On the Eve of Iraq

Perhaps you’ve wondered, as have I, why we in the United States are envied, disliked and even hated by so many people throughout the world. Actually, the answer isn’t hard to find. Throughout the world, the number of people in the throes of starvation or serious malnutrition is approximately equal to the total population of the United States. And what is our problem? Obesity, fatness, overweight! While the population of the United States is relatively small compared to the global population, we consume approximately 25% of the world’s natural resources. Now we are in the process of ‘raiding’ South Africa’s nurses, who are undoubtedly more badly needed in their homeland, simply because we can pay them more.

The war on terrorism, as presently ‘designed’ is doomed to failure. Why? Because it is dealing with the symptoms of violence and not its causes. The causes of violence are dire poverty, homelessness, oppression of many kinds, lack of gainful employment etc. As long as these causes are not dealt with in a serious way, there will always be individuals who will resort to violence. The so-called ‘war against terrorism’ is a bad and costly joke. The lesson has been slow in learning. In the Middle Ages, writing around 1270, the future Archbishop of Canterbury John Pecham wrote: “involuntary poverty leads to theft”. He could have expanded it to read “leads to violence”. Poverty, hunger, ‘refugeeism’ are the seedbeds of violence.

Until the horrendous gap between the first and the third worlds is seriously narrowed, there will be the penchant for violence. The first world nations need to face up to the effects of financial oppression: paying for the resources and labor of third-world peoples without raising their standard of living. Morally-minded economists are deeply concerned about the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in our own United States. Our own law enforcement system works quite well in bringing to justice the crimes committed by the poor, but is highly ineffective in dealing with corporate greed, better labelled ‘theft’. We now have a new national security department whose ‘collective intelligence’ must be exceptionally high indeed and they will be protecting our affluent USA from terrorism. There is no national department for alleviating poverty, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, starvation in the third world. This can be only because there is no will to do so. Please, no starving people in ‘my back yard’. Yes, I know ‘handoutism’ doesn’t work. It is also clear that help must be given to the people in need without providing affluence to the Mobutus and Edie Amins. With all the brain-power in the US government, you’d think a way could be found, if only the will were there!

As a nation, we have no claim whatever for ‘standing on high moral ground’. We agreed to ‘admit’ Stalinist USSR into the community of civilized nations while Josef Stalin executed many more ‘dissidents’ than Hitler ever did. We have been the only country to have used the atom bomb which killed or maimed thousands of non-combatants (does the end justify the means?). Our country was instrumental in the assassination of Patrice Lamumba and the subsequent installation of Mobutu who lived like a wealthy potentate while so many of his people lived in squalor. We supported the dictatorial Baptista regime which led to the Communist revolution in Cuba. We did NOTHING when the Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Then quite recently, we have the morally deplorable ‘bankrupcies’ of Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia etc. where thousands of people lost their jobs and their retirement funds while the CEO’s built themselves tax-sheltered multi-million dollar homes. The vice of greed has lost its pristine meaning in corporate America. Just ask the former employees of Enron, Worldcom and Adelphia! In all too many corporations, there is more concern for the shareholders than for the workers who are fundamentally responsible for the corporation’s making a profit. All too often the ‘living wage’ ideal is gathering dust on the back shelf. Do you think the vast majority of the people of Uganda, Zaire, Rwanda or Burundi are worried about the DOW or NASDAQ? How about a ‘Weight-watchers’ facility among the Masai? You’d think we’d have learned by now that morally irresponsible Capitalism is the seedbed of Communism!

So what is this society of ours that we want to impose on other peoples? Our vision is skewed because we don’t want to consider our weaknesses. Our elected officials have failed to ‘fix’ social security and medicare, a witness to ineptitude which would be intolerable in the private sector. Our societal ‘atmosphere’ is one of hyper-individualism: my rights, my sex, my national origin, my right to sue: all to the detriment of the common good, the common weal. To fuel their local pork-barrel projects our legislators dip into Social Security funds to the detriment of the common good. Our courts award multi-million dollar awards in cases of medical malpractice which drive up the costs of insurance which we ALL must pay! Our government spends billions of dollars on militarism and a pittance on culture and education. Compared to most of Western Europe and Far East, our students are lagging behind: they continue to be given A’s for C results. We make much of our liberty and the wealthier you are, the more liberty (superficial) you have. But what does ‘liberty’ mean to the starving, the homeless, the unemployed. Hence, we have no moral grounds for invading Iraq. Iraq has not invaded the USA. Even if it has weapons of mass destruction, it would be stupid to use them, because the retaliation would be horrible. Sadaam Hussein may be mean, but he’s not stupid. Given the present situation, invasion of Iraq can in no way be called a just war! It is probably true that Iraq is harboring terrorists, but so are a number of other countries around the world. Are we to wage war on all of them? If the oppression and agressiveness of the Saddam Hussein regime is to be overcome, it would best be done by the citizens of Iraq who are sick of his violence.

Girard J. Etzkorn, Ph.D

239 Sheffield Drive

Fairfield Glade, TN 38558

P.S. Dear George: the Crusades and Holy Wars did not work!