Cindy Sheehan gives up protest against the war in Iraq

Today Cindy Sheehan, the activist mom, whose son died in the war on Iraq gave up her protest against the Iraq war. With all due respect for her, I think she has done the right thing.

While I am not condoning the war in/on Iraq, there are reasons why I think it cannot be stopped now.

Why did the US start the war?

The US started the war on misleading claims that Saddam Hussein had WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction for the uninitiated), which was a crock of horse manure to start with! My take on it is that George Bush Junior wanted to finish what the Senior could not for one and the second one being Iraq having some of the largest deposits of oil – lets face it, the war was for oil and nothing else! So the war was launched and Saddam was hung. Unfortunately, and I mean it in the most sincere way, what started as a means to end Saddam’s dictatorship, ended up becoming a war on terror, with Al Qaeda joining the rebels against the American occupation in Iraq. So what should have been capture and get out became a war that neither George Bush not any of his team actually thought through!

What are the choices we have today?

George Bush orders his army to get out of Iraq, which is something that will make Messrs. Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton et al. happy, but leave Iraq in a state of conflict with no solution in sight in the near future something they did not anticipate – The Middle East is a cauldron with so many conflicts and George Bush, instead of making the world a better place to live has done exactly the opposite. He has managed to alienate the entire Middle East, parts of Europe and most people on the face of the Earth, hate him for going to war. To put things in perspective, the Americans are fine with having a dictator, who will tow the American line, no matter what - look at President Musharaff in Pakistan for example! No matter what he does and there is ample evidence to the effect that Al Qaeda is re-grouping in Pakistan – the Americans simply look the other way!

The only other choice is for Americans to stay in Iraq and ensure that all the warring parties come to the table and trash out a goal for the common good of the country. While, this is easier said than done, there is no other choice.

So the Americans are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea with no chance of redeeming all the bad will they have managed to generate against themselves and in the process made the world a worse place to live in!

American Foreign Policy: A Deadly sin?

Greed based foreign policy

The American foreign policy has been mainly greed based. How different is from any invading country in the centuries gone by is anybody’s guess!

US has so many interests in the Middle East is because of the oil that they have – had they not got any oil, would they have been so interfering? We all already know that the Al Qaeda has its roots from American funding! Today, it has come back to haunt them!

North Korea – they are interested again, because of its proximity to China. China increasingly is becoming powerful and with so many American businesses entrenched in the Chinese landscape; they do not have enough bases close enough to China. The closest bases that they have are in Japan, the Philippines, to an extent in Afghanistan which, however, is distracted by the Al Qaeda chase! They do have bases in Pakistan but that again is busy with Bin Laden! Therefore bases in North Korea and Taiwan will be strategically important options, which explain their enduring interest!

With regards to Iran, it boils down to oil as usual. The Americans are by far the largest consumers of oil and they will need options. Whether they will attack Iran or not, is yet to be seen especially with the tough stance that Iran is taking with respect to its nuclear enrichment program!

The Civil war in Iraq

The senate, which in 2003, gave their blessing to Bush on the War on Iraq, is now talking about withdrawing the same support – yes, the setup of the senate has considerable changed since then, but do they have an option of getting out of Iraq anytime soon? Personally, I don’t think it is possible, considering the fact that Iraq is now embroiled in one of its worst civil wars in a long time, with the paranoia that the Americans have (could be well placed) about the Iranians and its designs in Iraq.

The Presidents swear that they will “Preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States”! How they are doing this by waging war in Iraq, well, your guess is as good as mine!

If the Americans do leave without stability in Iraq, history will not be kind to them!