THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Bush's Legacy

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Nov. 9-15, 2008

While most of us have been concentrating on the election of a new president and Congress, the Bush Administration has been accelerating war on the world. In the last month it has invaded two countries and stepped up arms sales to a third. It authorized the use of Special Operations forces in 60 countries to engage in assassination, kidnapping, and interrogation of suspected terrorists. The invasions of Pakistan and Syria, the commitment of additional arms to Lebanon, and the deployment of Special Operations forces, all mark a significant extension of the Bush Doctrine, to attack anyone, anywhere, any time, under the pretext of fighting a never-ending war on terror. This doctrine has made a mockery of international law and civil society.

The use of military force, without regard to the international community, national sovereignty, or even the pretext of the use of diplomacy to solve problems, is an enduring legacy of the Bush administration. It has made the U.S. the single most dangerous rogue nation on the planet.

It is a legacy that has obscured the consequences of the use of military power. In the name of raids to pursue terrorists the U.S. brings deadly force to bear, killing people it has judged guilty, without any attempt at due process, and killing others who happen to be nearby. The loss of their lives is dismissed as collateral damage.

The invasion of Syria just days before the election in the U.S. is an example of this policy and its deadly consequences. U.S. officials justified the invasion as an attack on al Qaeda, in an effort to kill a man named Abu Ghadiya who was thought to smuggle Iraqi fighters and arms across the Syria Iraq border. At least eight people were killed in this effort.

Eyewitness accounts of the invasion of Sukkariyah, a small Syrian village six miles from the Iraqi border, said that four helicopters attacked the area and two of them landed. Jumad Ahmad al-Hamad, a nearby villager, reported that after the helicopters landed, “Shooting then started and rang out for about 10 minutes.” He and other villagers went to investigate. Amidst the remains of a small farm, he found the bodies of his uncle, Dawoud al-Hamad, and four of his uncle's sons.

The attack on Syria comes after 17 missile strikes into Pakistan since August. In September these attacks were expanded to include a ground assault in the tribal areas of Northwest Pakistan. Demanding that these attacks be halted, Pakistan's Defense Minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, said they "generate anti-American sentiments as well as create outrage and uproar among the people."

The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem called the raid an act of "criminal and terrorist aggression."

The effects of the use of military force can never be set right. Lives lost can never be reclaimed. Lives ruptured cannot be easily rebuilt. With 2.7 million Iraqis internally displaced and over 2.4 million living as refugees in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere in the region, the pain and anguish of this war touch lives in ways unimaginable to us.

The U.S. mainstream press has done nothing to help us understand the consequences of the "might makes right" doctrine. The Washington Post celebrated the attack on Syria, saying, "If Sunday's raids serves only to put Mr. Assad on notice that the United States, too, is no longer prepared to respect the sovereignty of a criminal regime, it will have been worthwhile." The Wall Street Journal praised the attack, encouraging Obama to pick up where Bush left off.