Op-Ed
Evil Has No Mirror
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Gain Through Loss
Gain Through Loss
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Manuel Noriega’s name, general and military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989, is rarely thrown around with the likes of Saddam or Ahmadinejad. Mr. Noriega’s capture and persecution, a prisoner of war during the United States’ invasion of Panama, is rarely spoken of with the same weight of the Iraq War or the impending time-bomb that is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But perhaps Mr. Noriega’s forgotten name and story aren’t that different from Saddam and Iraq, from Ahmadinejad and Iran. In the years leading up to the United States invasion of Panama in 1989, Noriega had been a CIA operative for Bush Senior; unfortunately, he stopped following Washington’s orders. The United States decided it was time for him to go.
Almost overnight, Noriega was painted as a drug lord and needed to be removed. He became responsible for the United States’ drug trafficking. He became dangerous, perhaps the cruelest dictator on the planet. He became evil incarnate. Plus, Panama’s citizens deserved democracy!
Almost 30,000 American soldiers invaded Panama in 1989. The U.S. appointed a new hand-picked leader to replace Noriega. Noriega was captured and placed in a roomy jail cell in the United States complete with phone, exercise bike and cable television. Drug trafficking still persists. Thousands of Panamanians died. Everyone has forgotten about the whole thing.
In September 1980, Saddam and Iraq attacked Iran with the United States’ blessing and material support (you remember the picture of Rumsfeld shaking Saddam’s hand). The war lasted eight years. More than 500,000 people died. Everyone has forgotten about the whole thing.
A few years after the Iran-Iraq war, our old friend Saddam started pushing our buttons and making decisions contrary to the United States’ wishes and desires.
The paintbrushes came out again: Saddam Hussein became the most evil person in the world. He had weapons of mass destruction. He had used them for years on innocent people. He might use them to attack America. Plus, Iraq’s citizens deserved democracy!
Although Saddam and Iraq have cost America a lot more than Noriega and Panama, the ability of the paintbrushers to drum up support against a crazed-out malicious dictator was very effective in both instances.
And now, we have a new evil: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Perhaps the scariest thing isn’t that Ahmadinejad might be crazy or that America helped take down Iran’s two biggest threats to dominating the Middle East, the Taliban and Saddam. Perhaps the most frightening thing is that the American media is doing exactly what it did with Saddam leading into with the buildup to the war in Iraq; lynching Ahmadinejad and calling him evil, polarizing both sides and generating empathy for an attack. Instead of learning from past mistakes, maybe having a little bit of humility after invading Iraq and saying, “Hey, we don’t understand these people,” there are many inside Washington who see Iran as next. Redoubling what we did leading up to Iraq is irresponsible, crazy and destructive.
What’s the consequence of the United States painting Ahmadinejad as evil? Increased support for Ahmadinejad. Certainly, the first American boot that steps foot in Iranian sand will make all of Iran nationalists.
Instead of capitalizing on a chance to engage Iranian youth who are against this administration in dialogue (let’s send U.S. heads of state to Tehran University) — instead of asking Ahmadinejad about the poor economic state of his own country, the persecution and lack of rights within Iran and holding him accountable for the fact that he can’t run his own machine — we are doing Ahmadinejad’s work, drumming up support and painting dividing lines by bestowing upon him the title of evil incarnate, whether he is or not.
But if Ahmadinejad isn’t evil, then who is? Maybe our problems aren’t evil incarnates like Ahmadinejad, but rather those in power who have appointed themselves as good and right, as the saviors of the world; those who have given themselves the all-important job of stopping evil. It might be helpful to examine ourselves first, to remove the log from our own eyes before we begin to take the spec out of someone else’s. When searching for evil, we should begin by examining the mirror before looking out the window.
Behzad Varamini is a graduate student in Nutritional Sciences. He can be contacted at bvaramini@cornellsun.com. Gain Through Loss appears alternate Tuesdays.