two wolves and a spider

an oft-repeated question is finally answered

"I have to infer from that (statement) that you would be happier if Saddam Hussein were still in power."    - Paul Wolfowitz

Let's deal with this question once and for all, OK?   It's the classic retort given by neocons and other war supporters whenever anyone questions the wisdom of the Iraq War.   In this case, it was Wolfowitz's response to a student who had just said the following:   "We are tired, Secretary Wolfowitz, of being feared and hated by the world. We are tired of watching Americans and Iraqis die, and international institutions cry out in anger against us." 

Let's say I get disturbed by a spider crawling up the garage wall.  I slam the car into it at 50 miles an hour, destroying the car and causing a few thousand dollars in damage to the garage.  When my wife objects, I say:

"I have to infer from that statement that you would be happier if that spider were still crawling up the wall."    No, schmuck, she says, I'd be happier if we still had a car and didn't have to fork out ten thousand dollars to fix the garage.

"Well, maybe you think our house is safe from spiders," I say.  "Maybe you don't think spiders are a health problem.  Maybe you don't realize some spiders are venomous."   Thinking of Joe Lieberman, I add "Maybe you're in a 'spider-hole of denial.'"   With David Horowitz-like reasoning, I go on to say "Maybe you support the spiders.  Maybe you and the spiders are allies."  I then show my wife a chart that includes her picture, together with a tarantula and a black widow, as part of an international network of spider-supporters.   "Since you're so pro-spider," I ask her, "why don't you just go discuss this little problem with your 'friends' here?"

Spiders can be a health problem, she says, but there are lots of spiders in the neighborhood.  This one wasn't a threat to us, and we can't go destroying things and spending tons of money every time we see a spider.

Before I can respond, Wolf Blitzer happens by.  Wolf comes in and surveys the damage, then helpfully points out that "there have been some successes in the war on spiders, to judge by the corpse visible under the crumpled fender of this sedan."    You don't make any sense either, she says to Wolf.   Now that the wall's destroyed, says my wife, we'll have more spiders in the house than ever.

"Well, if you care more about your spiders than you do about keeping our home safe," I tell her, " I don't think we can talk about this rationally."
_____________________

So Dear Wolfie, and anybody else tempted to pose this question:    No.  I would not be happier if Saddam Hussein were still in power.   I would be happier if 1,500 Americans were still alive.  I would be happier if 20,000 - 150,000 Iraqi civilians were still alive.  I would be happier if tens of thousands of American soldiers didn't have to face a future of disfigurement, disability, and/or psychological torment.  I would be happier if my country didn't violate international law.  I would be happier if we hadn't allowed Iraq to become a breeding ground for new terrorists.   I would be happier if I hadn't been lied to by an unethical government and an incompetent news media. I would be happier if we did something else with the $250 billion we're spending on this war.   I would be happier if the policy of successfully containing Saddam had been continued.  I would be happier if we hadn't gone through all this just so we can replace Saddam's dictatorship with a pro-Iranian theocracy.  I would be happier if we had any military resources to spare, so maybe we could rescue the helpless people of Darfur.

My happiness was never going to be influenced by Saddam Hussein's career path.   Instead, my happiness is affected by the well-being of Americans and Iraqis who have suffered needlessly as a result of your war.   

Next question.

Comments

[Eric Martin]

So you don't like spiders huh?

[Craig Press]

Wow, you and your wife has some issues. Pretty nice living in Wolf's neighborhood though. Although with a name like Wolf you have to ask if he himself is on the side of the predators. If so perhaps he is a paid shill for spiders. Hmmm...

[Mihai]

What a great analogy... I'm glad commondreams.org linked to your blog.

[Cobear]

Hi, Saw this on CommonDreams then came over to check out the blog. Very Nice.

You can of course take this further. For instance, there are proven and effective ways to take care of a spider problem without wrecking a car and destroying the garage.

Likewise, there were ways to take care of Saddam Hussein without starting a war and destroying a country.

My feeling was that if the Bush administration had been going to the Security Council and talking about Saddam's human rights record and saying now is the time for the world to handle this, he would have done several things.

-- He might have forged a coalition willing to deal with the problem.
-- If that failed, he would have put the onus for Saddam remaining in power on the French, Russians etc.
-- He would have put his opponents on the left in an awkward spot of either having to support removing Saddam or having him remain.

But everyone like Wolfowitz should be reminded that they didn't do this. Instead they went around screaming about the poisionous black widow spider in the garage, and then rammed not the family car, but a 70 ton Abrams tank through the garage to kill it. Then after much review of the squished remains of the spider, it turns out it was a harmless little ol brown spider anyways.

[Chatnoir]

Wolves and Spider:

Excellent!

Thanks

[Gyanoprobha]

Enjoyed reading your spiders piece, via Commondreams and Tomgram. My only disagreement with you is about your satisfaction with the process of "containing" Hussein. As almost everyone knows by now, the cost in terms of children's lives has been documented by the UNICEF, and three UN officials administering the sanctions successively, Dennis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck and Jutta Burghardt, resigned over the fact that the sanctions were killing people in Iraq long before March 2003 (even though Irq was being regularly bombed from Incirlik base in Turkey by the US and british air forces, ostensibly to protect the so-called "no-fly zone". See http://casi.org.uk for details. For details about the way in which the US destroyed the water treatment facilities in Iraq in full knowledge of the effect on Iraqi mortality, see http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/declassdocs/dia/19950901/950901_511rept_91.html

[RJ Eskow]

Gyanoprobha, thanks for the link. Just to clarify: My comment regarding the containment of Hussein referred to the UN inspection process, not to the sanctions. There were several key policy areas where I felt the Clinton administration was guilty not only of bad decisions, but of moral lapses. "Welfare reform" was one, and continuation of these sanctions was another. They devastated the powerless of Iraq (especially children)while leaving Saddam and his cohort unharmed.

[Doug Mackay]

I'm impressed. Good job on the perfect answer to the number one question.

[Lawson]

Spiders kill children and adults every year too...
As for Sadaam being the #1 killer of children, I think the US has done a pretty good job of that in both Iraq and Afghanistan. (and Columbia, and Peru, and Ecuador, but that is another genre of killing...) The sanctions were not working perfectly by any means, but perhaps review is in order for our reasons of sanctioning. Was it because Sadaam was "gassing his own people?" No, he gassed the Kurds with knowledge of and no complaint from the US, though there had been hope that he would use it on Iranians, not Kurds.
Perchance because Iraq was an OPEC nation with a state run oil company, and coincidently sits atop the secondly largest oil reserves in the world? Perhaps that has something to do with it. What was the one government building not to be bombed upon entry? The oil ministry. First objective, get oil flowing, so Iraq could, "pay us back" for our expensive invasion. Sorry, I am carrying on again. Bush is great and the country is running flawlessly.

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