[Peace-discuss] WILL commentary

[C. G. Estabrook]

[I recorded the following commentary at WILL today; thanks for the
comments and suggestions. As Randall points out, I presented this as an
individual, altho' I mention that I'm a member of AWARE.  But it's not a
statement by the organization.  I don't think we have a way to do those.
(BTW, if you're wondering why C. G. rather than Carl -- it's not only
pomposity: there's a Carl B. Estabrook -- a distant cousin -- who teaches
history in New England; we occasionally get each other's mail, and given
the internet I try to use the more specific form.) --CGE]


I am C. G. Estabrook, a member of the local group AWARE, the Anti-War
Anti-Racism Effort.  I am also a Visiting Scholar -- and formerly a
visiting professor of sociology, history and religious studies -- at UIUC.
In 2002 I was the Green party candidate for Congress in this district.

It's remarkable how rarely the victims of the US invasion of Iraq are
mentioned. Most people know that more than a thousand US soldiers have
been killed in this war, but American authorities contend that they are
keeping no count of the Iraqis whom they've killed -- unlike Vietnam,
where the "body count" was an index of American success.

A study by the London-based health organization MEDACT almost a year ago
estimated between 22,000-55,000 Iraqi dead. Many more have been killed
since then. The Knight-Ridder news agency recently revealed that the US is
now killing twice as many Iraqis -- most of them civilians -- as attacks
by insurgents are.

What can possibly justify this mass murder by our government -- for which
we as Americans are morally responsible?  Everyone now knows that the
argument offered by the US for launching the war -- Iraq's possession of
"weapons of mass destruction" -- was false.  It's difficult to see how
Iraq was ever a threat to the United States. The administration has
therefore fallen back on the excuse that the war removed an evil dictator.
It undoubtedly did so -- although the world has been shocked to learn that
US rule has rivaled that of the dictator in oppression, torture and rape.

But the means employed to remove the dictator have been truly horrible:
the killing of tens of thousands of people -- Iraqis, Americans and others
-- and the maiming of hundreds of thousands.  We can say that the war was
justified only if we can believe that the end justifies the means -- a
principle usually rejected by Americans as a hallmark of totalitarianism.

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