Resources > After the Iraq War: Why We Are Still Here
AFTER THE IRAQ WAR:
WHY ARE WE STILL HERE?
The Wars for Empire Continue at Home and Abroad
1. The occupation of Iraq continues to cost the lives of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers. Democracy is postponed indefinitely while U.S. and multinational corporations profit from rebuilding. As a result, popular resentment against the occupation grows. The failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction shows that the war was based on deception, which undermines our own democracy.
2. Warlordism has returned to Afghanistan in full force. Women are once again being denied basic rights, and the opium trade is back to pre-Taliban levels. The war against Afghanistan did not lessen the threat of terror, and as attention has moved elsewhere, U.S. promises to rebuild the country are not being kept.
3. The “roadmap” to peace in the Middle East is proving to be the latest effort by the U.S. to deny the Palestinians their basic human, civil, and national rights. Bush and Sharon are attempting to force a grossly unjust settlement based on the maintenance of illegal settlements and the normalization of a system of apartheid-like Palestinian areas separated by Israeli-controlled roads and enclaves.
4. The Bush administration continues to intimidate and threaten Iran and North Korea in a manner that subverts international institutions and law. This undermines the ongoing democratic process in Iran, as well as attempts at reconciliation between North and South Korea.
5. The ongoing “drug war” in Colombia, supported by the U.S. with $1.3 billion annually, is a pretext for a policy of counterinsurgency. It is directly related to a racist domestic drug war that imprisons a disproportionate number of African-Americans, which results in the U.S. having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. U.S. military influence in the Andean region also serves to intimidate and repress popular movements in Venezuela and Brazil.
6. U.S. policies supporting corporate globalization continue to adversely affect the poorest countries in the world, especially in Latin American and Africa. Developing nations are subjected to “structural adjustment,” which forces them to privatize or drastically cut back public education, health services, and other basic social services. Meanwhile, in African countries suffering a severe AIDS epidemic, prices for AIDS drugs are kept artificially high by coercive patent laws enforced by these same undemocratic and unaccountable institutions of corporate globalization: the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. In the midst of deprivation and disease, armaments purchased from the developed world serve to fuel wars in the Congo and elsewhere in Africa.
7. The U.S. has tightened its embargo against Cuba, eliminating travel licenses for people-to-people tours. Increasingly threatening language accompanies increased funding for destabilizing the Cuban government through overt political interventions.
8. The military budget has reached record “peacetime” levels as a percentage of discretionary federal spending, forcing cutbacks in health, social, and educational programs already threatened by economic recession. Bush’s tax breaks, which favor the wealthy, make this situation worse while doing little to stimulate the economy. Meanwhile, as part of this vicious cycle, the recruitment of the “volunteer army” depends on diminished opportunities for poor and minority youth, while also relying on exaggerated promises of educational benefits. September 11 contributed to our current economic downturn, but the tragic events of that day also have provided George Bush with the opportunity to use foreign wars and the fear of terrorism to distract our attention from fundamental economic problems that existed prior to 9/11.
9. Immigrants, especially Arabs and Muslims, as well as Muslim-American citizens, are being harassed by the federal government and in many cases unfairly deported. Suspected terrorists are denied the due process that they deserve. The civil rights of all citizens are threatened by these tactics and by the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act. A political climate of “perpetual war for perpetual peace” serves to make many people afraid to assert their rights and to question and dissent from government policies. The “war on terrorism” not only fails to promote democracy around the world, but undermines it at home.
10. The Bush administration has given a clear message to the world that it will use overwhelming force to achieve economic and geopolitical goals when it sees fit. It has told the United Nations that the U.S. will go it alone when the U.N. does not support it. It has told the International Criminal Court that U.S citizens and soldiers must be immune from prosecution by international tribunals. The U.S. has, in short, told the world to go to hell. This is clearly a recipe for disaster.
A.W.A.R.E. Anti War Anti Racism Effort
You are invited. We meet every Sunday 5 to 6:30
at the Independent Media Center
218 West Main Street, in Downtown Urbana