different strings


 Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Obligatory war

This quote is from a recent article on Turkey's refusal to allow us to station our troops in their country in order to attack Iraq from the north:

"It's a huge setback for our purposes. It stunned me,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "Late Edition.” "We spent the last 50 years defending them in NATO. And along comes this opportunity, and by three votes they decline the opportunity to allow us to come in through the north.”

It sounds a lot like the reason many have given for being so upset at France's refusal to support our war plans.  We helped defend them during World War II, the thinking goes, so they owe us their help on Iraq.  Never mind that some might view our helping them in WWII as a "repayment" of sorts for them helping us out in the Revolutionary War.  No, they "owe" us.

What bothers me, though, is that I cannot think of any time that we have come to the aid of another country in which we did not believe in the cause that was being fought for or feel that the action was either necessary or desirable. Yet that is exactly what we are expecting the French and the Turks to do.  We are telling them that they are somehow obligated to help President Bush in this quest of his, even though the people of these democratic nations have made it clear to their governments that they do not support our cause, nor do they feel this war is necessary or desirable, and their government has chosen to listen.

Isn't that how its supposed to work in a democracy?


9:52:07 AM  |     


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