My best guess is that we won
’t have to go to war against Iraq. This prediction infuriates
several segments of polite, and not so polite society.
My best guess is that we won’t have to go to war against Iraq. This prediction infuriates several segments of polite, and not so polite society.
Among those disappointed with a growing realization that a massive hot war will not take place are:
• The Ultra-Hawks, who have been salivating for a decade over the prospects of reducing the Kingdom of Saddam to an oil slick on the Persian Gulf.
When apprised that such wholesale devastation would kill tons of innocents, the Hawks among us mutter something about “collateral damage”, and the unfortunate hellishness of modern warfare.
• The Biblical Fundamentalists, who see a major war in the Middle East as a telltale sign of the Second Coming of Christ in the milieu of a final Armageddon.
In contrast to this extremist hermeneutic (as old as Augustin) is the view of a mainstream Evangelical like Billy Graham who when asked, “Are we in the last days?” he responds, “Yes; we have been in the ‘last days’ ever since the Resurrection of Christ, and we may continue to be in the last days for another 1000 years.”
• The professional Peace Movement, whose activists are already primed to count body bags, and do civil disruptions.
Frustrated during the last two U.S. initiatives on foreign soil, (the Bush war in defense of Kuwait; the Clinton war in Yugoslavia), the Peace Resistance reluctantly swallowed the realization that more U.S. troops are killed in the rigors of routine training, than in our last two wars.
However, this time the anti-war folks are on prime time. There is nothing like a unifying cause celebre to invigorate the spirit, give purpose to existence, and for the few Bush-bashers in the Peace Club, to re-rally an opposition, still angered over the election debacle of 2000.
• The mainstream media, who have long discovered that a hot war sells newsprint; moves dime-store robberies and date rapes off the front page; and promotes ordinary journalists to Ernie Pyle-like “war correspondents.”
An over-zealous press and telenews presents us with daily installments of the inevitability of war with Iraq, while de-emphasizing the notion that our convoluted preparations may be the very reason why a major conflict in the Persian Gulf is becoming a longshot.
I have a hunch that the closer our six aircraft carriers get to the borders of Iraq, the better the odds that we won’t have to fight a war.
Mark Russell, the piano playing, political satirist extraordinaire was a guest on the “Capitol Gang” the other night, and for once he was serious. When asked who he thought might be on the cover of Time for the year 2003, he opined, “I don’t know his name yet, but it will undoubtedly be the Iraqi general who leads the opposition in deposing Saddam, and in bringing liberation to the people of Iraq, for the re-building of a society in harmony with the United Nations.”
The bad news is that tooling-up for warfare in order to keep pressure on Iraq for the U.N. inspectors to complete their tasks and in order to encourage the revolt of dissidents within Iraq, can be almost as expensive as a quick, and dirty war.
Iraq’s track record of the usage of chemical and biological weapons of massive devastation, and its lobbing of 200 missiles on the populace of Israel have deepened the realities of global terrorism, in a post 9-11 world, with potential for sharing weaponry.
North Korea is also adept at supplying weapons, but unlike Iraq, North Korea is hemmed in by powerful rivals.
Therefore we gear up, and pray for courage, and wisdom, but also for hope.
There’s a well-known story in the Hebrew Canon, entitled “Jonah and the Whale,” The hero of the story, God, instructs Minor Prophet Jonah to journey to Assyria, the ancient Nazis of the Middle East. (800 BCE Before the Common Era). Jonah is to go to the capitol city with a message of doom: the Assyrians have 40 days before all hell is to break loose.
After an interesting detour, Jonah finally goes to Nineveh and to his surprise, the doomed people shape up, and the promised judgment is called off. Jonah pouts, and an All-knowing God stands accused of a “Divine Bluff.” Jonah’s sterling prophetic record is now badly flawed.
The Bush, Rice, Powell “bluff” over Iraq is working par excellence. The administration and most of a bipartisan Congress have become skilled international poker players.
Soon it will become apparent to some disappointed components of our society that a massive devastation has been called off.
I know that politics makes for “strange bedfellows”, but will the politics of shared disappointments put Ed Asner and Bernie Ward in bed with Jerry Falwell?
Let the pouting begin!
Bill Paterson is a longtime Gilroyan, a former school trustee and an occasional columnist for The Times.
