David Podvin: Stupid and Evil

[Caro]

STUPID AND EVIL
By David Podvin

Conservatives believe America must fight the terrorists over there or we will have to fight them over here, so George W. Bush has deliberately transformed Iraq into the Middle Eastern version of a roach motel. The concept is that while Americans maintain occupation villains from throughout the Islamic world will flock to the country and – as the commercial famously boasts – they will check in but they won't check out.

The strategy has two major flaws, the first of which is that it's demonstrably stupid. Al Qaeda has more members now than it had on 9/11. Rather than being a graveyard for the jihadist movement Iraq has become an incubator, producing terrorist hatchlings by the ton. No matter what transpires in Iraq Bush's enhancement of the al Qaeda membership roll will inevitably make America less secure. This disturbing little fact would deter normal people from staying the course, but if conservatives were normal people they wouldn't be conservatives.

The second flaw of the plan is that it's demonstrably evil.

Misusing a sovereign nation to lure terrorists is one of the most barbaric ideas ever conceived. Many defenseless Iraqis are now being murdered by the jihadists whom Bush has enticed into their midst. The terrorists torment innocent people by burning them alive, decapitating them with power tools, and throwing them off tall buildings. Conservatives are modernizing the master race concept by encouraging our enemies to murder worthless Iraqi civilians, thereby sparing priceless American civilians.

The sadistic pragmatism is camouflaged by declarations of moral superiority. Even as they import the murderers and torturers who are savaging Iraq Republicans aver deep devotion to the Iraqi people, and accuse those who advocate American military withdrawal of facilitating genocide. Yet for all their loudly proclaimed humanitarian motives, the right wing is treating Iraqis the way fisherman treat earthworms.

We are witnessing a great historical abomination, postmodern barbarity that emulates Aztec human sacrifice. The ancestral Mexicans launched human beings into volcanoes to satiate their God's blood lust. Iraqis are serving as sacrificial offerings not to Huitzilopochtli but to Osama bin Laden, the demigod whose mighty wrath has inspired Americans to forfeit their decency at the altar of expediency…

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Posted by Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

The excerpt above is posted with the full knowledge and permission, even encouragement, of the author, who wants his essays to be read by as many people as possible.