Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Treason
On NPR yesterday there was a story about an Iraqi man living in the US who was arrested under the Patriot Act for sending money to family members who are left in Iraq. I had a rather heated discussion with my husband (who believes that people SHOULD be able to send money to their family) over this. Though I sympathize with the Iraqi people, especially since we have destroyed their country for no reason, I think the government WAS justified in arresting this man. Though he probably intended the money to go towards food, medicine, and other essentials, we cannot be sure that his family is not part of the insurgency and wouldn't use the money for purchasing weapons, creating IED's, or funding people who are doing those things. I explained to my husband that if my cousin was killed in Iraq and I knew that Americans were able to send money there, I would always wonder if it was one of my own people who provided the money for the weapon that killed him. Even though I wholeheartedly disagree with this war and I believe the Iraqi people are perfectly justified in fighting against us, especially with the added fuel of the Haditha incident, I DO NOT believe that anyone living in America and benefiting from our economic system should be able to send money to a country with which we are at war. That is treason, plain and simple.
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5 comments:
I agree with your husband.
The rights of our citizens keep getting smaller and smaller. It is completely frustrating!
I also agree with your husband on this matter, its his money, let him send it home.
I understand my husband's thoughts, and I really do feel for the family, but again, we are at war with the Iraqi people and it is treason to aid them financially. We don't know how that money will be spent. Would you have been okay with American Germans sending money to Gernamy during WWII?
Sending money to Germany in WWII is not a good analogy. At that time we were at war with the German government. A better example would be after WWII when Germany was under occupation.
The Iraq war is over, in the sense that the regime was deposed and there is a new one in place which we are not at war with. So we are not at war with the Iraqi people, since they are no longer governed by the regime we were at war with.
If you are concerned about US$ being sent to Iraq and somehow ending up in the hands of the terrorist insurgents, there is $25 million about to be paid to whoever fingered al-Zarqawi.
In both cases, the bounty and people sending money to family, there needs to be accountability for where the money is going.
Here's the thing, just because Bush says the war is over doesn't mean it is. I think all the people who have lost soldiers since the "official" end of the war would contest that the war is over, and I think they would be livid upon learning that their fellow Americans think it's okay to send money over to people who may be enemies. We're not at war with the government, we're at war with the people, so the people are the ones who should not be benefiting from any American dollars, whether their family members earned them or not.
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