America's Mortal Secret

Sept. 11, 2001, left the United States in the grip of an unarticulated need for payback. No one takes a blow like that without wanting to strike out. Stated justifications aside, that need fueled the subsequent American attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, which is why it meant so little when those justifications (bin Laden dead-or-alive, WMD, etc.) evaporated. And why it meant so little when the brutalities of American methods were made plain, from torture to hair-trigger checkpoints to ruined cities.

True, Joe American does enjoy revenge (as long as the suffering is not too graphic and the personal cost not too high); however, the desire of Joe American for revenge was manipulated by the neocon administration by repeatedly implying that Saddam Hussein had some sort of connection with Al Qaeda, which in turn had a connection with the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, democratic hack John Kerry was the candidate least prepared to call Bush on such obvious war propaganda, given his vote to authorize the war, his long-term Washington player status, and his implausible denial that he thought that Bush would actually use such authorization.

I suspect that Washington insiders knew that to leave sanctions in place was criminal (having resulted in the deaths of an estimated 500,000 civilians), but may have felt that they could not politically allow the sanctions to lapse and Iraq to recover with Saddam still in power, despite the fact that UN inspections would have continued, Iraq had disarmed and cooperated with inspectors, and Iraq had been duly chastened by the attack.

For those who doubt that Saddam would have reformed, consider the example of Moamer Kadhafi, who was once an ardent Arab nationalist, but has voiced mounting exasperation with Arab politics in recent years and has reoriented Libyan foreign policy toward Africa, where he maintains close ties with post-apartheid South Africa. He has also disarmed and apologized and given restitution for the Lockerbie bombing.
Militarily he has taken on a defensive posture and supported women's equality. He has also appealed to the kidnappers of US hostage Roy Hallums to spare his life. He has also argued for economic liberalization.

Unfortunately, not all is rosy, but he seems to be trying by releasing hundreds of political prisoners.