On the Karma of a Country

According to the World Health Organization, about 151,000 civilians were killed in bomb attacks and other violence in Iraq in the first three years after America invaded Iraq.

Yet here's Roger Cohen yesterday in the New York Times: "I still believe Iraq's freedom outweighs its terrible price."

The Times of London reports that: "On average, 128 Iraqis a day died of violent causes, such as shootings, roadside bombs and suicide attacks, in the first year after the US-led invasion. The average daily tally eased to 115 in the second year and rose to 126 in the third year."

Yet Mr. Cohen thinks that "Bush's fraudulent, blunder-ridden rush to war" was worth it to free 26 million Iraqis suffering under "a sadistic tyrant."

What if Mr. Cohen's family lived in Iraq? Would he still feel this way?

Why is it easy for pundits and politicians to talk in such lofty terms about freedom when the pain and suffering that Iraqis have endured as a result of our invasion and occupation is anything but abstract?

And why during this endless debate season won't any of the presidential candidates even mention the number of dead Iraqis when discussing costs of the war? Billions spent each month, check. Thousands of American soldiers dead, check. Thousands maimed, check. Is it so wrong to mention the many tens of thousands of lives destroyed -- or the millions of upended ones?

If an individual can be said to have karma, what about a country? What will be America's reckoning? Who knows, maybe it's just better not think about this stuff -- after all, American Idol is back on this week.

Comments

[peterg76]

Apparently Roger Cohen doesn't understand that the war was not about liberating "26 million Iraqis suffering under a sadistic tyrant". The Iraqis are still under US occupation and are under a slightly different tyrant (George Bush). The war was all about "liberating" Iraqi *oil*.

[sanglug]

You mean it's gonna get worse?

[zjr909]

The hardest truth for any nation to accept about itself isn't that its leaders are monsters - but that it's people care almost nothing for anyone else on the planet. That would be us. I can't even begin to explain my indignation the first time one of our pundits/politicians/leaders pointed out how ungrateful the Iraqis were for all we've done and sacrificed for them. All we've done for them? Like, destroyed their country and maybe as many as a million of their brothers and sisters. You almost never hear anyone say how terrible life must be for the Iraqis. All you ever hear is how undeserving they are of all we've done. Karma? No. There is no karma even remotely vile enough for such monstrous insensitivity.

[Sundialsvc4]

Be keenly on the lookout for propaganda whereever you see it; such as, right here.

There is an enormous difference between "The United States of America" and the thugs who are presently running it.

As these thugs confidently see themselves gliding toward "eight more years of the same," and as all their media-lackeys obediently sing that very song, remember that their song is not the truth no matter how loudly they sing it.

[FullChat]

Karma must be BS.
My proof is that Bush and Cheney are still in power, getting richer, and shooting the finger to the world.
QED.

[nowaterboardUSA]

The karma or "blowback" on America seems to be mostly domestic at this point in our declining quality of life. Such things as public shooting sprees, broken families, broken education systems, mass obesity, mass substance abuse, a growing prison-industrial complex, and like the rest of the world - corporate domination of the market place making us labor and consumer slaves.

[Rescisco]

"What will be America's reckoning?" You mean in addition to the absolute and total destruction of our nation by the pile of debt passed on to future generations to pay the price for a failed policy that made us less secure and that stupidly unleashed an era of terrorist hell that spans the globe?

[sfbayani]

Yes, America has never learned the enourmous cost of waging wars against countries in the name of democracy and "civilization" - to start from its first imperial adventure in the Philippines to its latest, Iraq. Not to mention, the in-betweens - LICs (that's low intensity conflict) waged in several Latin American countries and again, in the Philippines. American historians have even apologized for these wars -that it was all worth it because it spelled progress - and dismissed the human costs, the lives of American soldiers and civilian staff and of course, millions of citizens of independent nations. I hope that all Americans study this part of its history - from the perspective of the "other".

[hopeless277]

If there was such a thing as Karma, this country would be a pile of smoldering ash. For what the Republicans have done to the planet and it's population, they should have all been ejected from Earth to die in the cold of space. Of course this will not happen. As a matter of fact, the Republicans will all walk away from the war they launched will millions upon millions of the working people's tax dollars. They will live happily ever after. The Democrats will see to that. After all, now it's their turn to rape us. Best we just relax and enjoy it.

[aznurse]

Thanks for voicing what I've been thinking for a long time. How will the Iraqis explain to their children, that first they were run by a tyrant who was an ally of the US, the US didnt like that this tyrant tried to invade Kuwaite, the US bombed the crap out of us, placed sanctioned against us,while the tyrant made millions, some saudis blew up buildings and killed many us citizens, then they US came over and blew the crap out of us, killed thousands, then the leader of the US went dancing and kissing with the saudies.
It snowed in Bagdad for the first time in many many years, and there was a picture of a Iraqi man holding this little child and pointing and smiling at the snow, it was so touching that it made me cry. I feel so ashamed of what OUR tyrant has done.

[youngbodhisattva]

A country can most definately have karma. In policy speak it's usually termed "blowback" or the unintended consequences of foreign policy. The blowback from our proxy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan (made famous recently in "Charlie Wilson's War") was the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. The US catlyzed Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan becuase it was useful in our quest to defeat "Public Enemy #1" at that time, communism and specifically the USSR. Now we're fighting the same people that were once our "allies" during a different period of history.

It has already been documented that our occupation of Iraq helps the recruitment of Al-Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalist groups in the Middle East. However, what is scarier is that we have no idea what NEW enemy is going to emerge for our children to fight as "blowback" from BushCO's disastrous foreign policy plans of the past 8 years. Karma's a bitch and it will be coming for us -- the only question that remains is when?

Violence begets violence. As Ghandi said, "There is no path to peace. Pease IS the path."