Saturday, June 01, 2019

Ten Questions About the Gulf War Monument Planned for Washington

Yes, they’re planning a monument to the Gulf War. I have some questions about the design.
  1. Really? Seriously? WTAF? Were there just not enough war monuments yet?
  2. There’s no monument to the arming of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, without which there could have been no Gulf War, and no monument (yet) to the deadly sanctions and bombings that followed or to the 2003-begun war on Iraq, which couldn’t have happened without the Gulf War. Why pick out the Gulf War segment of the endless war on Iraq to memorialize?
  3. The Gulf War resulted in the basing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in September 11, 2001. Will that accomplishment be part of what’s glorified in this monument?
  4. Will some other accomplishment be noted? What will it be?
  5. Will the monument include any depictions of fictional infants taken out of imaginary incubators?
  6. How will the overwhelmingly Iraqi victims of the Gulf War be memorialized?
  7. The United States killed 30,000 retreating Iraqi soldiers. Will they perhaps be depicted mooning the U.S. Institute of “Peace” across the street?
  8. Will victims of Gulf War Syndrome be remembered with an eternal open burn pit?
  9. Gulf War veteran and terrorist (if that’s not redundant) Timothy McVeigh blew up a government building in 1995 and claimed that the deaths that resulted were merely “collateral damage” because killing those people had not been his purpose. He learned that from Gulf War propaganda; will credit be given?
  10. Prior to the Gulf War, Iraq proposed to withdraw from Kuwait if Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territories. Iraq proposed a WMD-free Middle East, including itself and every other Middle Eastern nation. Many nations around the world encouraged pursuing those negotiations with Iraq. The United States preferred war. Was that a wise choice? What do we have to show for it beyond death, destruction, bitter animosity, illness, homeless veterans, environmental devastation, bigotry and racism run amok, eroded civil liberties, militarized police, a violent culture, and one more disgusting monument to mass-murder with which to edify our children?
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David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.He is a 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
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