b-day! I’M NOT SURE HOW THIS COUNTRY will extricate itself from the quagmire of Iraq, but I’ve devised a way to avoid similar snafus in the future.
I propose an amendment to the United Nations whereby conflicts between states are settled by their leaders in the boxing ring.
Bear with me here. Congress, so far, has approved $610 billion for the U.S. military operations related to the War on Terror. Most of this money has been used to invade and re-build Iraq, of which there have been 3,860 American fatalities for a campaign that has incited more terrorism, and a civil war.
In terms of Iraqi war-related deaths, the number is uncountable because of poor record-keeping. Estimates range from tens of thousands to 1.2 million.
Such staggering human and financial loss has led me to question our prospects living under nation states, whose leaders seem bent on proving just how unaccountable they are to the public interest they should be furthering.
Current political systems are pitting humanity into competing camps that exert artificial ideological agendas on each other. Until there’s a wide scale effort to acknowledge the unalienable interests of humanity in politics, this country and every other will remain susceptible to the whims of myopic leadership.
With this in mind, I wonder how the world might fare if powerful rulers like George Bush and Saddam Hussein were forced to settle their differences one-on-one. I can’t help but feel these two men have done Iraqis, military families and taxpayers an incredible disservice by dragging us into an adolescent conflict with dire geo-political consequences.
As leaders, they should have done better. I’m thinking an air-conditioned venue, like the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. On the one side, we’d have had the challenger, a white-haired cowboy dictating democracy to the good people of an oil rich desert. On the other, we’d have had the cigar-smoking despot out to keep the title of tyrant.
The winner could have decided the form of government in Iraq without furthering bloodshed, national debts or the volatility of the Middle East.
I’d have gladly put my tax dollars toward watching Bush and Hussein slugging it out on ESPN in the comfort of my easy chair. That would have been more entertaining than my TV watching experience since the 2003 invasion began, mostly reruns on C- SPAN of a crippled Congress incapable of even wiping its ass with the checks it’s signed to fight a war most of us have grown indifferent toward.
Notice how many nations are getting out of hand in their maniacal tendencies? Examples include Darfur, Georgia, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Venezuela — oh yeah, and the United States. Apparently, it’s not easy for governments to respect democracy and the rule of law when its biggest advocate is bogged down in its own feces.
It’s like we’ve been living in an alternative universe since the 9/11 attacks, tuned out to the heroism of some and the complacency of most of us.
Let’s make the national dialogue exciting again. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura — these entertainers-turned-politicians are onto something. Settling our differences with fists isn’t much worse than asking families and taxpayers to bear the burden for their leaders’ destructive foolishness.
A disturbing news story in the Oct. 19 issue of Current Science profiled Jon Town, a U.S. veteran, who suffered brain damage from a rocket attack in Iraq. He was persuaded by military doctors to retire under a diagnosis of “personality disorder,” barring him from military benefits. There are allegedly thousands of similar cases that have been undertaken to save the Pentagon money.
Town since has been re-diagnosed and is receiving the military benefits he deserves. What about our other vets?
How can the Bush Administration have the audacity to spend hundreds of billions of taxdollars making its corporate cronies in the defense, construction and service industries rich, only so our soldiers in harm’s way don’t get the support they need?
The Department of Veterans Affairs is considering development options for its West L.A. complex. I hope any schemes include room for the veterans for whom the land was intended.
It would be really nice if the winner in the upcoming presidential election upheld the consensual decision-making process of democracy. I doubt my boxing amendment will catch on in Santa Monica — the City Council is too fond of talking — but perhaps we can convince elected leaders elsewhere to keep their egos to the boxing ring.
I mean, if our leaders aren’t willing to fight for what they believe in, why should any of us for what they believe in?
RYAN HYATT is a former staff writer for the Santa Monica Daily Press. He is seeking a publisher for his second novel, “Stay Younger Longer,” a political thriller that takes place in LA in 2046.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 13, 2007. Read the original PDF.