Point of View

What If?

We’d Probably React The Same As the Iraqis If Invaded
By Fred H. Arm
Lately, the war has been on everyone’s lips, blaming the people of Iraq for one thing or the other. We are outraged that the Iraqis have the nerve to attack our troops as well as their militia brethren. How unacceptable or unexpected is such behavior? Is this not a normal reaction of a nation under siege?

Let us take a journey into our logical imagination. Suppose our fearless leader, Mr. Bush, became a ruthless dictator (not all that farfetched, but bear with me). Let us suppose that he has been murdering and torturing hundreds of Americans, particularly Muslims. Just imagine if you will, that since America is in need in oil, that the United States will simply invade Canada and grab their oil reserves.

The US raids Canada and threatens them to submit or be bombed back into the Stone Age with Atom and Hydrogen bombs. Naturally, the Canadians could not resist such a threat. So, the US takes over Canada. The United Nations and every freedom-loving nation cry out in protest. Bush simply ignores them, rationalizing that Canada should have belonged to us all along and to "stay out of my face".

Logically, the UN will not sit still for this and the whole world joins in with the UN and drives the Americans from Canada. The UN now denounces the US and demands that we dismantle our Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) so that such a thing does not happen again. After a number of years of UN inspections, we finally dismantle all our WMDs. China does not believe this, so they petition the UN to continue the inspections.

In the meantime, Bush is still the same asshole and continues to persecute and murder his people to retain power. China also thinks that Bush’s right wing connections to another terrorist group who has been blowing up embassies and the like will someday invade their shores. After many more inspections by the UN, things calm down somewhat, until this terrorist group blows up a city in China. China is outraged and invades the country sponsoring the attack. At the UN, they complain that the US still has WMDs and is in collusion with the terrorist group. No such evidence is actually presented. The leader of the Chinese government simply believes this and wants to attack the US to get rid of our hidden WMDs and to punish us for our supposed terrorist affiliations.

Meanwhile the American people would also like to get rid of Bush, but since they no longer have anything to say about anything, they simply acquiesce in his despotic regime. The Chinese demand that the UN sponsor an attack on the US to depose Bush. The UN and most other countries will not go along with this scenario. So what does China do after being abandoned by the UN and other allies, it sends its armies to attack the US to finally depose Bush from power. The war is over in about thirty day and thousands of Chinese troops have taken over America and put Bush in jail along with many of his tyrannical cronies.

The Chinese have taken over everything. They tell us when we may leave our homes, who will be in charge of this and that, and generally maintain a kind of martial law to contain and control us. Of course, this does not sit well with the American people. It’s one thing to be finally rid of Bush, but to have the Chinese Communists hanging around running things is clearly unacceptable and out order, especially since the Chinese could never find any WMDs that we were supposedly hiding for Bush. Nevertheless, the Chinese remain in control, refusing to let us govern ourselves.

A handful of American patriots are outraged at this state of affairs and accordingly arm themselves. They stage various attacks on the Chinese army and any Americans who are helping them. There are many car bombings, invasions, and attacks upon the troops, journalists, and any foreign government workers who are laboring for the Chinese and taking their jobs away.

Sound familiar? I thought so. So why are we so incensed that the Iraqis want us out of their nation? Sure, we got rid of Sadam Hussein, so thank you very much and give them back their nation. Admittedly, we invaded under false pretenses and misconceptions. So, by what authority are we still in Iraq? My hypothetical with the Chinese invasion is no different. We would be very upset if the Chinese did not leave, especially after they admitted they attacked us under a mistaken belief that we still had WMDs.

It seems to be a lot chutzpah to remain in a nation when your justification for being there has just evaporated. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world is incensed by Mr. Bush’s tactics? Are you really shocked and angry that the Iraqis are fighting to get us out of there? Would we have done any differently? I think not. Perhaps it is time to rethink the entire issue, especially now that it has been definitely established that there are no WMDs in Iraq, nor is there any connection to Al Queda and 9/11. Or is Mr. Bush turning into the despot depicted in my hypothetical?

Posted by fredarm at October 7, 2004 03:44 PM