Esin’s article, “America, Europe should unite,” was laughable at best. I am beginning to question the fact-finding skills of our journalism majors here at Cal State Long Beach. In his article he states: “Saddam Hussein — who...killed millions of his own people.” Where does Esin receive his information? Saddam Hussein is an oppressive dictator but to portray him as equal to Hitler is nonsensical. He has killed nowhere close to the number Hitler has. The fact is, when Saddam Hussein used poison gas on the Kurds in northern Iraq, either the United States did nothing or continued selling weapons to Iraq because he was our ally when he did this during the 1980s.
 
U.S. arms companies even sold weapons to Iraq, which were used in the gassing of Kurds. As part of a U.N. resolution the U.S. insisted upon, inspectors would not make known any of the companies that had taken part in producing the projectile weaponry for the poison gas if any was uncovered. This is because they were U.S. companies. The U.S. government, which is supposed to represent we,the people, has had bloody hands for years in training and arming murdering tyrants. In fact, since the second World War, it is estimated the United States has killed over 12 million people through multiple wars, trade embargo, starving policies, etc. In Vietnam alone, over three million Vietnamese were killed in fighting for their nation’s freedom.
 
The top human rights violating countries of the world have consistently been the top receivers of U.S. military aid. This includes Indonesia, Turkey, Israel and Colombia. Indonesia has violently oppressed minorities in its country.
 
In Israel, the right wing uses war to maintain its grip on power and expand settlements (often with U.S. born Israeli settlers) into occupied Palestinian land. Colombia accounts every year for 90 percent of the over 220 murders and disappearances of labor unionists worldwide. In Turkey, a large Kurdish population to the east is not even allowed to speak its own language or dance traditional cultural dances. Thousands of Kurds have been imprisoned or assassinated. Those who attempt Kurdish cultural practices are immediately imprisoned. I had the chance to visit eastern Turkey last summer. There are military checkpoints at least every five miles across Kurdish Turkey. One third of most of the towns’ populations are made up of Turkish soldiers and their families. These are the kind of allies the U.S. supports.
 
Most nations of the world have weapons of mass destruction or something close to it. Many nations oppress minorities and have committed horrible atrocities (the U.S. being one of them). No Middle Eastern leader fears an Iraqi attack on their nation. Saddam knows his military does not stand a chance after what happened to the Iraqi military in the Gulf War.
 
This war, plain and simple, is over money, oil and over a geopolitical strategy of projected U.S. global hegemony. If the U.S. has bases strung out over the globe it will control the trade routes. Plus Iraq has giant amounts of oil. Exxon and other companies have already made deals with the Bush Administration to tap this oil, cutting their European competitors out of the loop. It is obvious what this war is about.
 
I was enraged when I read Esin’s article because he treated the war as something so glorious and in his anglophile view, Europe and the U.S. should unite to fight for freedom. I think what he meant to say is that the imperialist powers of the world should once again unite to exploit another third world country. This has a long history of happening of course, over 500 years.
 
It all starts at home. The hard working people of the United States must take back our country from the vested interests of multinational corporations and the political elite who have made there livelihood from the exploitation and genocide of third world people. Of course there is also a long history of Americans doing this as well, ever since the nation was founded, that is.
 
Jeb Sprague is a graduate student of history at Cal State Long Beach. He can be contacted at pauseclause@yahoo.com.

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