
a truckload of rocks on one of their royal princesses for adultery.
As I said, we'll support anyone who gives us the keys to their
kingdom.
What the U.S.
wants is a weak Middle East that cannot defy us when we tell them
what to do. We want a big say in where their oil production goes,
how much they produce, and how much they get for it. There are big
profits to be made, not only for the companies involved in the oil
biz (like Dick Cheney's Halliburton), but for companies like Coca
Cola and AT&T.
It seems there
is another dimension that has crept in to the picture, though. Our
President has more than once mentioned God as supporting his actions
in Iraq. The word "crusade" has been used more than once.
We may have forgotten this bloody period in history, but the Arabs
haven't! The Arab world is not pleased. What we are doing, and how
we are doing it, is driving them further and further from us. They
already do not care much for Israel, which is built on confiscated
Palestinian lands and brutally dominates the rest of Palestine.
You might recall that when Israel was formed, the Arab countries
surrounding it promptly invaded them. Without U.S. support, Israel
would never have made it. Today Arab solidarity with the displaced
Palestinian people is the single most potent roadblock to peace.
The Arabs, if they controlled their own oil, could certainly put
pressure on the U.S. to stop supporting Israel!
President Bush
and his advisors must have known that Saddam Hussein and his secular
Sunni Muslim buddies were the only thing holding the Iraqi Shi'ite
majority in check. Our administration is great for both propaganda
and self-deception in this matter, even claiming a connection between
secular Saddam and his arch-enemy, the ultra-religious Osama! Osama's
supporters hate Saddam; they even had a contract out on his life.
We have dug
ourselves a hole in Iraq that gets deeper every day that we stay
there. Can't we just let them have free elections and leave?
The last thing
the US wants in Iraq is free elections. Giving Iraq one-man-one-vote-democracy
would surely mean a victory for the majority Shi'ites. Then if they
got cozy with the Shi'ites in Iran...well, you can see a problem
developing. So there we sit in Iraq...sitting targets for the Iraqis
who want us to go home. Polls have shown that up to 90% of Iraqis
want us to pull out. Yet, we insist on staying and installing a
"friendly" government (translate that puppet government).
And the Kurds...we won't even go into that in this essay.
We have no
exit strategy. Our presence in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia as well
as our support for Israel guarantee future "terrorist"
attacks on the U.S. and its buddies. Terrorism is the only thing
that gets our attention.
George Santayana,
it is said, once noted that those who can't remember history are
condemned to repeat it. President Bush, ignoring history, world
opinion, and even his own father's advice, seems to be ignoring
the Law of Holes:
Law of Holes:
when you have dug a hole too deep for you to get out, stop digging.
Unfortunately,
we are in the hole with him.
Getting out
of the hole in the Middle East is not going to be easy, especially
as no one in a position of authority here seems ready to take responsibility
for having dug the hole in the first place. If we are going to avoid
future 9/11s, we had better consider helping our country build an
exit ladder based on cooperation and respect for the right of peoples
through out the world to control their own destinies.
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