War and Election

War and Election

姚刚

上海政法学院 语言文化学院 上海 201701

Abstract: This essay analyses the relationship between the second Iraqi war and the 2004 American presidential election in political and economic perspectives.

Key words: the second Iraqi war; 2004 presidential election; Bush

Bush’s success in election may disappoint some people in the USA and out of the USA. Domestically, many Americans dislike their President Bush. They consider Bush has brought America into a disaster by launching one war after another without solid evidence and made the country’s international reputation and popularity diminishing in the world.

It turned out that the Second Iraqi war really helped Bush win the campaign in some degree, instead of the contrary as some people preconsidered. Then how did this war help Bush to win the campaign?

The 9.11 event has become a turning point in American history. The Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which took nearly 3,000 lives in New York and Washington, led to the Iraqi war. New York and Washington on September 11^th, 2001 is just like Pearl Harbor on December 7^th, 1941, reminded Americans of the painful memory of World War II. More and more American people began to be worried about the security of the nation and the safety of their family members. As a result, if the president could keep the danger out of the door, people would feel more relieved and see no reason for disagreement.

Driven by anger and hatred or possibly fear, America easily smashed the terrorist power in Afghanistan. But Osama bin Laden and his remaining party are still at large. So America finds an excuse to stay there with her troops to search for Bin Laden. Three years past, even Saddam has been caught. Bin Laden is still no where to be found. During these three years a new government which is in favor of and backed up by America was set up and began to rule the former terrorism nation firmly. Hence luckily enough America finally found herself an important position in the middle Asia. This position is ultimately important in territorial politics.

War on Afghanistan is just a beginning in Bush’s way of conquer and command. Who will be the next target, Iraq or North Korea or Iran or Lybia or Syria or …?

Bush conspicuously cannot fight against all those Evil-Axis countries at the same time, so he needs to make a schedule. Iraq, as an American foe, unfortunately is one of the world’s largest oil countries. And the Saddam Hussein regime had been bearing a very notorious international reputation. In Bush’s opinion evil powers always link with each other, so Saddam must have been a friend of Bin Laden. Saddam the dictator had developed the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had used them in Iraq’s war with Iran. Then he must have stored some and may offer them to Al Qaeda who will use them to attack America and her alleis. As for the real evidence, Bush preferred to leave it to the end of the war. Also Iraq has been weakened a lot since the 1991 Gulf War by embargo and blockage. Thus it seemed not so hard a nut to crash. Naturally it became the next target of Bush. Unavoidably the war outburst on 20 March 2003. Easily the same came the conquer of anther nation and pulling down of its authority by the powerful United States. This time something is also nowhere to be found. It is the evidence ---- the weapons of mass destruction (WMD). All the reports made by the American government have seemed to show the world that there are not these kinds of weapons at all in Iraq. And Saddam was also caught. Then for what reason should American troops stay in Iraq? The reason came to be the ceaseless insurgency in Iraq. Those troublemakers are really hard nuts to crash. Almost every week or so, American army run into bombing and shooting and the kidnap of foreigners. Some foreigners were even beheaded by the revolters. The oil lines are also destroyed and the new trained Iraqi soldiers and policemen killed. The liberated Iraqi people’s lives are hard and the unemployment is high and the country is in badly need of restoration. The promised reconstruction by America was badly organized and seems to be an almost impossible task to accomplish. Iraqi people are becoming disappointed and angry at their conqueror and savior. They believed that it is the invaders who have brought all these sufferings to them. The American predicament that is Iraq seems to expand and, in expanding, to consume American government in the next few years.

And what is happening in Iraq is causing some debate inside the United States. This gnawing issue of whether the White House exaggerated or lied about intelligence data in order to pursue war against Iraq has clearly become a factor in the November elections, as Bush seeks a second term. At the heart of the debate is whether the president broke faith with the American people and therefore lost claim to their trust. Bush still calls Iraq “an ally of Al Qaeda”. Bush’s vice president, Cheney, the administration’s leading war hawk, has been the most vociferous promulgator of the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, touting it repeatedly in speeches and interviews on national television. He went on television after the latest 9-11 Commission reports, saying.” There clearly was a relationship… The evidence is overwhelming.” He also called the press “irresponsible” for suggesting a disparity between the White House position and the commission’s findings. But both of them deliberately avoid using the specific words that Saddam Hussein had played a “direct role” in the 9-11 attacks, but they manage to make the American constituency to believe that he had. Opinion surveys before and after the war showed that more than half of America believed Saddam Hussein “was personally involved.”

Not like the former cases in which the dishonest presidents like Nixon and Clinton were strongly criticized and fell into great trouble. The Americans are in fact more tolerable of Bush who apparently has told lie in the second Iraqi war.

One reason may be that the America as a nation holds a root-deep prejudice towards the Arabian peoples. Historically Christianity and Islam have conflicted with each other for a long time. The tension between the two religions or the west Christian world and the east Arabic world is therefore not an immediate problem. Many Americans even take Bin Laden, Saddam, Arafat and Quaddhafi as a whole to be terrorist supporters and their nations to be the source of evils. This misunderstanding might have led to the misjudgement of some international affairs by the Americans. Correspondingly the Arabian world is disgusted at America’s interference with their domestic affairs and disjustice in handling Palestine-Israel crash. Then the political and cultural miscommunication of each other usually caused disgust or even hatred which might lead to bloody conflicts. Those bloody conflicts in return had deepened the hatred and prejudice between the two peoples.

The other reason is that the Americans are as clear as the other peoples of the world that the Earth is exhausting its energy and the scramble for energy is ultimately important to any nation. Oil as the black gold has its irresistible attraction for everybody. Anyone should not miss this God-endowed opportunity of taking over Iraq to grab as much as he can. America is called a nation on wheels, oil is really the blood of her body. And the oil countries like OPEC, Russian, Libya and former Iraq had used oil as their weapons to fight against the United States. So to have control over as much oil resources as possible has become many nations’ primary energy strategy.

People know a nation’s economic future is far more important than the trust for one of the nation’s leaders. Even though the Bush’s administration has made forgery documents to help with their “selling of Iraqi war”, most people take this fraud as nothing at all in the mind. What the people are mostly concerned about is the issue of their own security and the economy development of their country instead of some of the traditional virtues (such as honesty). On the one hand the catastrophic aftermath which a war will bring to a foreign nation and the suffering its people will bear is almost out of the America’s concern. On the other hand America in a sense is concerned with the casualty of her own troops. Estimates shows that almost 1,400 American soldiers have lost their lives due to the war in Iraq. But the same thing as massive significant anti-war protests happened in the 1970s has not showed up till now. Iraq seems different from Vietnam. Iraq apparently was lack of the strong support from any powerful nation compared to the strong support Vietnam gained from Russia and China. American people may hope a brighter future in an oil Iraq than in a jungle Vietnam. America could pay a 50,000 casualty cost in the Vietnam jungle. Then the 1,400 casualty in Iraqi desert is really a piece of cake. This may explain why Kerry failed to draw people’s interest by posing a Vietnam war- hero image.

Therefore though very little of what the white House told Congress to persuade it to pass the war resolution has turned out to be true or come to pass. And the Rumsfeld’s Pentagon did not have a contingency plan for a serious insurgency after cities were taken and “major combat” was over. Consequently U.S. occupation casualties continue to rise even as newly trained Iraqi forces begin taking over security duties. The prisoner torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib jail has also stained the Defense Department and the CIA and the president. But most Americans still seem indifferent with all these. Many may be criticizing the president and vote for him at the same time.

In a word, Bush successfully killed two birds with one stone. He won the elections and Iraq by launching the war.作者简介：姚刚（1978.06.26-），男，吉林省四平市，讲师

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