The problem with going it alone isn’t just that we won’t have military backing from other nations. It’s the fact that we’re going to have to flip the bill for the whole war. Estimates are between $100 and $200 BILLION dollars. I don’t think I need to point out that American taxpayers are the people paying for this. The budget deficit is already scheduled to be in the hundreds of billions, and we can’t expect another occurence like the Internet boom to bail us out this time. It’s going to have to come from increased taxes, most likely long after Bush is gone from the White House. And we Americans, with our short memories, will undoubtedly put all the blame on the President in office at the time, Republican or Democrat (much like we attributed the budget surplus during the Internet boom to President Clinton). This isn’t America’s war. Sure, President Bush has plenty of propogandists helping him dupe the apathetic, ignorant, and/or just plain blood-thirsty- which at any given time is the majority- but many of us realize this is Bush’s war.

In the first Gulf War, Iraq was invading Kuwait (ah, the days when you had to have a reason to go to war), and other nations were more than willing to help flip the bill for the use of our military might. This coalition of partners paid nearly $75 billion of the tab. This time, it looks like it will be all us. And this time we have the added expense of occupying and restructuring this country. And not only that, we’re buying votes from other countries, asking them to support a resolution authorizing the use of force, again, to the tune of billions of dollars. And when somebody knows they’re necessary for your game plan, they raise the price.

Turkey wants cash and compensation of about $20 billion. Now here’s why I don’t too much fault Turkey: First of all, they’re direct neighbors of Iraq. They have a lot to lose if things don’t go as peachy as President Bush expects. Secondly, they’re still recovering from the first Persian Gulf war. After that war Iraq imposed trade sanctions against them, costing their already battered economy billions of dollars and millions of jobs. The U.S. had promised aid to compensate them, but then backed out, instead giving a few token handouts.

One of President Bush’s biggest arguments is that Saddam Hussein is defying the U.N. and making a mockery of them. It seems to me that if President Bush goes ahead with a war without the u.N.’s approval, he too would be defying them and making a mockery of their intended purpose. Granted Bush wouldn’t be violating any resolutions, but either way it’s undermining the credibility and purpose of the U.N. And in fact, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has recently said that if the U.S. acts without council assent, it will violate the U.N. charter.

Currently Iraq has a ruthless dictator in power; dissent is not allowed. Now when we “liberate” Iraq, who’s going to fill that void? Maybe another Sunni Muslim. But the Shi’ites won’t stand for that. And all of a sudden the Kurds are going to feel empowered after years of being oppressed. The Kurds will feel like one of theirs should be the new leader. Yet another group that feels they should control Iraq is the exiled Iraqi National Congress. Currently they’re the biggest opposition group in Iraq, and so they pleaded with the White House to let them be the new leaders once Saddam Hussein is ousted. The White House finally decided against it, leaving the exiles feeling betrayed. Most Arabs simply don’t trust President Bush, and they’re very skeptical of America trying to impose democracy by force. It’s going to be messy.

Please, stop with the almost cliched rhetoric: “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and he’s used them against his own people.” Yes, he’s tried to exterminate the Kurds. But these are the same Kurds that Turkey is trying to exterminate on their land, with the help and blessing of the U.S.

Americans are far removed from the reality of our actions in the Gulf. Many Europeans see the results of Washington’s last invasion in Afghanistan: a country far from stable, democratic, or even peaceful, and now threatened with being forgotten after it’s own “liberation”. In fact, Bush’s 2003 budget did not even ask congress for the money the U.S. pledged this year for Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Once again, we’re backing out of our promises.

Here’s an intersting fact: The U.S. has long been the single biggest purchaser of Iraqi oil (always through intermediaries, of course). At the time Bush gave his “Axis of Evil” speech, the U.S. was buying 75% of all Iraqi oil exports. Needless to say, we’re very dependant on Iraqi oil, especially with Venezuela in such instability. I really believe that most of the propaganda to oust President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela comes from the U.S. because he’s limited oil exports to us.

If you haven’t already read John Kiesling’s letter of resignation to Colin Powell, you can here. I wonder how many people at home are calling him unpatriotic and anti-American? Jeez, how simple Bush has made it- with us or against us.

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