George

As you know, the Pentagon is barring countries which opposed the war in Iraq from bidding on contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Being as I live in an area with a rather significant Muslim population, it was inevitable to encounter unfavorable reactions from the Muslim community.

One Muslim woman told me that this action just proves the U.S. doesn't care about the well-being of the Iraqi people; it cares only about how to make money off of Iraq.

A Muslim student of mine said that this this action confirms America's imperialist intentions in Iraq.

Another hotheaded Muslim youth said brashly, "Les Américains peuvent se faire enculer!" I'll let those with French skills translate that one for themselves.

I'm sure I'll hear more about this in the days and weeks to come.

While it's not easy living abroad during times like these, I don't regret it at all. It gives me a chance to look at my home nation in a more objective manner. I realize that the French, German and British media all spin their media stories according to the interests of those running the news organizations and respective national economic interests, but the same is true in America, and the same is true of the national politcal parties vis-à-vis their own interests in any given country.

The more perspectives one has on an issue, the better one can piece together a clearer picture of what's going on.

I've heard the following idea floated around several times (amongst friends of mine from every walk of life--corporate manager to university professor to bright students):

Foreign policy in any given country is driven by economic interests more than anything else. No one has had the moral high ground in this conflict thus far--neither the U.S., nor the French, nor the Germans, nor the British, nor the Russians. Each country has been looking out for its own economic interests--both before and after the war. The French, German and Russian enterprises in Iraq didn't want to give up their sweet business arrangements (primarily in oil as rumor has it); thus they were for the status quo. The U.S. and those in the "coalition of the willing" saw economic opportunity in toppling Saddam's regime and exploiting the country.

But perhaps all that's a drastic oversimplification of the situation (although a bit more complex than "us good, them bad", I must say). I'd be interested to know what the experts, the pseudo-experts and the ameteurs in the political arena honestly think about this whole Iraq thing (and I'm not interested in politicians' opinions, given the personal interest that politicians will have in either brown-nosing or attacking the current administration and its policies in Iraq).

-Joseph Cheek (electronic mail, December 10, 2003)