Children of Men, Part 2

Now, as my friend Michael, with whom I saw the movie, pointed out, this isn't entirely fair. After all, Sunni-Shiite-Kurd divisions existed long before the US came in there. The only thing keeping chaos from breaking out was the iron-hand rule of Saddam Hussein. This was bound to happen sooner or later, even if the US hadn't gone in. In a way, it is the imperial powers (France and Britain) at fault here for dividing up the Middle East based on imperial ambition, not ethnic lines.

And yet America still bears responsibility. After all, we were the country to go in and unseat Saddam. Do we not have the responsibility to clean up the mess we made? Yes, Sunnis and Shiites were bound to go at each others throats as soon as Saddam was gone. But undoubtedly the US administration could have slowed the deconstruction one way or another by putting competant people in office during the US official occupation (read: before the Iraqi government took over, at least in theory). Instead, we use this idiotic patronage system instead. "What's your position on abortion??" FUCK YOU, BUSH!

And yes, I realize that the war was controversial from the start. I was too young to vote, in 2003--I was maybe 14 at the time. But I still feel responsible. If this is a democratic country, by definition the decisions are those made by the people. We ARE responsible for this war, for letting it happen, for believing our president. Personally, I think that a girl should be able to trust her president on big things like war, but believe me, I've sadly learned otherwise. If the American people had truly wanted to stop this war, they could have stopped it the way they stopped the Vietnam War--with protests, with letters to their Congressmen. Make no mistake: the majority of the country supported war in 2003. And so, we must all be held responsible for the fuckup we've made of Iraq.

But we're still going to get off relatively free, aren't we?? We'll lose a few thousand troops--that is the only real tragedy for Americans--and lose face in the UN, etc. But Iraq is quickly going downhill to civil war--hell, it's already there--and TENS of thousands will die, maybe even hundreds. They pay the real price, while we come off relatively undamaged. This is the problem with superpowers--they never have to take responsibility for the shit they do.

It's at times like these I think that the US should have universal draft or something. If we all had to go into the army--or perform community service at home and abroad, or SOMETHING--we would all bear responsibility for our country's actions. Do you think Americans would have been so eager to go to war had every single child above 18 been at risk? Hell no!! Because relatively few Americans are in the army, the war actually impacts only a few people. I think that in times of war there should be a universal draft, so everyone's child is at risk. In times of peace, instead of drafting people for the army you could send them to fix up poor parts of the country. I'm thinking of the Israeli system, I guess. Really, I've thought about this issue a lot, and I'll write about it later. But the whole point of these plans is to make the country responsible for the shit it does overseas.

And that is why I think "Children of Men" should be mandatory viewing across this country, maybe even across the world. So Americans understand exactly what they've done to Iraq--and not just to Iraq, but many other countries. Think of Africa, Asia, Latin America during the Cold War. We have fucked up so many countries...I just don't know where to start...

The worst part is, I STILL don't know what to do. Which would be worse--pulling out? raising troop levels? keeping things as they are? Should I go to Iraq, try to make a difference, somehow? But it's not like you can go to Dulles and catch a plane to Baghdad, after all! And I'm afraid, too. If people like Margaret Hassan, who was working there for TWENTY years,isn't immune, what chance do I have? Within two weeks I'd probably be kidnapped, raped, and killed. How can I make amends? How can I make amends?