War with Iraq Liberal Voice

Author: Wellington Lyons

The Pentagon recently denounced "Hussein's rule [as] the worst in world history." As reported by Reuters, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke declared Monday that upon liberation, "the Iraqi people will be free of decades and decades and decades of torture and oppression the likes of which I think the world has not ever seen before."
The allegation would almost be funny if the consequences surrounding it weren't so tragic. Make no mistake: the government is lying to you. The ranking of Hussein as the worst villain the world has ever known is the most obviously grotesque falsehood recently vomited forth by our government's propaganda machine.
One is forced to wonder, what other misinformation has the Bush administration been disseminating? In this illegitimate, illegal and unjust war, the White House has thus far managed to keep its embedded reporters from veering too far away from the government line.
Let us inspect a couple of the more prevalent myths the American people have swallowed with regards to Gulf War II.
The first myth concerns our President's wide-ranging coalition of states that supports us in our "liberation" efforts, supposedly lending legitimacy to our military action. Allow me to share with you a few facts regarding this coalition of the killing - pardon me - I believe "coalition of the willing" is the preferred "Dubyaspeak."
The only countries actually providing soldiers for the invasion are Britain, Australia and Poland - Poland, in a remarkable show of solidarity, is sending a full 200 men. Many of the remaining nations, who for fear of being on the receiving end of a large stick, are offering us a pat on the back but no material support. These nations include such moral beacons and champions of human rights as Afghanistan, Colombia and Georgia, all of which have been cited in the most recent Amnesty International Annual Report for torture, imprisonment of political dissidents, deaths while in custody, extra-judicial killings and other such atrocities.
The few governments of industrialized nations supporting this war, namely Spain and Italy, are so committed to the cause that they are willing to contribute no troops whatsoever. Meanwhile, such influential nations as Canada, Mexico, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France and Germany have all spoken loudly against America's illegal and destabilizing use of force. But then again, we've got Eritrea on our side, so who needs Russia or China, for that matter? Or anyone else?
Now, let's talk about supporting our troops. For all of our President's flaws - rampant unilateralist tendencies, the devaluation of the worth of our nation's word to around that of a dozen shares of Enron, the uncanny ability to instill in the citizens of the world a pervading sense of doom - he has never lost the most valued American trait: patriotism. Surely, the administration's support for our troops is unwavering, or so we are led to believe.
The administration's support for our soldiers, curiously underreported in the mainstream media in the last month, is exemplified in such bold actions as proposing to cut $172 million from aid programs that help the children of enlisted men and women go to school. Additionally, the Bush administration supports our troops so fervently that it ordered the Department of Veteran's Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to those who have served in the military.
Finally, and this really gets the All-American award, the Republican controlled House Budget Committee expressed its support for the young men and women risking their lives abroad by voting to cut veterans' benefits by $25 billion dollars over the next ten years. It's absolutely unbelievable.
If you're outraged, it's easy enough to call Committee Chairman Jim Nussel, (202) 225-2911, and let him know what you think of his support for the troops. Unfortunately, the higher-ups aren't quite as accessible.
Of course, all these patriotic responses naturally follow the decision of the Bush administration to put our peers in harms way in the first place, fighting a war because ... what's the reason du jour? Oh right - Saddam is worse than Hitler. Say no more!
So what's a citizen to do? Step one: turn off your TV. Better yet, smash it. Fox (or is it "Faux"?) News, which has repeatedly misidentified Iraqi troops as, yes, none other than al Qaeda troops, is not a reliable news source, but in all reality it is little better than the other networks vying for your attention, and dollars.
Investigate alternative, less corporate, less Pentagon directed outlets of information. If you want explosions and lies, you know where to get it. If you want answers, well, do a little research, and think for yourself.


Wellington Lyons is a political science major from North Yarmouth, Maine. Over Spring Break he was jailed for protesting the war in Washington, D.C.