I'm not a philanthropist. If you make me as rich as Bill Gates, however, I promise to spend all my wealth helping Iraqis and other victims of US imperialism -- after paying off my credit-card bills (some have already gone to collection agencies!), purchasing a comfortable house (still a renter!), etc., that is.
It is my opinion that the business of running Iraq belongs to Iraqis, not to the US government, the French government, the United Nations, US activists, or anyone else for that matter. Once Iraqis manage to unify the nation and build a new state free from foreign domination, US activists ought to campaign for US reparations to Iraqis, though I doubt that they will, as they didn't do so for other victims of US imperialism like the Vietnamese.
>I also said this should not be the U.S.'s role, so this point is
>doubly irrelevant.
If not the US government, who will be paying for the occupation? The
Japanese savers? I guess that they are already doing so, indirectly.
:->
I suppose that you are in favor of a foreign occupation of Iraq (without a US role or with a reduced US role in it). If that's your goal, you might campaign for Dennis Kucinich and petition the French government, as they share your view.
At 9:36 AM -0400 9/2/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>In any case, no one but Iraqis themselves is capable of unifying
>>the nation of Iraq and building a new state that enjoys legitimacy
>>in the eyes of the majority of the Iraqi people. The process of
>>nation-building and state-building will not be pretty -- the United
>>States itself, before creating a functioning republican government
>>not controlled by slave-owners, had to fight two bloody wars: the
>>American Revolution and the Civil War, the wars held up by many
>>Americans as shining examples of noble struggles for liberty,
>>rather than as arguments in favor of the British Empire's hold on
>>North America.
>
>What does this have to do with getting the electricity running?
That Iraq may experience a civil war after US withdrawal is no valid reason for US activists to argue for the continuing foreign occupation of Iraq, just as the American Revolution (one of whose aspects was a civil war) and the Civil War were no valid arguments for the British Empire's hold on North America. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>