Ezt akar en is irhattam volna......:-)

One of the purported goals of a war in Iraq is to bring democracy to the region. Advocates of this view suggest that the Iraqi people will greet the Americans as liberators. I have a different view.

First of all, I do not really believe that this war is about "freeing" those poor oppressed Iraqis. But let me put my skepticism aside for a moment and let me assume that it's true.

Iraq, assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, is not Pol Pot's Cambodia, not Rwanda, not North Korea. The dictatorship there, as most people experience it, is relatively "mild" (not unlike the autocratic regimes in many other Middle Eastern countries, and definitely a great deal milder than the fundamentalist regime in our friend, Saudi Arabia.) So, a young Viktor Toth there, while suffering from hardships (largely due to the economic isolation of the country, i.e., the sanctions) would nevertheless be able to live a "normal" life. He'd have work. He'd have gone to school. In the evenings, he could go to a nightclub in Baghdad, and then hail down a cab on the way home. If he got injured, he'd be taken to a hospital, where they'd treat him despite the shortage of some essential supplies. If he got robbed, he could yell for a cop who'd come and try to help.

In other words, his life would not be terribly unlike the life I lived in Budapest, Hungary, in the early 1980s. And the reason why I make a personal analogy is because at the time, I was very pro-American. I hated Communism, I hated the one-party dictatorship that we lived under. I'd have loved to see the Iron Curtain come down. When I was drafted as a conscript soldier, at one point I actually told (!) my commander that if a war came, I'd not be able to shoot at Americans, because they did me no harm (I didn't have the courage to add what I thought, namely that they'd be coming to tear down the regime that I hate.)

So let's imagine for a moment that the year is 1985, and the United States decides to tear down János Kádár's evil dictatorship and get rid of his Weapons of Mass Destruction.

So one bright spring day (or more likely, one dark spring night) airplanes appear in the sky above Budapest. And before we realize what is happening, bombs start to fall. Bombs that destroy the power distribution grid, so the city falls into darkness. Bombs that destroy the beautiful bridges across the Danube. A huge bomb, just a block away from where I live (causing all my windows to shatter) that destroys the Theresa switching office, an archaic but still functional rotary switching center that was built in the late 1920s; my phone then goes dead. Another huge bomb two blocks away destroys the Western Railway Station, originally designed by Eiffel. One giant bunker buster or two hits the Gellert hills, under which, rumor has it, is the nation's central air defense command. Yet another huge bomb hits Buda castle, where under a nondescript building sits the country's central electricity distribution command center.

And the bombs continue to fall. Fall on barracks, killing hundreds of conscript soldiers, some friends of mine among them. Fall on more railway lines and stations. Factories of military significance, including an electronics factory where some friends of mine die. The main highway between Budapest and Lake Balaton is bombed into uselessness. As is Ferihegy Airport. The bombs destroy the television transmitter on Szabadság-hegy and the major radio stations. Some historic buildings downtown that house key ministries are turned into smoking craters.

Oh, this is a humane war. "Collateral damage" is minimized. Only a few stray bombs miss their targets, most hit precisely. There's no carpet bombing of the city, there's no terror bombardment with incendiary bombs as in WWII. Some targets, in fact, are intentionally left alone because of fear of massive collateral damage.

Even so, the city is killed. The bridges between Buda and Pest are destroyed. The Metro's tunnel is flooded. The telephone system is dead. There is no electricity. Tens of thousands of people: conscript soldiers, workers at "strategic" installations like that switching office near my home, not to mention those who became collateral damage, are dead. We're not hungry yet, because we had fair warning, and we stocked up on basic foodstuffs. But there's no work, there's no transportation, there's no running water. My neighbor gets a heart attack and dies, because there's no way to call an ambulance. Another neighbor is taken to a hospital in time, but dies there because there's no clean water.

When it's all over: when the government collapses, when the city comes to a complete standstill, American GIs arrive and give me a sack of flour as "humanitarian aid" so that I do not starve.

Do you seriously believe that I'd have greeted them as liberators? Do you seriously believe that if the Communist government (the one that I hated, remember?) gave me a gun, I wouldn't have used it, _voluntarily_, to fight?

And this was me, one who hated Communism enough to leave everything behind one day, and start a new life, penniless, in the West. What about the others? What about those millions who actually believed the government's propaganda and blamed not the one-party state but the West and the economic sanctions for the hardships in their lives?

Of course this scenario was based on the premise that the goal of this war is to liberate Iraqis and establish democracy there. But we already know what "democracy" means in this Brave New World. A "democratic" leader, like Tony Blair, follows orders from Washington even if his actions are totally contrary to what his people believe. A leader like Chirac, who acts according to the wishes of an overwhelming majority of his constituents, is a "weasel". Some look at trade deals as an explanation for Chirac's behavior because the idea that a leader does something simply because he represents the people of his country has become so alien to them, they no longer even consider it as a possibility.

Of course it all makes sense. You just have to remember that War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. Saddam Evil. Bomb Iraq.

Viktor Toth
http://www.vttoth.com/iraqdemo.htm

You've quite a few good points in your presentation on the possible scenraio involving Budapest. However, you forgot to mention after the GIs arrive, the investigative forensic team gets to work trying to find and identify more than a half a million Hungarians executed for various crimes against the regime etc., etc.. A factual similarity can only be found in the pre1953 deportations and executions (and mock trials etc) which are only a few thousand if that at all!
It was a major step for you to leave this country of "Kolbász Communism", for the great unknown of the US. I must add, however that my situation is exactly the opposite of yours: I came to Hungary to study in 1986 and have been here since then. I'm probably more American than most Americans can say or think (one of my relatives on my mom's side was a signer of The Declaration of Independance; the last one Matthew Thornton!). My father and grandfather escaped from the grips of the Soviets--literally. Hearing the stories from them about the oppression inflicted then, by comparison the situation in Hungary in the mid-80s is NOTHING. The situation and tyranny imposed by Saddam on the Iraqi people would be a more appropriate comparison.
One thing you must not forget, is that you (and I, here in Hungary) live in a country where you are able to express your opinions without fear of retribution, reprisal, or condemnation. OK, they may screen your phone calls, emails, etc for terrorist activity, but that's all the fault of a few fanatic idiots fighting, supposedly, in the name of their Allah! We all have to pay for their cowardness!
Actually I could go on, and on about all this and I probably could not change your mind or make your opinion waver; I have no intentiion of that. If the US pulls out of Iraq, all hell's gonna break loose and all of those flaming liberals who advocated pulling out should be assigned post there just to prove a point to themselves. Put yourself in that scenario, then write a nice essay!!
All the best, with good intentions!
George
P.S.: Isn't democracy great? If you want, you can write back PM in Hungarian also!

dear dr george,

as i indicated in my first sentence, i didn't write this article, altough as the sentence suggests it, i am fully endorsing its content
however, as for your reply i could say only that you are watching too much cnn news...

furthermore, this portion of the website is reserved for the english language

sincerelly
konrad

Thanks for the reply!!
In answer....
CNN is too liberal for my tastes, however "..if there's no horse, the donkey will do!"!!
As for the English..I thought I wrote to you in English..yeah, I did!! Oh, you mean for the OTHER English speakers..well, sorry. How often does somebody get in touch with you in English via this page?
All the best!!
George

you did just now...

on the other part, if there is no horse,i prefer to walk...

Cool!....One less viewer for CNN!(maybe you'll go over to FOX?)
There used to be a joke back in the 50's + 60's:
Q.:What's black and white, and RED all over?
A.:a newspaper! (read:red=left-wing!!)
Greetings from Gönc!
George

i dont think so
i particularly dislike all american or american influenced media
in fact i dislike america as the whole
but most i dislike those people whom brownoseing to it or trying imitate its lifestyle or its walues(?) and mentality just because they think its cool and fashionable and trendy

i almost forgot..
i am a dinosaurus also, but not that ancient..therefore i do not remember jokes from the fifties...sorry..

Here's one then from the late sixties/early seventies (also a famous bumper sticker of the era):
"AMERICA, LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!"
In a nutshell....
Best regards,
George

right....

if you love it why live it.....?
or if you live it why love it........?

and if we are talking about bumper stickers
there is one contemporay and also famous

it's a jeep thing...you wouldn't understand...

best regards also

Isn't democracy a great thing? You can live in a country (not being a native of that country), that country can provide you with a means to support yourself, and still you can critisize that host country to hell and back and not be put into prison (ie. Iraq, CCCP, etc) for what you've said.
I mentioned "leave" not "live", it's kinda' like you saying "sheet" or "shit"....maybe you don't hear the difference.....
What about the jeep joke you mentioned....? I must really be behind on my US culture then (do you know about "ne fürdjé' le"?, that was a stupid fad here in Hungary a while back that you may have missed while in LA...).
All the best...
George

thank you for the most educational remark....
i meant "leave" too, i've just typed too fast
therefore again

if you love it, why leave it....??
if you leave it, why love it....??

my bumpersticker joke was a reply to yours, meaning:
it is not that simple to explain why am i still here altough i am frothing against it
its a personal thing - you would not understasnd it

i,ve read that expression somewhere altough i have not the faintest iea what is that mean...

ps.
plato said the democracy isjust as same as dictatorship, for it is the tiranny of the masses, only much less productive and much more cumbersome....
altough i am sure you know that for being a dr...

I think we're rowing in the same boat but on different continents: I quite often ask myself what I'M doing HERE. You know, I think we've traded places--you there, me here (for personal and professional reasons also).
Actually the "love it or leave it" bumper sticker was in response to the anti-war hippie movement of the Vietnam era. It means that if you're not happy with the politics of your country, then go somewhere else or stop agitating!! That's why I said that democracy is so wonderful--you can express yourself (internet, post, demonstrate, write to your congressman, VOTE, lobby, bumper-stickers, etc) without fear of retribution.
All the best to all in sunny SoCal!!
George

P.S.: One of my favorite highway (t-shirt) ads is on the back of a biker's shirt and says "If you can read this, the Bitch fell off!"

i would give everything to be in your place.....