Letter: on the subject of Iraq

My name is Carlo; I am not only a reader of the English page of Pravda.Ru, but also a contributor to the Portuguese page (for I am Brazilian). The position assumed by the French, German, Brazilian and Russian governments, as well as that of Pravda.Ru, is exactly the same as mine: Iraq war was based on lies, there were no weapons of mass destruction in that country, there were no relations between Saddam Hussein and international terrorism, and the real causes of that invasion was oil, strategic supremacy and billionaire reconstruction contracts.

Then I was quite shocked when I read their article of David Galland, "A Ranger's Death, a Generation's Devotion". It was in the Opinion section, so I'm quite sure it doesn't reflect the editorial view of Pravda.Ru. Anyway, it's important to show different opinions, but I wonder why Mr. Galland send his article to Pravda.Ru, and not to an American news site, as he seems to support enthusiastically the military adventures of his country. OK, on one hand, he criticizes the lies of the Pentagon on their propaganda for Iraq war, but his text is filled with absurd phases like: "our global war on terrorism effort" - when we know that the wars created by Bush were not to fight terror, but for strategic supremacy and oil. "He was a patriot who was clearly motivated by the voices within him to defend his homeland." - strangely, after defeating the Taleban militia and occupying Afghanistan, the US simply gave up their search for Al Qaeda and Taleban leaders, the real threats, and initiated another war in Iraq; so I really don't think US soldiers are defending their homeland by occupying Afghanistan and by torturing Iraqis. "It was young men, like the Tillman brothers, that I expected to see at the Army recruiter's office last week.

I'll keep hoping for more young men and women, cut from this cloth. It is young men and women such as this who will preserve our way of life. Our country will remain the land of the free, only as long as it is the home of the brave." - these imperialistic wars show not the might of the United States, but their decadence: freedom and democracy are just empty words, the US never believed in democracy for other countries (that is why they supported so many bloody dictators all over the world, including Saddam Hussein), and now they don't believe in freedom not even for themselves, as "war on terror" and "national security" are used as excuses for creating censorship, loss of privacy and break of constitutional rights.

The only right Americans seem to care about is their right to have heavy weapons - freedom of speech and information, privacy, fair elections, respect for international law and good relations with other countries, all these just don't matters for most Americans. It really seems that the USA is becoming a police state, disguised under the need of "national security". I really don't understand why so many Brazilians would like to live in the US: I really think my country is much more democratic and free.

And changing a bit the subject, let me say that Brazil is the only country that defies the USA on the absurd and humiliating existence that all foreign citizens that travel to the US (except those from allied countries) shall be photographed and have their fingerprints recorded (once more, for "national security matters"), as if every foreigner was a potential terrorist: to protest against this, Brazilian government just did the same, began taking photographs and recording the fingerprints of every American citizen that comes here! Other countries should do exactly the same: if the US government treats everybody as criminals and terrorists, let's do the same to American citizens, to see if they like...

Anyway, I can't wait for the day when the European Union and China will surpass the US economy, Russia will be completely recovered, and the USA will be a minor power. The world will be much safer and fairer than now. Fortunately, this day isn't far.
 
Carlo