mad anthony

Rants, politics, and thoughts on politics, technology, life,
and stuff from a generally politically conservative Baltimoron.

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Why do they want Iraq to fail?

OpinionJournal has an interesting excerpt from Ted Kennedy's speech at Hopkins two days ago (at the end of the first item). It features some interesting quotes like The war in Iraq has become a war against the American occupation and nations in the Middle East are independent, except for Iraq, which began the 20th century under Ottoman occupation and is now beginning the 21st century under American occupation.

There are so many things wrong with this - like the fact that many of the countries surrounding Iraq, such as Iran, are "independent" in that they don't have other countries militaries in them, but they aren't free - and freedom is much more important that independence. But I really take issue with the "war against American occupation" line. The terrorist acts being committed now are less dedicated to killing the American "occupiers" as they are to killing Iraqis and preventing elections and democracy. The terrorists have said that there goal is ending democracy. But to our boy Teddy, a democracy that comes up as a result of U.S. intervention is worse than a dictatorship that is independent.

It really seems like many on the left want the elections to fail so they can make the political case that Iraq was a quagmire. This is wrong. I can understand why people opposed the war - war does directly lead to the deaths of soldiers and civilians, and it is not something that should be entered lightly. It is reasonable to ask if these costs are justified. I personally think they are, but I can understand why some people don't think that they are, and I respect those who have carefully looked at both sides of the issue and come to a different conclusion than I have. But the question of if we should invade Iraq has been long settled, and now the question is what will happen to Iraq. A peaceful, democratic Iraq is certainly a boost for Bush and the Republican party, but it is also a win for America and a win for those who live in Iraq. For democracy to fail in Iraq is for terrorism, for theocracy, for any sort of freedom to fail. The "insurgents" in Iraq want a country where people can be killed for having different views on religion than the ruling party does. They are willing to kill innocent civilians to achieve their goals. If there was ever an antithesis for the idea of liberal thought - democracy, freedom, ect - it's the "insurgents" in Iraq, and it's strange that those who call themselves liberals are the ones who want them to succeed.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home