If a surgeon botches an operation, few patients would ask him to stick around and try again. This is especially true if the operation was elective and the surgeon insisted on performing it. Yet this is exactly how the Bush administration is trying to justify the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq. This time, the administration’s latest addition to the reasons to stay in Iraq is that we have a moral obligation to the Iraqis to prevent them from having a blood bath.
FPIF In the News
No Thank You, Mr. PresidentBy Lev Grinberg September 13, 2002 Editor: John Gershman, Interhemispheric Resource Center ( IRC )
Paying for the Wars’ Wounded
The Bureau of the Census has issued a lengthy summary of “facts” about the nation’s 23.7 million veterans in time for Veteran’s Day. Considering that there are two significant ongoing armed conflicts involving U.S. forces, I expected that there would be some “facts” dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan.
How Much is Enough?
Once upon a time, people researched and wrote reports about lower defense spending and converting the military-industrial complex into a peacetime economy. These reports came from university research institutions, private think tanks, and the federal government. They are memorials to the hope kindled in the brief post-Cold War and pre-War on Terrorism moment when anything seemed possible. Even cutting the military budget was not unthinkable because we had pulled the planet back from the brink and survived five decades on the edge of nuclear midnight. Scholarship turned itself to the work of dismantling the war machine in such a way that no one — no machinist turning bolts on bombs or aircraft engineer with his polished plans — was crushed in the process.
The Costs of War for Oil
“We have to decide, as a nation, whether our need for Middle Eastern oil is more important to our future than our conduct as a moral and ethical people.” Which brave presidential candidate would lay it on the line so clearly? None yet. And that’s the problem with the national debate on the war in Iraq, and possibly, our foray into Iran as well.
Five Years Later, We Cant Forgive or Forget
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the congressional vote granting President George W. Bush unprecedented war-making authority to invade Iraq at the time and circumstances of his own choosing. Had a majority of either the Republican-controlled House or the Democratic-controlled Senate voted against the resolution or had they passed an alternative resolution conditioning such authority on an authorization from the United Nations Security Council, all the tragic events that have unfolded as a consequence of the March 2003 invasion would have never occurred.
Faith and Conflict
On July 25, The New York Times reported that President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki often discuss, among other things, religion during their frequent teleconferences. As an official who sits in on the discussions explained, “It is an issue that comes up between two men who are believers in difficult times, who are being challenged.”
The Royal Treatment: Saudi Involvement in Iraq Overlooked
Annotate This… President Bush’s Sept 13 Speech to the Nation on Iraq
Instead of charting a new direction for U.S. policy in Iraq, President Bush’s speech to the nation last evening was an impassioned plea to the American public to stay the course. But much of Bush’s argument for staying the course was based on spin instead of reality. In this edition of Annotate This… Stephen Zunes and Erik Leaver analyze Bush’s statements and offer an alternative interpretation of the situation on the ground.
Bush Won’t Stop the Bucks
Having already sacrificed its international and domestic political effectiveness to prolong the ill-fated war in Iraq, the White House now stands poised to throw more money at the problem. The ethical and strategic costs of the war in Iraq have always been too great to bear, but the ever-increasing financial costs imperil future American economic solvency.