Liberation Theology, Neocon-style

7 October 2002

The latest twist in the upcoming war with Iraq is what we are REALLY going to do there. Not fight terrorism, not secure WMD stockpiles, and since last week, it may not just be about regime change. What we are going to do is liberate Iraq!

Rock on!

Liberation theology, popular back in the 1960s, held that "violence is not considered sinful if it is used for resisting oppression." The Catholic Church denounced it some time later, because too many priests were locked and loaded, the crosses were getting tangled in the ammo belts, and the Church was getting complaints. Greater-good ethical theories are like that.

But the new liberation argument for Iraq has a lot going for it.

It makes sense because we just did it in Afghanistan. Maybe not exactly, but a couple million burqha-waving poppy farmers sounds like freedom to me.

It is definitely a good-hearted objective -- 280 million Americans with 97% literacy making an average of $35K a year, liberating 23 million Iraqis with 58% literacy making $2,400 a year. Who knew No Child Left Behind was a global initiative!

Liberation is already popular in that part of the world. For both the PLO and the PFLP, the "L" stands for "Liberation." We're speaking their language!

And think of all that oil under the ground. We can liberate that too, you betcha.

In fact, Iraq's liberation is a rich, vivid and compelling image in the minds of our civilian war planners.

Kind of like those PETA activists-you know, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Sometimes, when the mood hits them, they break into labs and let rats and rabbits out of their cages on the lawns of college campuses. Run free, run free! OK, so you get a little road kill, but confused bunnies are a small price to pay for the greater good.

Of course, people aren't rabbits, and neocons aren't members of PETA.

Lord Byron wrote, "Who would be free themselves must strike the blow." When Thomas Jefferson suggested a little revolution every now and then was healthy, I think that's what he was talking about.

Iraqis deserve a better life than they have today. They deserve a wiser leader who puts the good of his people and nation ahead of his ego and paranoia. They deserve a more accountable representative government, guided by truth and justice, not filled with yes-men and women thinking only of near-term political survival.

Come to think of it, so do a lot of people in the Pentagon.