Liberation

Nota: a pergunta se os iraquianos estão melhores hoje do que ontem depende se por exemplo "ontem" poderia ser um Iraque sem sanções económicas, óbviamente controlado de perto pela países que o rodeiam, mas provávelmente com o poder do regime de Saddam a diminuir a cada dia. O dia de "hoje", por outro, pode ser um caminho para uma guerra civil e caos por anos sem fim. Não tem de ser assim, mas existe forte possibilidade de o ser. E o medo disso, pode fazer com que a presença estrangeira - Nato, US, ONU, etc - se perpetue anos sem fim, no meio de atentados, guerrilha, etc, com enormes custos financeiros e vidas humanas, e a percepção no mundo àrabe dum novo neo-colonialismo "ocidental" que apenas fomentará o fundamentalismo.

Sobre Harry Browne: ...was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. He is now the Director of Public Policy for the American Liberty Foundation. You can read more of his articles at www.HarryBrowne.org.

"Donald Rumsfeld said that Hussein's capture means that the Iraqis can now be free in spirit, as well as in fact.

Ah yes, liberated Iraq. It is now a free country. George Bush has liberated it. How has Iraq been liberated? Let me count the ways . . .

1. The country is occupied by a foreign power.
2. Its officials are appointed by that foreign power.
3. Its citizens must carry ID cards.
4. They must submit to searches of their persons and cars at checkpoints and roadblocks.
5. They must be in their homes by curfew time.
6. Many towns are ringed with barbed wire.
7. The occupiers have imposed strict gun-control laws, preventing ordinary citizens from defending themselves — making robberies, rapes, and assaults quite common.
8. Trade with some countries is banned by the occupying authorities.
9. The occupiers have decreed that certain electoral outcomes won't be permitted.
10. Families are held hostage until they reveal the whereabouts of wanted resisters — much like the Nazis held innocent French people hostage during World War II.
11. Protests are outlawed.
12. Private homes are raided or demolished — with no due process of law.
13. The occupiers have created a fiat currency and imposed it on the populace.

This is liberation in the NewSpeak language of politics. Words like freedom just don't seem to mean what they used to, do they?"