Obligatory post on the Invasion/War!



I haven’t posted anything in quite a while. Mainly due to the fact that I would have to say something about the war.
I don’t want to be labelled pro-Saddam, pro-sanctions or anti-American (or “unpatriotic” if I was American but I’m not) because I’m none of those.

I don’t’ have a full picture of the situation that led to the invasion/war. I don’t’ know what Bush/Blair, Chiraic or Blinx knows or what information they are privy to and all the sources of information and media from both camps are bias and prejudice. Its impossible to categorically say that one side is right and the other isn’t. All we can do is try to justify what we believe is right.

I believe that war should be the _last_ resort in all cases. I know the sanctions are terrible and shouldn’t have continued but this is essentially a separate issue. The sanctions weren’t affect Saddam but his people. They were failing and it was putting blood on the hands of the UN. Still the weapon inspectors should have been allowed to finish their job.

The problem for me is that the Americans had decided to invade Iraq well before it became an issue with the UN. They placed troops ready to invade while they “tried diplomacy” (note sarcasm) with the UN.

Maybe war was the only way to remove Saddam and his regime but I still believe war should be the last resort not first as the Americans had decided.

Also I don’t think the war was only about liberating Iraq. Maybe I’m conspiracy nut but I think in part it is about oil, it is about revenge, it is about testing new weapons and saving the American economy (and a few others). Theses are not good reasons for a global war and consequently dividing the world. I can not justify this war based on those motives.

If it was true that they were liberating Iraq then the aid for after the war would be just as ready as those troops were being prepared to invade but Blair/Bush don’t actually have the funds for aid and also they want to place a American military man in place of Saddam!

My wife whom I love dearly is French… labelling French as “betrayers”, renaming of “French Fries” (the only other time they did this was during WW2 and anything related to Germany), the suggestion of the government paying for the moving of American soldiers bodies who dies in the WW2 from France, a campaign to boycott French produce, American companies refusing to sell to French, German, Chinese and Russian citizens etc. I initially put it all down to crack pots and extreme “patriots”… but then I see the polls that the American _people_ are 53-54 % behind the war… I kinda made the emotional leap that it isn’t just a small group of extremists… and that scares me. And it scares me that they are willing to go against everyone else in the world in any matter and be willing to use military force.

I’m beginning to suspect that America believes they are absolutely morally right in this invasion and this saddens me. No war is “right” but only dirty. It can be necessary but it is never right. That is my humble opinion.

The current fallout from this act of war is a division in the western world and promoting racism on both sides. Rather then removing the teeth of Saddam’s WMD beast we’ve boiled the brewing pot of the western world and whose long term effects on the “global village” are unknown.

Some feel the war was necessary and I can’t rule it out that maybe they are right. But I cannot justify this war to myself - I cannot justify the consequences, the lack of diplomacy and respect and the hypocrisy (from both sides).

Amazingly, life goes on… I did a few more Alice in Wonderland drawings for the Wedding:

         
         
   Queen of Hearts