| As Good As Any Arab |
5 May 2003
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Dems Must Make Americans Equal of Iraqis
The nine Democratic candidates for president have an unpleasant job ahead of them. They must find a way to sideline the other eight and still have enough left over to take on the best funded incumbent president in history. Yet, it can be done. All the successful candidate must do is demand that Americans get the same treatment as Iraqis.
World opinion and attention is focused on how America deals with the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. This is only right. Either a brutal imperialism or a benign one have come into being, and this period in Baghdad will show which one it is. Mr. Bush, of course, wants to be benevolent, but that may be too much for which to hope. In any case, roads, bridges, hospitals, school and historic treasures will be rebuilt, or preserved as appropriate, with the infusion of millions, even billions, of dollars.
"All we want is to be treated like Iraqis" one can hear Mr. Al Sharpton say. "Ohio has roads and bridges that need fixing, too," Mr. Kucinich can state with all truthfulness. "Billions for Baghdad and nothing for Boston?" Mr. Kerrey may ask forgetting about the "Big Dig" in Beantown.
That argument will have traction, as they say in Washington. There is a segment of America that doesn't like foreign aid but is proud of the job the military has done. These people are the key to the next election. They live in apartments, trailerparks, rundown houses, making it from one pay check to the next by the skin of their teeth. Yet, they believe that they are God's chosen because of that American passport they could have if they bothered to apply for it (unlike Europeans, most Americans don't have a passport). The outrage they will feel if things don't improve can be targetted in this way.
To be fair, what is the point of being an Imperial Citizen if the subject peoples get the better part of the deal?