Fulfilling the goals of the “Project for a New American Century,” written before 2001 by Dick “he can be president” Cheney and friends, George Bush took us to war in Iraq, and insists now that the war has made us and the world safer.

Attacking Iraq may have provided a substitute target for fear and rage, an illusion of defending ourselves by throwing billions of dollars, megatons of bombs, and hundreds/thousands of lives, in that direction. But it was only a substitute, an illusion: Iraq was never a threat in the first place.

Let’s say your next-door neighbor has broken into your home, injured you, and threatens to do it again. Can you imagine deciding to protect yourself by breaking into some house across the street because that family has some very expensive things you’d like to own? If you were greedy enough or confused enough to try this, you would probably have that outraged family, the Neighborhood Watch and the local police chasing you. Would you feel safer then? Or would your problems have multiplied?

A second illusion of safety comes from a reassuring voice on the television repeating the story of how he had a choice, and chose to defend us, and would do it again every time. As comforting as that sounds, no one defended us from Iraq, because Iraq was not a threat to the rest of the world. Nor does “staying the course” keep us safer if it is a euphemism for stealing valuables from the neighbor across the street.

Only when we are ready to let go of the illusion of safety will we be awake enough to ask the tough questions, and face the even tougher answers, that will allow us to find a way out of this mess.

Are we safer now that we invaded a country that did not attack us? A US military official stated that “insurgents” in Iraq far out-number all previous estimates; and, contrary to what we are being told, most are Iraqi nationals, not foreigners; and most prefer a secular state to a fundamentalist religious one (Associated Press, 7.9.04). Further, there is “enough popular support among nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of US troops that they cannot be militarily defeated” (AP, 7.8.04). Are our sons and daughters in the military safer?

Are we safer now from Al Qaeda? Al Qaeda attracts those who believe that the US is a bully who disrespects Muslims, wants to dominate them and wants to take what’s theirs. So we should be getting a thank-you note soon for the new “recruitment film” that demonstrates all their claims: the US invasion of a non-threatening but oil-rich Muslim country, the death toll, prisoner abuse scandal, war profiteering, and privatization of their oil. Whether or not they find Osama, his work will go on.

Are we safer now that we have cut ties with our long-time friends? When they questioned the wisdom of this venture, we told them that they were old and stupid, and if they weren’t ready to invade with us, they didn’t deserve our respect. Now we’re standing virtually alone, distrusted, resented, and the target of the hatred and suspicion from many more people than were responsible for the attacks three years ago.

Only when we wake from this illusion of what constitutes security, can we move in the direction of real safety: rejoin the world community; give equal care to Palestine’s right to an unoccupied state as to Israel’s right to security; respect the self-governance of oil-producing countries; and wean ourselves from dependence on (and control of) foreign oil. The longer we trust the illusion of safety, the less safe we will be.

Virginia Curran Hoffman, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at Loyola University, Chicago. She can be reached at vhoffman@calcon.net

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