The editorial “Stop the war: Here’s how” that ran in Thursday’s Daily is ridiculously flawed, both from a theoretical perspective and from a practical and factual perspective.
While reading the first few paragraphs, I thought it might be a letter to the editor that some ignorant first-year (or other naïve student) had written. Nope. That was the Daily editorial board.
They called the insurgents in Iraq, “patriots.” That’s right, those cowards in Iraq killing our men and women so they can rule Iraq once again (as the Sunnis did under Saddam simply because they were Sunnis). The insurgency, which is made up of (mostly) Saddam loyalists, is angry that they don’t get to run things anymore simply because of their ethnicity. The insurgency is also made up of foreign holy warriors (jihadists) fighting our men and women simply because they are from the West; in essence, trying to level the playing field in Iraq. Yes, that insurgency.
The Daily editorial board wants you to know that they support these Saddam loyalists and holy warriors killing on behalf of their perverted view of the world order – thugs looking for something to make them feel important.
These are patriots? According to the Daily editorial board, they are. Also, the Daily editorial board claimed that the U.S. hasn’t been open to talks with the insurgency, which is false. They have talked to the insurgency, to no avail. News flash: The insurgents are closed-minded. They want things to return to how they used to be when Saddam was in power – they had it much better then because they didn’t have to compete with the other 75-80 percent of the population (roughly 60 percent Shiite, 15 percent Kurd) for political power, now they do. The real patriots are the Iraqis that braved terrorist threats while voting in January.
Also, the Daily editorial board claimed that the Sunnis are being shut out of the government-creating process. Again, they must get their news from some polemical magazine, like The Nation, because clearly that is not true. It is understandably a tough process for both sides.
The Sunnis don’t get to run things anymore; instead, they have to compete with the Shiites and Kurds for political power. The Shiites are being urged by the U.S. and probably by their collective conscious to reach out and be fair to the Sunnis, much as the majority party here in the U.S. is expected to respect the rights of minorities.
This process is not easy; it takes time and much effort by both sides. If the Daily editorial staff kept up with news from Iraq, they would probably get the sense that the most standoffish of the groups appears to be the Sunnis, which is understandable given the history. But let’s call a spade a spade.
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both said publicly many times that the constitution-making process needs to be as inclusive as possible, but it isn’t an easy or simple matter of how to achieve that end, and it isn’t up to us to do it. The Daily editorial board is dangerously ignorant of the situation, as they made clear in their misguided and heavily ideological (and not factual, logical or practical) editorial on Thursday. They would like to bend and distort the situation on the ground to suit their ideological convictions and to reassure and protect their invested opinions.
The Daily editorial board can disagree with the decision to go to war and with the conduct of the war, but they must be factual. I suggest that the Daily editorial board consider adding some intellectual diversity to their editorial staff, as I have noticed that almost every editorial written has a heavy ideological component and almost nothing in terms of novel substantive arguments that are practical and rational.
Jordan Rockwell is a University student. Please send comments to [email protected].
