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John Crawford: The Last True Story Ill Ever Tell (1) The reason why John Crawford wrote his book is to show Americans the true face of war in Iraq. Author portrays the sheer insanity of American soldiers being sent to secure civil freedoms for ordinary Iraqis, who have absolutely no clue as to what such concepts as democracy, freedom of speech or religious tolerance stand for. Crawford can be hardly referred to as whiner, as he goes about executing his duties with utmost dedication; however, as time goes by, he slowly begins to realize that his life is being put at risk for no reason, because democracy in Iraq cannot be established in principle, since local people are racially inclined to live under dictatorship. After a few moths on active duty in Iraq, author began to understand that the officially proclaimed goals of the war do not correspond to the objective reality. Apparently, American soldiers in Iraq are being used as cannon meat, while protecting geopolitical interests of Israel. In the last chapter of his book, Crawford describes his most memorable military experience in Iraq killing eight years old boy, because he happened to hold a toy replica of AK- 47 in his hands.
By describing this incident, Crawford exemplifies Iraq war as being absolutely pointless. (2) Crawford describes Iraqis culture as being deeply alien to Western existential values. Readers get the impression that Iraq is nothing but equivalent of hell on Earth lifeless desert, populated by people who take an immense pleasure in killing each other, over some minor religious disputes. The value of human life in Iraq is slim to nothing. One of books most memorable accounts is when Crawford watched a line of people, who were waiting buy some bread, while being absolutely indifferent to the fact that that there were corpses laying on the street, a few meters away from the grocery store. Author rightfully suggests that it is highly improbable that the ideals of democracy can be utilized under the barrels of guns. He points out to the fact that there can hardly be any warm feelings towards Americans, on the part of Iraqi people, since for many of them democracy means simply a reduction of their mode of existence to a constant struggle for physical survival, whereas under Saddam Hussein, they enjoyed numerous social benefits, such as free education and Medicare.
Basically, Americans deployed the same strategy for introducing the principles of democracy in this country, as the one that has been used in Afghanistan earlier- people were being bombed into the Stone Age, and then American planes began to drop food parcels for the survivors, with American politicians expecting them to be grateful. (3) Crawford suggests that the Iraq War confirms the validity of Goering's suggestion that just about any war can be easily instigated by the government, with the mean of exploiting citizens sense of patriotism. For as long as people are being convinced that their country is under attack, they will be willing to sacrifice their lives, in order to protect countrys integrity. It cannot escape our attention that attacks of 9 / 11 came in very handy for Bush's administration, because they were being used as an excuse by the government to embark on taking away the essential civil freedoms from American citizens. The same can be said about Reichstag fire of 1933, which was being used by the Nazis to substantiate their claims that Communists posed a great danger to the very existence of German state.
During the course of Nuremberg trial, Goering suggested that, once the war is being fought for the illusionary ideals of freedom, human rights or to liberate people from ideological oppression, there is a very good change that the true purpose of such war has nothing to do with its officially declared objectives. Victors write the history. If Hitler had won the war, it would be Churchill and Roosevelt being brought to the trial for the crimes against humanity, because they gave the orders to bomb civilian targets in Germany, which resulted in deaths of millions of innocent women and children. Today, mainstream Medias refer to Iraq War as necessary, but it is very likely that in 10 - 20 years from now, this war is going to be discussed in terms of geopolitical crime.
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Research essay sample on Civil Freedoms Iraq War
