In His Opinion:

The Right To Life

Paul Cummins
Mirror contributing writer
  
   The right to life is certainly A fundamental, no, THE fundamental right of all human beings. Whether that right begins – at conception, at actual birth, wherever in between – I leave to theologians and politicians and others to debate. But surely once a human being has emerged from the womb, his or her right to life must be considered fully in force.
   Why then are the ‘right-to-life’ folks such ardent defenders of the President’s policy to invade, occupy, and wage war upon a country which did not attack us? Why are these same citizens so seemingly unconcerned with the rights to life of the Iraqi citizens? We – the USA – have, according to the latest non-partisan, international estimate, caused the death of more than 100,000 Iraqi people – men, women, and children – mostly non-combatants, whom the military blithely and insensitively call, “collateral damage.”
   We, correctly, call the destruction of the twin towers an act of terrorism. How then is the bombing of Baghdad different? We can call it “shock and awe,” in impressing ourselves, no doubt, with our extraordinary military might. But for the Iraqi families who were murdered during the initial U.S. bombing raids, it was a simple shocking act of terrorism.
   Iraq did not attack the U.S., and though Bush, Cheney, and Fox news may imply otherwise, every report – United Nations, CIA, etc., has confirmed that simple fact: Iraq did not attack the USA. The USA, however, did attack Iraq – unprovoked, premeditated, and virtually unilaterally. So how can we call our actions anything other than terrorism?
   We may say that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator and so he was. So are many other leaders around the world and so, in the eyes of many Arab and Iraqi peoples, is the American President. But to attack other nations because we do not like their leaders is a fundamental break with the principles of international law. We can, to a degree, get away with preemptive wars because of our might – no one can challenge our bad behavior. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify the chaos and bloodshed we have wreaked upon an innocent people.
   One poignant moment occurred in the film Fahrenheit 9-11 when an Iraqi woman who had lost loved ones in a USA-bombed residence was heard wailing and sobbing “Why you do this to us?” Why indeed?
   From protecting ourselves against weapons of mass destruction and an imminent threat (two total fictions) to regime change (by international law not our prerogative) to bringing democracy to Iraq (an arrogant miscalculation), we have changed our justification and vocabulary as we seek to dress up what the rest of the world perceives of as U.S. terrorism.
   Think of it, 100,000 innocent – remember Iraq did not attack the USA – Iraqis have died in our attacks on them. These people lost their lives, the families’ dreams, their brief moment upon this planet because we waged war upon them. We seem even outraged that they didn’t welcome our bombs and our decision to decide what is best for them. Our American forefathers hated the occupation of the British. We fought them because of it. We called this fight a revolution and our colonial warriors we call revolutionaries. Yet, somehow, we seem baffled by and angry at the Iraqis who do not like our occupying, imprisoning, torturing and executing of their people. We call them insurgents and to save Iraq from their resistance to our goodness, we have virtually destroyed one of their most beautiful and sacred cities. Because they resist our invasion and occupation of their land, we feel justified in revoking their right to life.
   While many of us are incensed over U.S. women wanting to be able to prevent and abort life in their own womb, we seem less oblivious to the murder of already born Iraqi men, women and children – 100,000 or more of them! At best, this would seem a cruel illustration of myopia and distorted values. If we are so deeply concerned with moral values then perhaps we might revisit the morality of waging preemptive wars and killing non-combatant citizens who live under leaders we don’t like. I believe the surviving family members of the 100,000 would prefer to have their deceased loved ones living under a Saddam Hussein rather than dead because we decided to change the government. We mistakenly tried to determine history in Vietnam. Result: We changed several “regimes” in the South, we lost the war, the communists won despite our occupation, 56,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese died, and we accomplished what?
   The right to life is a precious right. It should never be taken away from another person or from large numbers of people needlessly. So let us focus on right to life issues other than simply Roe vs. Wade. War is massive denial of the right to live and should not be waged against an innocent nation and its people.