The ready-set-go point is blurred. Our Cowboy Leader says all Iraqi weapons capable of defending the country must go or he'll blow the cradle of human civilization to smithereens. The Garden of Eden has seen better days, and with oil in that there sand, visions of heretofore unimaginable power overcome notions even of biblical clout. The point is that the delta between the Tigris and Euphrates is supposed to be downright slushy with oil, making it unlikely that Eve's apple tree could have thrived there anyway, much less in a fashion worthy of serious historical note, so the threatening invaders are safe from the wrath of God and justified to blow their bugles and charge the defenseless, sick, starving, basically unarmed people of Iraq.
So Saddam backs off and allows new UN weapons inspectors to scour the country unconditionally, noting where any kind of defense system is hidden. While the payoffs are being arranged with "allies" and security council members of the UN, the inspectors look for a sign of any threat and can't (possibly to Mr. Bush's consternation?) find a thing outside the depleted uranium left by the US during the first invasion, that being enough to make the country nearly glow.
Some of us still wonder how the "allies" failed to plant any evidence, but apparently they didn't, because as of this date, Saddam and Iraq are squeaky clean.
And another 50,000 troops head out of the US toward the war grounds. This is what I mean by the ready-set-go being a little blurred.
According to the Cambridge University group that has been opposing sanctions against the people of Iraq for several years (CASI, or Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq), the first wave of attacks on Iraq is estimated now to produce serious injuries on up to 500,000 people, a hundred thousand of them in combat and another 400,000 hurt in the devastation. The group's findings have made their way to a United Nations report that is reported by the BBC News World Edition on January 7. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2636835.stm
That's a hell of a lot of "Collateral Damage." Playing with the numbers and percentages and transposing them to the stats on other wars is so absorbing it tends to fuzz up the colors and ages and trivia involved - how many of the dead children were alive when their legs were blown off? - that type of thing.
I'm a member of the CASI forum and know the organization to be utterly reliable. While they don't lay claim to a crystal ball or expertise in numerology, you can take to the bank the knowledge that for every Iraqi soldier killed while defending his homeland, a good chunk of kindergarteners will go down with him.
I'm a little uncomfortable with all this. I was recently assured by a Republican relative that it may be that we really need Iraq's oil. I thought of those timidly smiling Iraqi children in the photos where they are waving to North American journalists, who just can't get the nerve to tell the kids that these photos are soon to be all that's left of their diseased, poverty-shrouded, short lives. If the US needs that oil ... Would it help if I used my car to start a neighborhood bonfire?
CASI's figures were based on information from the World Health Organization, which assures the world that the 1991 invasion of Iraq took away the safety net for most of Iraq's 25 million citizens. This time will make the last one look like a piece of cake.
This is going to be an attack to take your lawn chair and camcorder to. BIG historical footnotes involved.
The BBC article says that up to 10 million Iraqis may require assistance in the immediate aftermath of military intervention. That's almost half the entire population.
You'd think it would cost Bush and cronies and my Republican relative some sleep. But I'm told I don't understand. A heated discussion in my own home two days ago resulted in a finger being pointed at me with the words, "Do you know why Bush wants that oil? He wants it for you."
That night I thought of Virginia Woolf, wondering exactly how she felt in 1941 with constant threats of a German invasion and the non-stop air raid sirens. Was she perhaps a lucky lady not to worry if the war she so hated might be for her? Maybe having a Jewish husband made it her fault? Whatever anguish coursed through her, in the end she plopped a big rock into her pocket, walked out into the river, and drowned.
Hitler's army didn't miss a beat. Stuff happens, as the kids now say.
Ten million? Virginia Woolf, with all due respect, wouldn't have stopped for her walking stick as she headed for the river contemplating a number that large.
Two million internally displaced people, the UN report adds. One displaced person sleeps under an overpass, and his story could give a lone journalist his break. Ten displaced persons start to be an embarrassment to the community. A thousand might be dangerous. The figure two million is unfathomable. If I drive my dog to the park or go out for a margarita or buy new sandals, it becomes obscene.
So how do I and the other hundred million North Americans who don't want the goddamned oil manage to put the brakes on Mr. Bush's concern for us? That is the irresolute question of the day. When we learned "duck and cover" from the coming communist atomic bombs fifty years go, they didn't include a guide on this one.
We can hang anti-war banners on the bridges over the freeways, as they are so impressively doing in California. Or we can flee the country. Or we can carry a big stone with us to remind us that within all things lies a point at which those very things are no longer bearable.
Half a million injured, but that's just in the first attack. If the attackers don't get control of the oil during the first attack, there will be a second. And if the people of Iraq should decide to go down fighting for their sovereignty, there will be a third.
This is just the beginning of the New World Order. After Iraq and its children, there's Iran. And Syria, if North Korea hasn't decided to obliterate Seoul or Honolulu by that time. In turn, the grand prize, Saudi Arabia. Our souls will by then have drowned in collateral damage. Each step of the way, the stone grows heavier.
Lisa Walsh Thomas is a former journalist, sixties activist, poet and contributing political writer to Liberal Slant, Practical Radical, and Online Journal. She has a column, "The Raven's Nest" at: http://practicalradical.net/raven.html
