This is an email I sent to a buddy who asked why I think the Iraq war is evil.

A REAL ART SPECIAL (an exclusive for my good friend, Alan)
Why Bush's Iraq War is Evil

I will try to be brief.

My first assumption here is that the United States is a plutocracy rather than a democracy (or, if you prefer, it's a sham republic owned and operated by the forces of wealth). The plutocracy legitimizes itself by cloaking its actions with the American sacred words, "freedom" and "liberty." This lie has always existed in the history of our republic and, at times, there has been great tension between the democratic impulse and wealth's ability to "keep the rabble in line." Today, however, due to the vast power of corporations in general and the propaganda power of the corporate dominated news media, this tension is barely a nuisance to the plutocracy. I have written about this on my website in the essay called "THE CONTEXT FOR TRULY UNDERSTANDING THE USA IN 2003 PART II" (be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Anyway, the Iraq war follows this point of view. That is to say, the true aims of the war are cloaked in patriotic, pro-freedom language and rhetoric: "Iraq is a threat to our democracy," or "We will give the Iraqis freedom," or "This is to stop bin Laden, who hates our freedom," or "This will start a domino-effect of democracy throughout the region." In truth, and throughout history, American foreign policy has rarely been so benevolent.

The truth is that the American military usually serves business interests: when good things result from US military action, it's most often a secondary byproduct, or highly exaggerated for legitimizing purposes. This is the case in Iraq right now. The "evidence" coming out of the White House about both al-Quada links and WMD has been either so thin or, in at least a couple of cases, outright fabrications, that it has to be obvious that securing Iraq is about something else.

Clearly the war is about both controlling Iraqi oil and stabilizing the Middle East under the iron fist of a Pax Americana for business purposes (and perhaps a little bit of revenge for daddy, but I discount this as a major motivation) . I don't understand why the hawks don't simply admit this: if they do, then the argument comes down to the morality of war and whether to continue using fossil fuels--I think that this is a pretty good position for the hawks to argue from; after all, our economy is kaput without oil and that's a pretty huge, real, life-threatening deal (even though such an argument is not enough to persuade me, personally). Instead, for some reason (maybe to capitalize on 9/11, or simple political tradition), the hawks hide their true motivations and make themselves look all the more snakelike to the relative few that are able to see the Wizard behind the curtain. Our soldiers lives are threatened, Iraqi civilian lives are threatened for reasons that the United States population seems to be unaware of.

We are at war to support business. There may be some legitimacy to that, but, at this point, it doesn't matter: the war has been rammed down the throat of America (and Iraq) for the near-secret motivations of the plutocracy. Furthermore, given that the "democratic" war aims are simply a ruse to justify the killing, I have a strong suspicion that freedom will not ring in Iraq after the war. If I were a betting man, I would bet on some new, America-friendly dictator being installed--dictators do make the best trading partners if they, too, can "keep the rabble in line." Even further, the Kurds will lose again. Turkey sent 1,000 troops into northern Iraq yesterday so they could finish the job they started against the Kurds back home in the 1990s.

The war on Iraq is evil because it endangers numerous lives, both American and foreign, with combat and terrorist "blowback." The war is evil because there should have been an informed, national debate about it, and there was not. The war is evil because it serves the aims of a powerful American minority that has treasonously hijacked our republic. The war is evil because it is steeped in lies. The war is evil because it will kill thousands in order to replace an anti-American, human rights abusing dictator with what will be, in all probability if history is any indicator, a pro-American, human rights abusing dictator. Finally, the war is evil because it is being fought by regular people against regular people; they pay the price: the wealthy get rich.

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