If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?
by Volker Weber
Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, asks:
What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings near the Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the State Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or the Pentagon dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to Crystal City or Alexandria?
What if there were private armies totalling 275,000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles (legal again!), rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local police and Federal troops could not go into those cities?
What if all the cities in the US were wracked by a crime wave, with thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in every major city every year?
What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed Billings, Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Anacostia in Washington, DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" of "criminal gangs", but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old ladies?
Comments
What if every voting American could have the same perspective?
Top Dog, 2004-09-27
I'd settle for 51% of Americans (or at least 51% of our electoral votes) having the same perspective.
-rich
Richard Schwartz, 2004-09-28
Well, I guess we'd be screwed.
What if:
- The media did their job instead of just reprinting Bush press releases and sound bites?
- The American people demanded the truth from their government?
- The Bush/Kerry debates were real debates, instead of just being a bi-partisan photo op?
- The McCain/Feingold campaign finance law had had some real teeth in it -- AND gotten passed?
-- American democracy were not about to be "disappeared" by the rich and super-rich?
Bob Balaban, 2004-09-30
