Non-fiction / Imperialism and Iraq (Analysis)

There are a variety of opinions regarding the war in Iraq. For some, it is a tiresome subject that is to be avoided at all costs. For others, it is the protein of their conversation. The war in Iraq is always discussed in terms of morality and immorality, good versus evil, winning and losing, and cost and benefit. Everyone has an opinion and no one is truly right or wrong when the war is argued in these terms. Although these issues are viable, they are superficial aspects of a more basic human characteristic: national pride by way of imperialistic idealism.

Imperialism first appeared during the Roman Empire, but it has continued to reign throughout the following ages. Always the strongest nation attempts to subdue the weaker countries around it and always there are men and women like Caratacus, the last Chieftain of Britannia, and Boudicca, the Warrior Queen, who stand against it only to watch their own nations succumb to their invader’s ideals. American Imperialism is no different. Whether a person is for or against the war in Iraq, it is clear that the battle is not over truth and justice, but the continued growth of America’s strength throughout the world.

Imperialism and national pride are always found in the same sentences and well they should for it is pride in one’s country that encourages a group of people to share their ideals as far as their guns and soldiers will take them. It is why Rome conquered most of Europe and Asia. It is why the sun never set on the British Empire. It is why America controls much of what happens in Israel, builds bases along oil lines in Iraq, maintains over seven hundred bases in 130 sovereign nation-states, and influences the economy on a global scale. America and its people, like the British and the Romans before them, believe that the world is a better place because of their ideals and can’t imagine a foreign policy which is solely concerned with minding its own business. Imperialistic nation-states believe that they are their brother’s keeper and that their brother is always wrong.

So it should come as no shock that America will take every chance it can get to control more of the world and more of the diverse people within it. Learning from the second generation of empire-states, America began it’s history stealing from the weaker nations, namely the various Native American tribes, in order to continue to expand its domination of the Western Hemisphere only this time, instead of Caratacus, it was chieftains and warriors like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull that fought against the insatiable American government. In fight to fulfill Manifest Destiny, the American government engaged in deceit by making deals with various Native American tribes and going back on their word or worse, by having them sign over their land on the assumption that the document was a treaty for peace.

Fabricating the truth to make its citizens agree to unjust war is not a new trick for America. What a country can’t buy, it takes, as history shows us with the Mexican War. It had no qualms with instigating a skirmish with Mexico on a heavily part of the Texas border in order to gain the support of the American people to engage in war.

America, however, is just as happy buying off other nations as fighting with them. It has proved to be a nation of shrewd investors starting with the Louisiana Purchase. Similarly, it has had no moral dilemmas in destroying it’s own military property in order to engage another country in war. Remember, if you will, the curious incident of the Gulf of Tonkin where two destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy were obliterated, instigating America’s entrance into the Vietnam War. In 2005, the NSA declassified the report on the Gulf of Tonkin incident which revealed that the American ships fired first and there was cause to believe the North Vietnamese navy was not present at the time of the alleged battle. Some may wonder why the US bothered to sink their own ships, but the answer is simple if a person looks at the larger picture. The North Vietnamese were advocates of Communism and America was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, a group of nation-states built upon Communist ideals. America’s Vietnam War was a war by proxy with Russia. Democracy versus Communism, “freedom” versus “backward thinking.” Communism is all but dead these days, but like Don Quixote, we have a new windmill to charge only instead of Communism and the A-bomb, we’ve replaced it with Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In recent news, the Pentagon released a tape allegedly showing an Iranian naval boat approaching a US destroyer, threatening to crash into the boat and blow it up. Tension between Iran and the US is exceptionally high, and many Americans aware of the tape were outraged. However, quickly after the release of the tape, the Admiral of the warship involved appeared on the news with doubts that the radio recording went with the video tape. That admission alone is enough to raise the proverbial eyebrow. But the point of releasing the tape was to instigate fear and anger the American people enough to convince them that war with Iran is necessary, even unavoidable.

It’s not a far stretch to assume that the war in Iraq was also based on ill founded facts. It is not as if this is the first questionably immoral act America has ever signed its name to. And for those in the media world which throw the words “patriotic” and “unpatriotic” around like candy at a parade, it’s not unpatriotic to see a long list of ill-done actions in American history and wonder if the infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction is not just another facade to gain more territory in an ever important mission to dominate the world.

I am postulating that it might be that not every country with a different opinion of how a leader should govern people is solely determined to obliterate the United States of America. It might not be that America is the center of the universe as many of its citizens continue to believe and it might not be that people of other religions and governments hate us because of our freedom. Rather, it is possible that they are merely the Caratacus’ and Boudicca’s of our time, fighting for the survival of their traditions and beliefs before they are obliterated in a current too strong for them to combat.

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