![[Feed]](http://www.sahelidatta.com/sd/ui/feed-icon.gif){kind=icon}
Iraq Help, Agreeable to All
As far as I can tell, there are about three modes in which one supported the invasion of Iraq and might still support the war in Iraq. I address this to to those people.
1) Perhaps you honestly thought that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, and was bent on harming the U.S. or harming U.S. interests in an untenable way. You see the invasion as a pre-emptive act of self defense, protecting your life and liberty and way of life. You are defending you and yours against this regime, having decided that the consequences are worth it.
2) Perhaps you honestly thought that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were powerfully enough linked, and that Iraq either had some responsibility for 9/11 and/or was conspiring to cause more of the same. Again, you saw your support of the invasion as defending you and yours, and you also perhaps saw it as a kind of revenge. You decide the consequences are worth it.
3) Perhaps you believed that it is the place of the United States to topple oppressive dictatorships and bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. You have decided that the consequences are worth it.
Alright. Have you understood which position or combination of positions you are in? Good. Now imagine a scenario where you are in a crowded street. Suddenly one man,A, goes swinging, with a giant pole, at another, B, who is next to you. A bashes B 's head in. He also manages to break your knees in the process--it's just a very long and unwieldy pole. A is very rich. You are very poor.
Everyone knows B was about to kill A, and A was acting in self-defense. Or everyone knows that B killed A's mother, and A was acting in justified revenge. Or everyone knows that B was murdering his toddlers, one by one, and also slapping you around, and A just had to make it stop. Fine. Since A just decided the consequences were woth it, didn't ask you or give you an opportunity to get out of the way, or put much effort into getting the shortest, unwieldy pole---doesn't A owe you some help with the knee surgery?
One of my favorite movies as a child was Superman II. A disempowered Clark gets beat up at a truck stop by a jerk. Later he gets his powers back. He goes back to the truck stop and beats up the jerk. In the process he messes up the truck stop. Hre hands them a huge wad of cash to more than pay for the damage. It's a stupid, stupid example, but I think it's an accepted principle in America. Good guys accept responsibility for their actions.
I'm not going to comment here on the politics, policy, and strategy of sticking around when most Iraqis want us to leave and many, many people agree things would get better if we did leave, except to note it. I am, however, going to note that $50 Million is a paltry amount to dedicate to addressing the needs of civilians we are directly responsible for hurting--the consequences that we have so self-importantly decided are worth it. (pdf.) I'm just going to assume that the best-intentioned supporters of the war want to break the cycle of destruction, want to accept the consequences they politically supported, and don't mind spreading peace and goodwill through means other than bombs. Right? Right. So:
--UNHCR
--CIVIC-WORLDWIDE
--World Vision
Those who are against the war--hopefully you don't need reminding that peace is not cheap. Good, I'm glad we found something we can all agree on.
Comments (11)
I guess it kinda proves your point that no one's commented on this post, either, eh? :P
I guess my excuse is that I'm not convinced of the good my little donation would do in a case like this, since anything entire gov'ts scrounge up would be orders of magnitude greater, so I feel like we should focus on that. In some senses, I feel my money might be better spent on lobbying for that spending?
Posted on Mar-19-2007 | Link
CIVIC actually sent out an email today asking people to advocate to their Congresspeople about appropriations for the Iraq Community Action Program and the Marla Ruzicka Fund. (Marla Ruzicka was the founder of CIVIC, and she was killed by a car bomb in Iraq.) Last year the appropriation was $45 million. If you want to lobby for it, a nice personalized letter to your two senators and your representative, total of $3 in spending on your part, would probably do more good than any other expenditure of money because there are few lobbying groups devoted to esoteric good causes like this. On the other hand if 1 million Americans--just 1/300--donated $50 each, they would immediately match that money devoted to Iraqi civilians in need. Agencies like the UNHCR and CIVIC depend on both government grants and individual generosity to get their work done. If every individual thinks they will do at least their little bit, it adds up quicky--and if every individual despairs because they're not sure if anyone else will do their little bit, it subtracts quickly. This is one reason why it's actually good to note your donations in public, in conversation, and in comments. If people talk about the donations they've made more, we will all realize how powerful we already are and be inspired to exert that power even more.
There is also something to be said for building non-military, non-corporate, and non-governmental ties, through NGOs like this, beween Americans and Iraqis. It creates another avenue of communication and goodwill.
Posted on Mar-19-2007 | Link
TK, that's the same argument that people give for not giving handouts to panhandlers. Sometimes, compassion just needs to come out in different forms.
Posted on Mar-19-2007 | Link
LBJ, IRT, BBC, UNHCR
Posted on Mar-20-2007 | Link
Hm, one can also help the other victims of the war, the wounded U.S. soldiers at one's local V.A. Here's info for putting together a care package for the one in SF.
Posted on Mar-20-2007 | Link
Argh, making a donation on the UNHCR site is heartbreaking. When allocating where the money should go, it's Sophie's Choice, Darfur or Iraq? I chickened out and went for "greatest need."
Posted on Mar-20-2007 | Link
I have the opinion that Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, etc. should be held liable for their actions and made to pay most of their fortunes in reparations.
Posted on Mar-21-2007 | Link
I totally support indeterminacy. Great idea, but how to execute it?
Posted on Mar-21-2007 | Link
Yes, what happened to the Pottery Barn philosophy? And no, fixing it does not mean keeping our troops there. Our troops may be the greatest fighting force in the world, but they weren't trained to police civilians.
It's ironic that many of the same people who supported the Iraq war are also against taxation for non-defense spending. They say people who want to support social welfare, foreign aid, etc. should do so through private charity rather than voting to spend other people's money. Well, it's now time for them to put their money where their mouths are and help pay for the consequences of this elective war which is clearly not being waged in our defense.
Posted on Mar-21-2007 | Link
ah, pottery barn, don't get me started.
we learned that bit about non-police training back in somalia. the answer the clinton people settled on, for the balkans, was to strike to incapacitate the bigger military powers and then turn it over to trained peacekeepers. that didn't work very well but it worked better than martial law. the general economic situation in the FSU means that there's still plentiful unfixed war damage a decade+ later.
but it's a different thing, you know, with iraq. that unresolved question, whether or not the bush-cheney people's response to "you break it, you bought it" was "yes please!"
Posted on Mar-21-2007 | Link
Debbie: First step would be impeachment. Second step incarceration.
Posted on Mar-21-2007 | Link