Lauren RabainoThomas Jefferson once said that “a nation’s best defense is an educated citizenry,” a belief that has served the United States well throughout its brief but illustrious history. Unfortunately, over the past few years we have seen this Republican administration and its apologists (Fox News) do its best to “dumb down” the level of public debate in this country by saturating us with meaningless political talking points and slogans. This sloganeering is especially common in describing the ongoing War on Terror where I am sure we all remember phrases like “Stay the Course,” “Mission Accomplished,” “Cut and Run” and many others.
However, no matter how ridiculous these talking points may sound, this president and his delusional followers continue to use what amounts to propaganda in public discussions with complete disregard for facts and statistics. That is why I will dedicate the remainder of my column to debunking two of the most commonly spewed Republican talking points when it comes to the current war:
1. “We are making progress in Iraq.” This is the most frustrating talking point because it shows complete and total ignorance about how bad the situation is in Iraq for both our soldiers and Iraqis.
The U.N. estimates that since the war began, more than two million people (approximately 8 percent of the population) have fled the country and another 1.8 million people are internally displaced from their homes (domestic refugees).
This year CNN stated that 70 percent of Iraqis lack access to adequate water supplies and that 28 percent of Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition, even though the United States has spent more than $60 billion on rebuilding costs ($560 billion on military operations) since 2003.
In addition, one out of every four Iraqis is unemployed (that number is worse than what we experienced during our Great Depression) and inflation has stayed between 25 to 60 percent over the past four years (the cost of fuel and electricity actually rose 200 percent last year).
Given these catastrophic economic conditions, it is not surprising to learn kidnapping has become one of Iraq’s fastest-growing businesses. One study published in 2006 concluded that 20,000 Iraqis, half of them woman and children, were kidnapped in one year.
Furthermore, let’s not forget the incredibly horrific civil war that has engulfed Iraq as Sunni and Shiite militias continue to roam city streets and ethnically cleanse rival neighborhoods. In his testimony to Congress about the “progress” of the Surge, General Petraeus even conceded that the “level of civilian deaths is clearly still too high and continues to be of serious concern.” The Associated Press reports the Iraq body count may double from last year’s figure, estimated by the U.N. at 34,000.
Of course our troops are stuck trying to police all this chaos and it has only led to more and more attacks on our soldiers. This September the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated insurgent attacks against U.S. troops had actually risen so far this year to roughly 100 per day (up from the 75 average last year).
2. “We are fighting the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” President Bush and other Republicans have often invoked this moths-to-a-flame argument as justification for staying in Iraq.
However, Bush’s own intelligence agencies contradict this belief. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) report referred to Iraq as a “’cause celebre’ for the Jihadist movement.which is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives.” Republicans will point to that same NIE study and say al-Qaeda is “damaged” because of the Iraq War, but that is a narrow-minded view since the NIE also states “the global jihadist movement is decentralized.and is becoming more diffused and more difficult to undermine.”
Another counterpart to Bush’s talking point is a study done by Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, which found that since the Iraq War started there has been a 35 percent rise in the number of attacks worldwide with a 12 percent rise in fatalities. Furthermore, the rate of attacks on Western interests and citizens around the world has risen by almost 25 percent. This study illustrates what Bergen calls the “Iraq effect,” that the Iraq conflict has actually increased the spread of the al-Qaeda ideological virus as shown by the numbers and the tragic bombings around the world, including London, Madrid and Kabul.
Given this information, it’s clear we are already fighting serious terrorist elements elsewhere besides Iraq and to continually focus all of our attention on one spot of the world (which is not resulting in any “progress”) only leaves us more vulnerable and unprepared for other attacks. Of course, I am sure Republicans will just call me a “na’ve liberal” and that’ll be the end of the discussion. Thomas Jefferson be damned.
Patrick Molnar is a business junior and a Mustang Daily liberal columnist.