Opinion Letter 13June03

The push into Baghdad had taken only 21 days. I had written a letter to my son detailing all that I had seen on the mainstream media with regard to the fall of Baghdad. Iraqis dancing in the streets, smiling faces, joy, the toppling of the Saddam statue, the whole works. His reply was an "opinion" letter.

The Third Letter Arrived
Dated: 13June03 18:45

There's a strong wind blowing from the east. A nice break from the hot winds coming from the desert in the west. Looks like rain as well tonight, over all nice weather for a letter.

Looking out over onto highway 8 for miles all you see is burned out warehouses. The ones that aren't burned up are just skeletons. They're metal looted by the greater public. To the other side large piles of trash and makeshift houses built from cardboard and bricks taken from bombed out buildings. The view isn't too bad from atop our building at the power station. It's just that the view is filled with neglect, oppression, and waste.

My stay in Iraq has opened my eyes to just how brutal a country we are. We came into this country like a football player back handing a 2 year old for his lollipop. We left nothing untouched that had even the slightest effect on the outcome of the war. Weapons of mass destruction, yeah right, whatever George.

Baghdad from what I can tell was at one time a flourishing city. Highways, markets, industry, and neighborhoods. They say it's the most westernized city in the Arab world. That was until economic sanctions were brought to this place by our country. The power plant I call home had been under construction for over 4 years. It was only about 30% complete, being built by a French contractor. That is what economic sanctions do, they bring a country to its knees.

Everywhere you look industry is a rotting corpse in Baghdad. No, it wasn't the war that killed them either. These skeletons of what was once a modern city have been dead for some years now. A product of, yes once again, economic sanctions. What better way to sway opinion of the stupid gullible American public. Let's kill them with years of economic sanctions, put the country into poverty, drive its industry into the ground. Now let's throw in accusations of weapons of mass destruction. Sounds like a great mix. Now let's feed the propaganda to the gullible American public. Saddam is a bad man, he keeps his people in poverty and oppresses them. Looks to me like the U.S. was the oppressing power. Now don't get me wrong. Saddam was a bad man. After all, he did invade Kuwait and gassed some Kurds in northern Iraq. How could someone do such horrible things. That's exactly what the American public thought as more tons of bombs were dropped on Iraq than all of what was dropped in Europe during WWII. So who is the bigger bully??

Okay, so what about the cheering crowds of people? After all, we just liberated the Iraqi people from a horrible dictator. Go ahead and let your newspapers and television news tell you all the latest and greatest propaganda. The only people smiling for the cameras are the children and the people that got left with nothing after years of oppressive sanctions. Even a dog that's been beaten still wags its' tail when his owner brings him food.

I'm sorry, but I don't see a happy people. We've had to do a few patrols thru the local market. Sure you get the children and younger people who are fascinated by our high tech weapons, cool uniforms, and tough look. Children hold up pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other famous American action heros. We're something straight out of a science fiction movie. The older ones, the ones that probably had a nice cush life before the sanctions, they don't smile. Their eyes stare at you like daggers, piercing you deep with hatred.

Will things get better for the Iraqi people? Well of course!! We will lift the sanctions, pump billions into rebuilding Iraq, then put people in power that we have puppet strings attached to. Wow!!! Everyone is now happy! The Iraqis now again have a prosperous country and the U.S. has low tarriff oil prices. Isn't it great. We just stomped a large producer of terrorists off the planet and liberated an oppressed country!!

Well my friends, I hope we were right. I hope to be proven wrong in every detail. However, I think all we did was throw gas on an already hot burning fire. Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure though. We made a big statement. North Korea isn't being such as ass and Iran's butt is puckering. The rest of the world is in awe. Yep, we just rolled under 3 divisions into a country and toppled it in weeks. We are without a doubt the world's super power. All hail the "arrogant Empire".

Please be sure to pass this along to all my friends and family via e-mail. Felt like writing an opinion verses a dull "how ya doing" letter.