The pains of imported ‘freedom’

Forcing freedom on the unwilling

ANDREW LODGE

Thirty-three killed by a car bomb in Tikrit. U.S. soldiers at checkpoint open fire on approaching vehicle near Kirkuk; male driver and three women passengers shot dead, infant girl escapes with minor injuries. Gunfire in Fallujah kills eight. Eleven men, all police officers, found bound with bullet holes in the back of their heads.

News from Iraq. The figures and the circumstances blend together onto a canvas of never-ending violence and destruction. Babylon is burning, a wild and frenzied fire of freedom.

It has been three and a half years since the leader of the free world, the impish and oh-so-tough George W. Bush, declared the end of major combat operations in Mesopotamia. Back then, the Iraqis welcomed liberation and the western powers with open arms and the dominoes of freedom were beginning to fall throughout the Middle East, or so said Bush, Tony Blair, and most of our media organizations.

Today, the Bush administration — together with their partner in arms, Britain, led by the eloquent and lovable Blair — is still using the same brush to paint the same picture. Some of the media are still on side. Some others have fallen off the apple cart. “The war’s not worth

it,” they say. “Too many American boys [and girls, if you can believe it, in this most wonderfully modern of eras] are dying.” A case of sour grapes, methinks.

But maybe the Iraqis, too long squished under Saddam’s evil thumb, weren’t ready for freedom and are still suffering from the ignorance of oppression. And let’s face it: if their counterparts in Lebanon and Palestine are any indication, most of them are probably just plain too evil for freedom. They don’t want it, and that’s why they’re not getting it.

As for Saddam, the greatest of show trials has turned into a bit of a flop. No one cares about some poorly groomed, half-crazed ex-dictator ranting about his former friendship with America. For all the evil Saddam was allegedly responsible for, someone saw fit to try him only for the execution of 148 Shiites following an attempted uprising against the Iraqi state. Forget about the gassing of entire villages and the torturing of thousands. Much of that occurred under American tutelage. Very difficult to find fault with that. But even trying the man for such a very small fraction of his overall “accomplishments” appears to be decidedly laborious.

No worries though. These are all minor problems. Plenty of action in Iraq to watch. Scenes of wreckage whichever way the camera is pointed. There is titillating footage of maskwearing fanatics awkwardly chopping off the heads of westerners. Reporters wearing Kevlar vests standing bravely inside the Green Zone, the most fortified base on Earth.

Except that it has become somewhat mundane. Thank goodness for Israel and Hezbollah. Some new and exciting carnage. And now we’re back in September, the sweetest of months. Time for some Katrina introspection. And of course, the somber but defiant 9/11 commemorations. Just to remind us why we went to Iraq. Sort of. They weren’t involved but they are Arabs, just like those pesky Lebanese, so they gotta get theirs, you see?

They’re getting theirs, all right. Getting it good. Medical journal the Lancet concluded, following a survey of post-invasion (read “liberation”) Iraq, that over 100,000 civilians had died at the time of the study’s completion. Violent death in Iraq is a daily occurrence and it continues unabated. The violence has destroyed even basic infrastructure, which is a problem since ongoing violence precludes any infrastructure development.

“We didn’t go there for the oil,” say Bush and Blair in chorus. Good thing, too, because we’re not getting any. Our continued presence in the country is actually good evidence of our magnanimity. We’re not in Iraq for the oil, we’re there for pure, unadulterated freedom. Further evidence of our good intentions: Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently pegged his estimate of the war’s cost to Americans at over $2 trillion. And that’s forgetting about the British. But we shouldn’t forget about the British. They’ve done such a good job.

George Bush still thinks the Iraq adventure was a good idea. So does the left-leaning Tony Blair. Hillary Clinton, liberal queen, wants to stay in the fray. Stephen Harper is hopping mad that he never got the chance to send some young Canadian buck over there to show them what we Canadians got goin’ on.

Meanwhile, over in Iraq, the power’s out. The water ain’t working. Being outside is hazardous to one’s health. The hospitals don’t have medicine, and besides, the power’s out. Being inside is hazardous to one’s health. There are no jobs. Can anyone say freedom?

Andrew Lodge is a fourth-year medical student