The Vietnamization of Iraq

The cost of the Iraq war soared to a record $10 billion/month at the end of last year not to mention the hundreds of US military lives lost, interrupted and maimed and let's not forget the tens of thousands of Iraqis also counted among the casualties. And the latter have to endure the special hell of their cities, country and society ripped apart.

Sadaam was a bad guy and he was responsible for the deaths of tens if not hundreds of thousands of his own people. I'm glad he's gone but we've replaced one tyrant with another and just because we exert our tyranny in the name of freedom and democracy doesn't justify the expense in dollars, lives and suffering we've borne and imposed. And it doesn't by any stretch of the imagination justify our continuing in a cause that we, as in Vietnam, as in Korea, will never win.

We have become not liberators but conquerors imposing our will on the weak. Uncle Sam now serves not only as the recruiting poster for our side but for the side of terrorists and extremists the world over. It's time to stop. It's time to leave. It's time to take our $10 billion a month and invest it in finding alternatives to the oil that keeps us embroiled in the most antagonistic, US-reviling parts of the world.

At the end of the day, I've come to believe that it's the free flow of oil not ideas not democracy that motivates our adventures. There are plenty of despots large and small, evil and eviler, at loose in the world; wreaking havoc on their populations. Most we ignore, like Darfur, like Somalia. Why? No strategic interest. Nothing we want. Nothing important enough for us to sacrifice our own in order to stop the killing and 'spread democracy'.

10 billion dollars a month would fund a lot of research into creating clean and renewable energy from the wind, sun, hydrogen and, yes, even the atom. Who knows, maybe one of the brave boys (or girls) we spare by not sending them to fruitless wars will be responsible for the breakthrough that spares us, once and for all, from needless, profit driven conflict.

Ten billion dollars a month would also go a long way to solving the long term causes of poverty, disease, hunger, ignorance. The conditions that give rise to tyranny in the first place.

What do you think?

tom.gray@gemsolv.com
GeMSolv.com