Why does the Right love Osama?

Submitted by Thomas Paine (United States), Mar 19, 2003 at 15:24

... "Left" is a very broad term and when you make sweeping generalizations like this it is going to include a lot of people who don't belong in it.

Let us clarify a few things, like most leftists, I am not in love with Osama Bin Laden. I cried on 9/11. It was an awful tragedy, however unlike some hardlined right-wingers (some not all), I do not believe that every Muslim and Arab in the world should die for what happened. I also don't believe every white, male, Christian should die for the sins of Timothy McVeigh. Notice when I spoke of right-wingers I said some not all. Just because the bullet-head in the gas-guzzling SUV in front of me has a bumper sticker that says "NUKE THE SAND N*S" I do not automatically assume that all right-wingers are racists. Its called Common Sense!

As for Saddam Hussein, we on the "Left" you describe are not buddies with this brutal dictator, because we oppose a war in a nation that does not currently pose the greatest threat to our security. We were not the ones who endorsed Saddam Hussein for decades. We were not the ones who gave orders to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glasspie the go ahead to attack Iraq (a little known fact that is seldomly mentioned in the "liberal media")... .

We are against this war because we fear blowback, the unintended consequences of war. It is a very real fear after 9/11. We are for the war against Al Qaida, because these were the people who attacked us many times. They are also the same group that attacked our embassies in Africa. This group should be our focus. Saddam Hussein may be a bad man but he never attacked our country. Sure he gassed the kurds back in the late 1980's but we didn't give a darn about the Kurds then and we don't give a darn about the Kurds now. If our government really cared about the well-being of the Kurds it would not be bending for Turkey involvement through multi-billion dollar bribes. Turkey has been every bit as ruthless towards the Kurds.

As for threats to our nation, North Korea has missiles that could reach Los Angeles and they're bragging about it. Infact it looks as if Iraq is the least dangerous nation of the "axis of evil" War will lead to more terrorism in the U.S. If we must go to war then so be it, I'm no pacifist, however shouldn't we be focusing on the nations that pose the greatest threat to our security?

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