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Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
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FUftTVAN&Xfc
Bri;i Furtwangler | Graphics editor
Time for 11CW
weapons
A new sunrise lights upon an old
regime in America, and no matter
how one may have despised the out
come, one must admire the way peo
ple were able to vote and be thank
ful for a gift that few nations truly
have. No matter how many pairs of
rosy-colored lenses we try to don,
some nations will never have real
democracies. It appears more and
more likely that Iraq will fall into the
morass of countries wearing mere
masks of legitimacy while their citi
zens suffer.
The Bush Administration has al
ready written a happy ending to the
story of Iraq (complete with a new
flag that might as well bear the label
“made in Texas”); but it is becoming
painfully obvious that it is time to take
a new tact in the war on terror. It's
bad enough that General Myers is call
ing battles against opposition “oppor
tunities,” but now we have to watch
one of those “opportunities” emerge
in the battle for Fallujah, a symbol of a
war that has become a fight just to
keep our heads above water.
Even Mr. Rumsfeld appears to have
recognized the awful truth.
Backpedalling from earlier statements
extolling the virtues of an imperfect
democracy, he reminded us in Mon
day’s Pentagon press briefing that,
“you cannot have a country that is
free and democratic and respectful of
all the people in the country if you
have safe havens for people who go
around chopping people’s heads off.”
I liked him more when he was hon
est about our chances. Let us face
facts: The only democracy that will
ever come to Iraq will be built on the
back of broken eggshells.
Of course the Secretary of Defense
remains optimistic. “Over time you’ll
find that the process of tipping will
take place, that more and more of the
Iraqis will be angry about the fact that
their innocent people are being killed
by the extremists. ... They’ll want
elections, and the more they see the
extremists acting against that possibil
ity of elections, I think that they’ll turn
JENNIFER MCBRIDE
QUASHING DISSENT
on those people.”
In other words, the worse it gets,
the more likely Iraqis will have an
election in January. What is up is
down, what is black is white. Wel
come to the other side of the rabbit
hole, because in neocon paradise,
failure is an impossibility. Instability
and stability alike lead us calmly
down the yellow brick road to emer
ald polling booths.
People searching, determined for a
way to cleanse the mud spatters off
their illusions of descending, happy
white doves quickly turn to
Afghanistan as an indicator of sweet
scenarios ahead. At least in
Afghanistan, drug lords and warlords
were able to keep their people in line
enough for elections to be held but
not enough to form any reasonable
opposition to America’s darling paper
doll regime.
Unfortunately, Iraq lacks even that
cohesion of chaos. The three fac
tions forming the interim govern
ment are well organized, completely
polarized and ready to cannibalize
their own country. Iraq’s most
prominent Sunni political party has
withdrawn from the coalition gov
ernment, while prominent Sunni
clerics call for boycotts of coming
elections. Ironically, the best exam
ple of a unified Iraq can be found in
Fallujah— where Sunnis and Shiites
alike back the rebel cleric al Sadr.
If an Iraqi government represents
the few instead of the many, disen
franchised youths will become violent
rebels and discouraged Iraqis will not
stand up for their illegitimate govern
ment. Already we are having
problems with contingents of Iraqi
forces unwilling to fight.
Rumsfeld’s answers to press ques
tions underscore how little the admin
istration understands of the delicate
balance necessary for stability. “The
only option that exists for those folks
is to decide that they have a stake in
the future of that country and to be
come a part of the political process,”
he told reporters. And of course this
will all happen once evil is cleansed
from Iraq’s domain. Which will hap
pen cleanly. “There aren’t going to be
large numbers of civilians killed, cer
tainly not by U.S. forces,” Rumsfeld
stated, praising U.S. precision. But the
United States doesn’t keep track of
Iraqi civilian casualties, so we’ll never
know, will we?
Please, Mr. Rumsfeld, stop feeding
us bullshit. Stop trying to convince
us that rain is dry. We are bogged
down in urban battles chasing
ghosts and the only solution coming
from the administration’s mouth is
actually a sermon. It’s time for Presi
dent Bush to use some of that politi
cal capital for something other than
coddling. The only hope for a new
Iraq won’t be found in the hearts
and the minds of people miraculous
ly deciding en masse that “Oh yes,
democracy is what we really want
after all.” The best way that Bush
can prove the U.S. is willing to get
serious is to take advantage of the
Cabinet reshuffle to replace Rums
feld’s ever-cheerful talking head
with someone who is willing to be
straight with the people ... and with
the President.
It’s time to ask for more troops. It’s
time to consider partitions. It’s time
to break the bubble, Mr. Bush. You
may have won an election, but now
unfettered by campaigning, you
must buckle down and deal with the
election on the other side of the
world ... and misleading statements,
no matter how pleasant, should not
be a part of your arsenal.
jennifermcbride@dailyememld.com
■ Editorial
Optimistic
U.S. needs
to regain
focus in Iraq
As 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops launch a ma
jor offensive in Fallujah 19 months after the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, it is time for Americans
to re-evaluate what our soldiers are dying for
and who they are fighting against.
The invasion, lumped into the “war on
terror” by those scraping the barrel for an ex
planation for disintegrating U.S.-world rela
tions, has become a monster. On Monday, Sec
retary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told
reporters he expected insurgents to put up a
tough fight.
“Listen, these folks are determined,” he said.
“These are killers. They chop people’s heads
off. They’re getting money from around the
world. They’re getting recruits.”
It is entertaining to watch the rose-tinted
glasses come off right before a major offensive.
Where was this rhetoric during the election?
And is any of this news to anyone? Did Rums
feld honestly think one of the oldest human
cultures in the world would embrace gun
wielding, America-propaganda-spreading
troops with open arms?
The U.S. military estimates that at least
20 percent of the insurgents in Fallujah are for
eigners, many following Jordanian militant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to the
Associated Press. As if the “who” of the Iraq
situation didn’t seem ambiguous enough, the
“why” is becoming progressively more unclear.
According to the Department of Defense, at
least 1,133 members of the U.S. military have
died (as of Monday) in Iraq, 995 of those
deaths occurring after May 2003, when Presi
dent Bush declared an end to “major combat
operations.” At least 871 died as a result of hos
tile action. Furthermore, 100,000 Iraqi civilians
have died as a result of the invasion, according
to a study released last week by Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore.
What has this mind-boggling human suffer
ing and sacrifice gotten us? Not much. On Sun
day, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, faced
with what The New York Times called “an ex
panding outbreak of insurgent violence across
the country,” declared a 60-day state of emer
gency. It is hard to fathom how the Iraqi forces
will be able to protect themselves without
coalition help anytime soon. And a free, fair
and widespread election in January is looking
like a pipe dream.
America must no longer use Iraq as a testing
ground for its policies. The “insurgency” exists
well beyond Fallujah, impacting hundreds of
thousands of civilians. The United States must
send more troops to Iraq to help contain the vi
olence and, most importantly, to help rebuild.
After more than a year of combat, the Bush Ad
ministration must strengthen its international
allies to help foster peace and quell a fast-ap
proaching global uprising.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagemauth
Editorial Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Gabe Bradley
Freelance Editor
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