Coalition Forces Free Alice
Crazy as a March Hare in April
April 28, 2003
And just when you thought that the advanced U.S. technology used in Operation Iraqi Freedom was all about JDAM’S, MOAB’s, BLU-109’s and armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, Sabot tank rounds…out pops the super secret White Rabbit. That’s right…now that Saddam et al are at least out of sight if not out of mind, the next round of weapons to be used in winning the peace is the ultra-classified arsenal of the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse. Poor little Iraqi Alice is plunging into the tea party of democracy.
The collective of Lewis Carroll characters, formerly known as the Bush administration, might really believe in the dichotomous doublethink espoused by the President that, “The nation of Iraq -- with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people -- is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom.” But, the early facts are not painting a rosy picture.
Iraq is a nation divided; and not too evenly divided at that. The Sunni Muslims who, as the Baath Party, controlled the country under the Hussein regime comprise only 20% of the population. A full 60% of Iraq is Shiite Muslim and about 15% is Kurdish. The Shiites and Kurds suffered the Sunni retributions that ensued in 1991 after Bush I and company fomented anti-Hussein revolution and then went fishing in Maine after the “I love repressive regimes” United Nations crowd started to soil their panties at the thought of life without Saddam.
The only thing in the Middle East that outlives a memory is a grudge. With Shiite murders at the hands of the Baath party in the six figure zone, a “New Democracy” for Iraq yields control of the country to the Shiite majority and delivers a Zimbabwe-themed bon voyage for the Sunnis. Bitch-slapping with shoes and looting are only the dress rehearsal for the disaster of reprisals.
On the economic front, administration officials persist in maintaining that; “The Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people and the United States is going to respect that, come what may.” Is this going to be called the Pollyanna Plan? In a functioning democracy, the concepts of individual liberty and state ownership of wealth are mutually exclusive. Imagine the madness of domestic U.S. oil reserves belonging to the American people in lieu of private enterprise. Whoopee, would Minister of Energy Byrd have fun stuffing the oil barrels with pork.
There is no real freedom without private property. When the “people” own something that usually means that the government controls it and corrupts any economic benefits. Case in point…Iraq.
Under the Hussein regime, Iraq had a Gross Domestic Product of $59 billion. The annual oil revenues flowing from Iraqi wells was $20-$30 billion per year. This “peoples” money went straight into the pockets of the Hussein regime. Hence, the ability (power) to terrorize the citizens and trade oil for Scuds. To paraphrase from Dickens, “The government that controls the cashbox controls its people.” Just look at the pathetic levels of individual liberty in any O.P.E.C. nation.
Economic competition creates freedom. Workers who can quit one employer for another can also vote against the agendas of those employers. But, if the state is the owner of national wealth, the employer becomes a totalitarian monopoly. There can be no freedom when the same people politically and economically control you. Iraqi oil must be privatized by an arrangement that fosters equitable wealth creation for the Iraqi people.
At best, America is pathologically naïve, if not arrogant, in its belief that we can waltz into countries where armed people self-flagellate in the streets and remake their political beds in our image. The vast Muslim majority of Iraq is controlled by Islamic dogma not self-defining reason. The comparatively benevolent U.S. system evolved gradually from the beginnings of the Renaissance through the Enlightenment Period. Our freedom was not a one-hour Earl Scheib paint job…it resulted incrementally from centuries of human reason and development.
Like most of the Middle East, Iraq is infested by a vocal and opportunistic minority of Islamic fundamentalists. The Shiite “Mullahs for Moola” are eyeballing the Piñata of a sectarian nation... smash apart the future hope of freedom for the Iraqi people and win a treasure trove of oil wealth. And the cycle renews; psychotic religious frauds rob a people of their freedom, wealth and dignity with the intolerant sword of dogma.
The American comeuppance could be the ridiculous morphing of the Iraqi political landscape into another Middle Eastern terrorist state. If Islamic clerics continue to meddle and muddle, Iraq, like much of the region, will stagnate in a monotony of chaos rather than emerging into nationhood.
Clerics who would rob their faithful of self-determination in the name of dogma deserve the same fate as the former Hussein regime. This war was not about oil and not about occupation. It was about liberation from oppression for the Iraqi people. A successful conclusion demands U.S. intolerance of radical religious ambition. Anyone who believes that the formation of yet another Islamic state accrues to the benefit of freedom should jump into the hole with the White Rabbit and worship at the altar of Baghdad Bob.
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