American Karma in Iraq

Iraq is the Bush administration's answer to the American military-industrial complex's desire for a never-ending war. That much we know. But what of Bush's claims that pulling out U.S. troops would in effect be surrendering Iraq to al-Qaeda? Is there any basis to this justification for continuing the war?

Let's remember Iraq before the occupation. Saddam was in power, but his power only extended to the central region of Iraq, that area populated by majority Sunnis. There were no-fly zones, which were in effect America-only fly-zones. We had numerous aircraft constantly in the air over both the Shiite majority and Kurdish portions of Iraq, basically the entire northern and southern portions. We controlled that area de-facto, the area still being listed by the CIA as under Saddam's control. But Saddam dared not venture into these regions.

So, we know the car bombs, mortar-firings, and other efforts at sabotage did not exist in these Iraqi areas not controlled by Saddam and not inhabited by the Americans. Americans were only in the air, not having bothered to construct ground bases yet in the areas under their control. A democratic Iraq at this point, minus American ground-troop involvement, would have been about removing Saddam and installing a government based on negotiation between the three groups.

What would be different now, if American troops left? First, there's already a government body capable of providing the forum for the three groups to negotiate. Second, there's widespread anger among Iraqi's at the American presence and violence. If we left now, a democratic Iraq may very well decide that America is an enemy, as much of Iraq's population has already done. So, let's get it straight.

An Iraq without American troops would do things harmful to American imperialism. They would not "go al-Qaeda", nor would they send troops overseas to attack America. They would most likely move to switch their oil-trading from the dollar to the Euro. They most likely would alter their constitution to support Iraq-based businesses and block foreign capital. They would nationalize oil profits and kick out multinational corporations. They would kick out remaining American business interests and invite the interests of Venezuela and Iran and perhaps Russia. This would all be quite democratic and in their best interests.

Besides his desire for never-ending war, these are the real reasons Bush won't pull troops out and allow Iraqi democracy to assert itself. We've ruined our name and any goodwill by stifling Iraq with a sanctions regime for ten years that killed an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children. We've occupied and shot up their country for the last 4+ years. Democracy in Iraq, when it comes and it will, is not going to be favorable to American interests, and we can thank both Bush senior and junior as well as Clinton for this. It's an elementary lesson called karma. When you spread around hurt, you can expect to receive the hurt threefold. This is also known as, 'live by the sword, die by the sword'.

Our leaders are now worried about this, because their campaign contributors, the Exxons and Halliburtons, are worried about losing profits. Rather than put off the inevitable reaping of what we have sown, we should pull the troops out and eat our just desserts now.