Our Corrupt Administration

Our Corrupt Administration

Tactics on invading Iraq were prepared even before the September 11th attacks. President George Bush was considering attacking Iraq to dictate what happens to Iraqi oil and who makes the most profit from it. Not only are they killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens but also their very own soldiers and many American lives…why? Is it because they want to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq? No…it is all merely because the U.S. wants to acquire and control the oil in Iraq, heck the entire mid-east region! This is simply an imperialistic war. The United States sought to claim the Iraqi people’s land and natural resources, namely oil.

The U.S. policy on Iraq has been inconsistent all along and the war in Iraq is going from bad to worst.

Firstly, I would like to state that there was no character of this war. Iraq neither attacked nor threatened the United States. The invasion of Iraq was an epic mistake because the September 11th attacks and Al Qaeda had nothing to do with Iraq. Saddam Hussein was not even linked to the terrorists of 9/11. Than what is all this raucous about Saddam? Many people including myself consider that the second motive behind why Bush decided to invade Iraq was because Bush hated Saddam. Bush’s hatred towards Saddam was because Saddam escaped the clutches of Bush’s father and tried to kill him. Bush than decided to take over Iraq and bringing trial to Saddam as a way to avenge for his father. Together, Bush and his father created worldwide hatred against Islam and Muslims that hasn’t stopped since.

The hate and bigotry against Muslims has skyrocketed since Bush created Islamophobia. Muslims are being targeted by the police, the media, and by foreign and domestic policy. Muslims have been plagued with discrimination and harassment everywhere they go. “A Muslim bus passenger en route to Chicago is put off with his bags in Toledo after he told the driver he is from Iraq” (qtd. in. Detroit Free Press).Many are discriminated because of the way the look; i.e. hijab on a Muslim woman, beard on a Muslim man. American Muslims found their bank accounts closed merely because of their faith. “Americans’ attitudes about Islam and Muslims are fuelled mainly by political rhetoric and media reports that focus almost solely on the negative image of Islam and Muslims.”(Ghazali, 3. par)

Amongst all the hate crimes against Muslims…it couldn’t get worst than the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). These cartoons show a man with a turban and say “to fight terrorism, you have to fight this man. They are saying you have to root out Islam (Choonara, 8. par). This was the most devious act done to defame Muslims. How much more will Muslims have to endure? I bet this was Bush’s long-term goal…defaming Muslims.

The United States policy on Iraq has shaped the events during the last twenty years. The policy started off being friendly and later became hostile. It was believed that the policy was to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq, but we all know that is false. Another fraction of the policy was to overthrow Saddam…which we won victory over. Both countries started off as allies and turned into enemies. At first, the U.S. helped Iraq while Iraq was at war with Iran because the U.S. was angry at Iran for the hostage taking at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The U.S. sold weapons to Iraq to prevent Iranian power and influence in the region. President Reagan’s special envoy, Donald Rumsfeld knew that Saddam was working on nuclear weapons and using chemical gas everyday against Iranian soldiers even though the use of chemical weapons was outlawed. Even then the U.S. helped Iraq by giving intelligence information to help fight Iran under the assumption that ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ (qtd. in Jentleson, 1994). The U.S. ignored Iraq’s misdeeds and inhumane actions and continued to achieve normal relations with Iraq. Why did the U.S do this? Only because it was meant to help the U.S. to obtain long-term interests in the Middle East through economical and political incentives for Iraq.

The U.S. continued to ignore the misdeeds of Iraq until Saddam invaded Kuwait. The invasion in Kuwait caused the U.S to change from friendly to hostile. The U.S. wanted to ‘protect’ Saudi Arabia, which was a lie. “King Hussein of Jordan reports that U.S. troops were actually being deployed to Saudi Arabia in the days before Saudi Arabia ‘invited’ U.S. intervention (Becker, par.7).” It was also definite that Iraq never planned to invade Saudi Arabia. First, the U.S. interfered in and aggravated the Iraq-Kuwait dispute. The U.S. knew “that an Iraqi military response to Kuwait was likely, and then took advantage of the Iraqi move to carry out a long-planned U.S. military intervention in