Opinion

Bush can't justify war on Iraq

Jill Rock
Guest Columnist

Just after George W. Bush took office as president, I commented to a friend that within five years the United States would be at war. My friend did not believe me.

I told him that within three years the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, the story that had Americans calling for Clintonis impeachment during a time of peace, would be a distant memory, like a VH1 "Behind The Music" episode. He shook his head.

The Sept. 11 attacks were a tragedy for the United States, but, unfortunately, rather a boon for President George W. Bush -- who, without that tragic day, would still be careening in the wake of the controversial 2000 election. Remember the 2000 elections, Florida, Jeb Bush, and that woman (whatis-her-name)?

Oh yes, and vote recounts. Strange that the Bush administration has been plagued with severe political problems caused by poor arithmetic skills. First, Florida could not get an accurate vote count even if it used an abacus.

Second, the media insists that even though Bushis opinion polls are down, the percentages are higher than average for most presidents in the second year of the first official term. Higher than average for this time of year? We are talking about war here. Opinion polls call for interpretation, not a weather forecast.

Third, and most important, President Bush wants the citizens of the United States to agree that the Sept. 11 attacks warrant a war on Iraq. I understand where he is coming from, but Bush has not caught up with his own people.

More than 10 years ago, the Persian Gulf War was easy to feed the American people. Our perception of the Middle East was readily available in the form of packaged bigotry and ignorance of the Muslim people and their diverse cultures.

In a way, the Sept. 11 attacks backfired on Bush, because within a year, Americans began to learn about our enemies within the "Axis of Evil." We heard names that we had never heard before: Al-Qaida, Afghanistan and its tribes and Osama bin Laden.

But, more importantly, weire listening to the Muslims at home. The "Middle East" is not a conglomerate of Muslim terrorists any more than the United States is a nation overrun by fundamentalist Christian Ku Klux Klan members. All Middle Easterners are not Muslim, and all women wearing the <I>burqa<P> are not socio-politically oppressed. Iraq is only one Middle Eastern country run by a dictator.

Bush cannot believe that. With the help of the astute media, he can throw around foreign-sounding names sprinkled with images of terrorism, underscored by a sense of urgency, and hence declare war. The United States is not justified. The issue of terrorism does not reside in the domain of war on Iraq, no matter how fearful we become.

I must ask, what is the war on Iraq really about? Maybe it is about smallpox, anthrax and biological weaponry. If that is the case, Bush should not go at it alone. The United States cannot afford it. Perhaps itis the only way Bush can calculate a tangible end to the recession, resulting in real jobs for the unemployed.

Perhaps it is for oil. Perhaps our president and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, prefer to play Cowboys and Indians while the rest of the world is working hard at making global decisions that inevitably affect us all.

If any of these are true, then George W. Bush is failing pathetically. I donit care what the opinion polls say.

I simply do not want war, let alone war right now. I want the America that I once knew and loved. My predictions have turned out correct: Here we are at the brink of war with Iraq. I would gladly trade this for a story about a lewd Oval Office tryst.

Rock, a post-baccalaureate communication disorders student, can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.