Listen Now: 
A Fork in the Road
December 8th, 2006 
This week on War News Radio, as the Baker-Hamilton Commision recommends a change of course in Iraq, we hear a different proposal on what the US should do next. Listen now to Elizabeth Threlkeld’s report.
Then, we learn about emerging opportunities for women in Afghanistan: from jobs doing embroidery to jobs in Parliament. Listen now to Anna Grant’s report.
And, we find out about the changing role of the United Service Organization, or USO. Listen now to Sarah Manion’s report.
These stories, plus the week’s news, from War News Radio.
December 13th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Why did you decide to interview Howard Zinn for an analysis of Iraq and the new report? He seems to buy into a very close-minded train of thought that’s very anti-American in terms of military conflicts. In your show he states how the United States only gets involved for its own interests, and while this may be true for the countries he states, it is not always the case. For example, the US-led NATO “humanitarian” bombing in Kosovo was to prevent the ethnic cleansing that was already happening. Whether or not it was effective/justified/right is another matter, but the point is that the United States doesn’t always get involved for its own benefit. Zinn just seems to approach situations where he already assumes the trend and finds evidence to support what he believes in, not the other way around where you synthesize evidence and THEN come up with conclusions. In my opinion, it’s no better than Bill O’Reilly finding random facts to support his notion of the “War” on Christmas, or George Bush and Rumsfeld interpreting intelligence reports to support the fact that Saddam had WMDs just because they felt it was true.
Also, where does he show that the Iraq situation is like Vietnam? Yes, both situations have the US military pinned down due to poor planning, but the two conflicts have completely different contexts! Vietnam was never under the threat of breaking out into a bloody civil war of possible ethnic cleansing! In Vietnam there were no suicide attacks like the ones we see everyday happening in Iraq! We can’t just assume without thinking that Iraq is like another Vietnam, people.
While it is clear, and has been clear for some time, that there needs to be an overhaul with our strategy, the cut-and-run technique that Zinn desires won’t work. It was necessary in Vietnam because we were propping up an already unpopular, corrupt government that was doomed to failure regardless, but the same does not hold true in Iraq. At this point, there’s no talk of democracy anymore because the situation has become so poor that we’re talking about a brutal “eye for an eye” civil war between the Sunni and Shia populations. The Vietnam conflict was much more simple: US wanting to prevent Communism. Iraq is a completely different ball game, and to treat it as another Vietnam is immature and short-sighted. Iraq involves: Oil, a possible genocide, and the stability of the Middle East. It’s a sad truth, but it is the truth. There are way too many warring factions that have been stirred up by the United States’ involvement, and to cut-and-run is letting a chain-reaction explode on itself. This isn’t the Cold War anymore; in the Cold War, we had a defined “enemy” and it was a West vs. East showdown; in Iraq, there are SO MANY different factions that have emerged, each with their agendas.
Don’t make the same George Bush/Rumsfeld-esque mistake of over-simplifying complex issues!