is
contemplating war in the land of peace
:
“Even if victory is swift and painless , we will have
wounded, perhaps mortally, the peace-waging capacity of the United
Nations.We will have sewn deep discord within the European Union and badly
damaged relations with two of our most important allies, France and
Germany.We will have destroyed remaining popular support for the
governments of Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, our three most
important allies in the Middle East.We will have established – and not only for ourselves – the
legitimacy of preemptive attack.We will have radicalized half a billion young Muslims, transforming
a monster into a martyr in their eyes.We will have installed ourselves as the rulers of an energy colony
that will not be easy to govern, given the bitter – and, to us,
inscrutable – divisions that exist between its Shiites, its Sunni,
and its Kurds.We will have brought ourselves to the brink of active hostilities
with Turkey, formerly a strong ally.We will have bankrupted the teetering American economy.
We will have inserted long-term instability in world financial and
energy markets.We will have devalued the currency of American moral authority to
the vanishing point. We will have turned America, long the hope of
the world, into the most feared and hated of nations. We will have
traded our national capacity to inspire for a mere capacity to
intimidate.And for what? To avenge 9/11 by punishing a regime that had no
proven role in it? Out of humane concern for the Iraqi people, whom
we have been, by our own policies, starving and impoverishing for
the last decade? In order to destroy possibly mythical “weapons of
mass destruction” in Iraq, even while we abide their proven
existence in such potentially irrational countries as Pakistan,
Israel, India, France, and, hardly least, the United States? The
Administration attacked before it ever provided a justification
that would satisfy any but the most TV-enchanted Christian
soldier.”
in related news. it’s unfortunate to see
another
from a foreign service employee. one wonders how many foreign
service employees don’t have the means or the conviction to end
their careers when they can no longer defend the countries
policies:
“This is the only time in my many years serving America
that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an
Administration of the United States. I disagree with the
Administration’s policies on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, North Korea and curtailment of civil liberties in the
U.S. itself. I believe the Administration’s policies are making the
world a more dangerous, not a safer, place. I feel obligated
morally and professionally to set out my very deep and firm
concerns on these policies and to resign from government service as
I cannot defend or implement them.”