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MYTH [VS] REALITY as in Virtual-Reality ; A Mythic Reality
ReplyDelete“'Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours, is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver.’ When war psychology takes hold, the public believes, temporarily, in a ‘mythic reality’ in which our nation is purely good, our enemies are purely evil, and anyone who isn't our ally is our enemy.”
– New York Times, Op-Ed by Paul Krugman, quoting Chris Hedges, Sept. 7, 2004
Through a Looking Glass: The Bush Administration’s Mythic Reality
The Bush administration developed and promoted a “mythic reality” to help persuade the American people to support an invasion of Iraq. The New York Times reported that a senior Bush adviser belittled the “reality-based community,” asserting that “we’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”
The Bush administration’s mythic reality declared:
Saddam Hussein is a growing threat who needs to be dealt with urgently. He is evil and he intends to do us grave harm. He has weapons of mass destruction and is building more. He has ties to al-Qaeda and could provide them, or other terrorist organizations, with weapons of mass destruction. He may have been connected with the 9/11 attacks. The United States is in danger.
There are no viable options aside from war, or Hussein’s abandoning power under imminent threat of war. Inspections can’t work. Containment can’t work. Diplomacy can’t work.
War is our last option. The choice to go to war rests in the hands of Saddam Hussein.
If the United States is forced to go to war, the outcome will be bright. The war will not be difficult since Iraq's military capacity is degraded from the Persian Gulf War and 10 years of sanctions. The war will be inexpensive, and the reconstruction costs will be largely paid from Iraqi oil revenues. We will be treated as liberators by the Iraqi people. The war will result in the spread of peace and freedom.
The actual reality was:
There was no urgent or grave threat from Iraq. Hussein was indeed a vicious, tyrannical dictator – however, containment, including
7 1/2 years of U.N. weapons inspections and a decade of sanctions, had been effective: Hussein did not have any weapons of mass destruction nor any active WMD programs. Hussein had no collaborative relationship with al-Qaeda, and he was not connected to the 9/11 attacks. In the first Gulf War, the Iraqi army was severely weakened, and by 2003 it was operating at 40% of Gulf War troop strength. As a result, Iraq was in no position to wage an offensive war with its neighbors, let alone the United States.
Inspections had worked. Containment had worked. Diplomacy and pressure from the international community had worked. Any serious threat from Iraq had been neutralized.
War was not Hussein’s choice; war was actively pursued by the U.S. and Great Britain.
The Bush administration failed to adequately plan for the security of post-war Iraq, as they did not take into account Iraq’s long history of political strife and tensions between the Kurd, Sunni and Shiite populations. After the invasion, Iraq was ripped apart by an insurgency and violent civil strife. Over one hundred thousand Iraqis have been killed, and two million have fled the country. The Iraq War has cost the U.S. over $500 billion to date (2008), fueled recruits for terrorist groups, and fostered greater instability in the Middle East.
...cont/-