Opinion Piece Is 'Right-wing Propaganda'

This letter is in response to the neo-liberal propaganda printed in the April 19 issue of The Spectrum, titled, "The War in Iraq, WMD's and DMB."

What Justin Haag wrote was not an opinion but a mere regurgitation of extreme right-wing propaganda aimed at silencing criticism of the occupation of Iraq.

It is therefore not surprising that his article is a prime example of the hypocrisy that is abound in the executive branch of the federal government and the conservatively biased media.

Although President George W. Bush claims to be a devout Christian, he only follows the teachings of the Bible when it is convenient to him. Not only would he deny the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community their deserved freedoms any day while supporting right wing family values organizations, but he also chooses to ignore the gospel of Luke, where the hypocrite is clearly defined, when it comes to foreign policy, as professor and historian Noam Chomsky pointed out in recent speeches.

While many would probably not deny that removing Saddam was good in and by itself, focusing on that aspect of the war in Iraq alone ignores the larger issues involved here.

One of those is that of the element of hypocrisy in the actions of the White House.

Saddam's regime was only one of at least a half-dozen regimes in that region that are known for mistreating the people they are meant to govern. While Bush ordered the removal of Saddam, he considered the government of Uzbekistan, which has also committed atrocities against its own people, an ally and friend.

Then there is also the fact that all the way to the end of the 1980s, the U.S. government actively supported Saddam Hussein and condoned actions such as his gassing of the Kurds. Claiming that he was the greatest danger to the Israel and the United States is therefore a baseless accusation, especially when one considers that Saddam could not have launched a large-scale attack if he had wanted to, as he had been disarmed ever since the early 1990s.

Further into his opinion piece, Haag accuses supporters of peace of supporting terrorism. If anyone encourages the activities of terrorists in Iraq it's the Bush administration, whose actions in Iraq and Afghanistan have infuriated terrorists who had previously never had any relationship with Iraq. Saddam Hussein never directly supported terrorism as he was in favor of a secular form of government and not the religious extremist form that the likes of Osama bin Laden advocate.

Mr. Haag also mentions the ludicrous idea that the war in Iraq somehow preserves our freedoms here at home. In reality we have seen that it is the lackluster way in which our government has fought the so-called war on terrorism (yes, President Bill Clinton, too, was guilty of this) that has reduced our freedoms through Patriot Acts 1 and 2, and not the wars in the Middle East.

I would like to encourage Haag to look at the big picture by analyzing U.S. foreign policy over the last 40 years by using information from a variety of sources as there is a larger pattern into which the war in Iraq fits. And unfortunately, that pattern is not the rosy fantasy many neo-liberals would like us to believe to be reality.