What are we fighting for?

Between 1915 and 1918, 1.5 million Armenians were brutally slaughtered in Turkey under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, marking the first major genocide of the 20th century and what many scholars believe was an important influence on Hitler’s “final solution.”

This week, Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a “state of emergency,” dissolving the Supreme Court, suspending the constitution, detaining 3,000 activists, and meeting peaceful protests with beatings and tear gas.

What do these two events have in common? George W. Bush doesn’t seem to think they’re so bad. Last month, Bush opposed a congressional resolution that would officially label the mass killings of Armenians with the term “genocide.” The reason? This would endanger our good relations with the government of Turkey, a key ally in the “war on terror.” Bush also opposes cutting military aid to Pakistan (more than $11 billion since 2001) for the same reason.

President Bush likes to paint our foreign policy in bright colors: a war of ideals, a clash of good vs. evil. We invaded Iraq (conveniently forgetting the weapons of mass destruction and terrorist ties that have yet to be found) because we supposedly wanted to end the atrocities of Saddam Hussein and bring liberty and democracy to its people. But what does it say about our compassion if we’re willing to overlook a genocide just so we have airstrips on which to land our F-22’s?

For someone who stakes so much of his public persona – and leadership ability – on his moral clarity and strength of character, Bush seems remarkably willing to compromise his stated beliefs for military gain.

Consider this: Pakistan, an Islamic state led by an unpredicable military ruler, actually DOES have nuclear weapons. In fact, a poll of 100 foreign policy experts conducted by the Carnegie Endowment states that it is the single greatest nuclear threat to the world. In 1998, following Pakistan’s first successful nuclear test, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (with a panel including 18 Nobel Prize winners) moved their “doomsday clock” to nine minutes before midnight – midnight being worldwide catastrophic nuclear destruction. There is evidence that Pakistan has been selling nuclear secrets all over the world, including to countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Libya. But instead of invading them to counter a grave threat to global security, like we supposedly did in Iraq, we are actually GIVING them money. It leads one to question whether the true reasons we’re in Iraq are the same as the reasons we hear from Bush and the media.

At a time when White House policy favors Holocaust denial and nuclear proliferation, it makes no sense to envision the United States as a shining juggernaut of liberty, virtue and peace. We are willing to ignore flagrant encroachments upon liberty both abroad (Pakistan) and at home (the Patriot Act) in order to promote the success of a war that’s supposed to make Middle Eastern countries “more like us.”

Perhaps we’re doing a better job than we think.

Andy Scott is a mechanical engineering senior and a guest columnist for the Mustang Daily.