"The Meaning of a Skull," Tom Friedman's New York Times column Sunday morning, draws our attention to a photo that appeared in his newspaper recently of an Iraqi on his knees weeping over the skull of his son, a political prisoner. The son was one of thousands killed by Saddam Hussein whose bodies were dumped in that site. That, says Friedman, is all the justification he needs for the United States going to war. He cannot understand why those of us who refuse to celebrate feel as we do.

Friedman's speculations about the reasons for our reluctance are probably right, but the most obvious reason that a small percentage of Americans, including me, won't rejoice is this: The last time I saw pictures of people digging out the mutilated bodies of the victims of a unjust war, the bodies were Guatemalan and the bullets were American. And the time before that, the bodies were Nicaraguan and the bullets were American, used by the CIA-supported Contras. And the time before that, they were Salvadoran. Guess where the bullets came from. For the sake of stability in the western hemisphere, the United States was willing, nay, eager to supply the arms needed by tinhorn dictators to pacify their citizens. It isn't just that our hands aren't clean or that we aren't pure enough but that the United States has actively engaged in covert activities, the overthrow of leaders who didn't suit us, and the state terrorism against their citizens. We have a frightening record of killing and terror that most of us prefer to forget.

Eighty percent of the American people may be willing to overlook the government's lies about weapons of mass destruction. Even if they find any evidence of WMD, the invasion rests on a big lie. Secretary of State Powell, a man I once respected, stood before the United Nations and said that the United States had incontrovertible evidence of Saddam's possession of WMD. What Bush, Powell, and Rummy had was a hunch; not enough to convince our neighbors or our long-standing allies, but enough to roll over any objections, waste the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, and win the war.

Periodically, Rumsfeld declares that this time, they've found the evidence only to back down when it proves to be something else.

They will not even allow Hans Blix and the UN weapons inspectors to search with the American troops for the WMDs. They say they don't need them. Could it be more obvious that the one thing they don't need is someone with worldwide respect and authority to expose them when they plant the evidence?

The United States is the most powerful country in the history of the world. Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great would drool at the weaponry at our disposal but the greatness of a country doesn't come from how many weapons it has. For all their boasting about the liberties that our soldiers were ostensibly defending, allies that disagreed with us have been pilloried and face punitive sanctions. U.S. citizens who protested the war are savaged by their fellow citizens.

We can ignore the fact that the Bush administration lied so that it could go ahead with the invasion of Iraq. We can ignore the history that the United States has supporting dictators who kill their own people, including Saddam Hussein. We can ignore the amoral sales of weapons that boost the U.S. economy and are used to keep people of other countries down by their own governments. We can ignore the fact that our most of our reservists were working class people who joined the reserves to had a cushion of security for their families. Some of these brave soldiers will one day be veterans, some of them so damaged mentally or physically that they will need our support, and that the Bush administration is already cutting services for veterans even as he hands out prayers for their recovery. Prayers are cheap and soothing words don't pay the rehab bills, Mr. President.

We can ignore the "irregularities" of the 2000 Presidential Election that brought this president to power. Going back in our history, we can ignore the genocide of native Americans and theft of their lands. Does patriotism rest on ignorance? From where I stand, it looks like the hypocrisy is hip-deep and rising. Can it be that the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, rest on a fragile tissue of lies? What are the real choices an American has in this situation? I refuse to accept that this hypocrisy is at the core of our freedoms.

It may be enough for Tom Friedman but it's not enough for me. If we can ignore all of those things, we can sleep with an easy conscience. George W. Bush does. But we'd better stop bragging to the rest of the world about our freedoms.

Rosa Maria Pegueros is an Associate Professor in the Department of History & Women's Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island. She can be reached at pegueros@uri.edu

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