I think Larry Simoneaux’s commentary, “Why the Anti-Everything Crowd Should Just be Ignored” (Tuesday), while entertaining and well written, seriously oversimplifies the issue of the U.S. victory in Iraq. Like Tuesday’s front-page photo of jubilant, flag-waving U.S. Marines in Tikrit, Simoneaux “crops” all the facts that would make his rosy picture appear less than perfect.
This is what I learn when I pay attention to war news: Iraqis are not uniformly jubilant to have U.S. troops in their country. Thousands have had close family members killed. They have lost an untold amount in material terms as well. Private property and historical treasures have been lost forever to bombing and looting. Many Iraqis blame the United States for these deaths and losses. And our attempts to guide the Iraqi populace toward a unified interim government are being met with suspicion, if not downright hostility, on a number of fronts. If this is victory, it is a problematic one at best.
The anti-occupation crowd (anti-occupation being what Simoneaux calls the “protest theme du jour”) is by no means anti-everything. We are for education, health care, the environment, public transportation, public libraries, and many other causes that have, until recently, made our own country a joy to live in. Unfortunately, these things will be much more difficult to pay for now that U.S. tax dollars will have to be sent to enforce our “victory” in Iraq. I sincerely hope U.S. intervention benefits the Iraqis as much as Simoneaux expects it will, but I have my doubts.
Lynnwood
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