US is not quite a model democracy after all

When I talk to people about my opposition to a war in Iraq, the conversation too often leads them to make a statement about Saddam Hussein himself, that madman whose actions and intentions can not be known or anticipated. I hate to personalize the issue so.

Frankly, like most of us I do not know much about his psychopathology, nor am I particularly interested in it. (Nor am I moved by President Bush's own Oedipal dilemma.) As much as I would like to see the ousting of all autocrats who abuse their power to serve the interests of themselves and the privileged elite that coheres around them, and the resumption of a truly rational and democratic government in their place, this is really outside my power. Though as a citizen of the world it is my concern, not my responsibility to prevent dictatorships in other nations (except in the most abstract sense, perhaps).

What I can and must do, however, is see to it that I oppose potential abuse of power in whatever form in the country of which I am a citizen, especially when that country prides itself on being the model democracy. Specifically, it is my civic responsibility to criticize and actively resist the actions of a US administration that has ignored the will of millions here and around the world, misrepresented the facts of the matter of Iraq, and replaced one pretext for another in its justification for such a war _ especially a costly and risky adventure like this one. A war on Iraq threatens not only thousands of innocent people like us, but at this time of economic hardship, it takes from the neediest to do it. Furthermore, it crystallizes in the minds of too many people around the world the worst image of the US, the US that puts its own interests before all others without compromise or negotiation, and backs it with military might. The threat to the nation resides here. And until the US can deal with its own huge inequalities and abuses, I do not trust it to administer help to anyone else.

Carl Martin is a Graduate Student studying English.