A Call for Open Debate on War with Iraq

Author: [no author name found]

The warmongers have already won half the war by successfully eliminating the real debate on Iraq. Through systematic manufacturing of consent the debate is narrowed to the point that all roads lead to the desired conclusion anyway: war. The debate was wiped off the TV screen and ripped off the headlines before it ever reached them. Instead all that is left of the debate is useless partisan feud and an imperial squabble in the Security Council.
The partisan debate was resolved this past week, as congress will hand over war making powers to the executive. Meanwhile at the U.N., the U.S. will lure the three imperial powers France, Russia and China into supporting our oil war by simply supporting their oppressive wars in return. Russia will be granted a free hand in Chechnya, and China the legality to slaughter Muslims in its western province, Xinjiang. Petty disputes amongst imperialist powers will soon be resolved at the expense of human life and the Iraq debate will be declared over with everyone having agreed. Everyone but those in whose land this war will be fought on.
While consensus is being manufactured at home, Iraq is preparing for an attack by mustering up whatever it has in chemicals and biological agents, to lash out in response against Israel. Israel is aiming its conventional and nuclear warheads eastwards ready to react to (or pre-empt) an attack by Iraq. General Ariel Sharon's army is not known for its calculated responses.
Militant Islamicists all over the region, deciding to join the war between Israel and Iraq, may unleash an ugly wrath of a people oppressed for decades and turn this war into an Islamic one. As President Bush promises a swift war, our closest military ally in the Arab world, Egypt, is being crushed under an alarmingly volatile and hateful anti-American public sentiment.
Regardless of consensus in congress and the Security Council, this war cannot be concluded without large-scale destruction. It will be a destruction that will strengthen those who can harm us the most. Box cutters are the real danger to America. Pure hate is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction that threatens Americans.
It is time to let human mental evolution be expressed in politics if we are to avoid facing the fate of an empire. Any such debate would immediately freeze all plans for war. You do not have to be anti-American, anti-Arab or anti-Israeli to oppose this war. You just have to be anti-stupidity. Lets make anti-stupidity the cornerstone of our policy.

Shahan Mufti is a February senior from Illinois. He is currently studying in Washington, D.C.