On March 9th, I sent the following email to my families listserv:
I have a very hard time with the argument that we’re going after Iraq for freedom and democracy for it’s people.
“It’s been over 12 years since their most heinous attacks on their own
people. It’s been over 10 years since the first gulf war. In this
country, those were the most prosperous times in our history. So we had over a decade and amazing resources, but didn’t feel the need to spread democracy.
“If what we want is for people not to have to live in fear, about half
the countries in Africa live in conditions that make Iraq look like the
Crowne Plaza. People starve to death in Zaire (DROC) because the food trucks get hijacked as soon as they hit the road. The Lord’s Resistance Army forces prepubescent children to fight each other to the death. How about the recent killings by police and military during protests in Venezuela and Bolivia. And women’s rights around the world are still for the most part a joke… and I’m not talking about voting or wearing veils.
“We want everyone to have the rights and freedoms we have? The next time you complain about Hillary Clinton, enjoy it… I don’t get a voting
representation in Congress. DC has half a million residents, more than
some states, but it is the only place in the country (including the
territories), where we must pay taxes, but have no say in how they’re
used. That wonderful right to protest? I don’t know if the 300 people
protesting in Farrauget Park last fall will agree. Despite doing
nothing illegal, they were arrested in order to prevent it from
developing into something that might cause disturbances. (This isn’t
the protesters point of view… this is what the police state).
“I wish I knew why we were doing it. If we’re going to improve life for
everyone, we have a lot more work ahead of us.
“Some of our plans to free Iraq include launching 800 missiles into
Bagdad in the first 24 hours. The rough equivalent of a plane into a
building every 2 minutes. But I’m sure we won’t hit any of the several
million civilians living there.”
The speech from the soapbox came after some brief discussion about the potential war, and one of my aunts supposing that at least we might “bring freedom to those people”.
But at least she was thinking about it then. No one in our government would mention “peace-bringing” for another two months, well into the war.
We certainly brought peace to some people. As of today, the Iraq Body Count site lists between 6,000 and 7,800 reported civilian deaths since the start of hostilities. The last estimate of US Military deaths was in the range of 180. And since the Pentagon refuses to release death estimates for the Iraqi military… heaven knows how many left there.
In case Kobe Bryant’s libido has distracted you, we still haven’t found a single weapon of mass destruction. As far as I know, we have only found one violation at all of the restrictions on Iraq. (That being the previously mentioned missiles that went 30 miles too far. A very serious threat to…. nobody new).
And for those of you who don’t follow online news closely and may have only recently heard about it in mainstream news outlets, it has been months now that we’ve known the evidence of Iraq trying to buy Uranium was bullshit.
But give the Shrub credit. Facts don’t get in his way. This *cough* man recently said that we had to attack Iraq “because Iraq did not admit inspectors”. Anyone with a memory longer than the last time they took a piss will recall that Saddam Hussein was more openly accepting of inspects at the beginning of this year than any time in the past decade. They were even admitted into the presidential compounds. It was actually the U.S. who told the inspectors to get out, because we were coming in.
While in country, the inspectors were suspicious of their interviews with Iraqi scientists. They felt the scientists may have been pressured for their own or their families safeties if they revealed any weapons programs. What was a little less widely broadcast was that even now, with Saddam Hussein in hiding and Iraq in a state of organized anarchy, the scientists are still telling us that there were no weapons programs.
But at this point I can’t remember the last time a major announcement came out of the West Wing concerning Iraq that didn’t turn out to be wrong, (or as some of us might call them — lies). It looked for a while like the CIA director would soon be falling on his own knife to protect the President, until it was pointed out that the CIA had warned the White House BEFORE the state of the union about misstatements (again, lies) in the speech concerning the uranium gathering.
A month or two ago, there was a poll from some major newspaper that showed that 77 percent of those surveyed believed that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks on the US, and that was one major reason we should wipe out the Iraqi government. These people have been sniffing a little too much fertilizer, of course, because none of the hijackers were from Iraq and no connection has ever been proven with Iraq.
You have two choices.
Either the Shrub (as the personification of the executive branch of the US government), blatantly lied to the world about the was in Iraq. Or else they were insanely, criminally, outrageously negligent in performing their jobs.
Their only initial stated reason for the attacks was WMDs. Where are they?
They later claim they seek peace and democracy for Iraqis. When are we leaving the country? And how many soldiers helped dig those 7,000 civilian graves.
They say they didn’t have all the information when they were making decisions. Oh wait… yes they did.
They said the inspectors were not able to do their jobs. Have we found anything the inspectors didn’t?
Iraq was a brutal military regime who threatened the entire middle east. Except of course that they essentially rolled over to an admittedly weak US force.
There were no weapons. There was no threat. Saddam Hussein and Iraq WERE living up to their restrictions and requirements.
Yes. Iraq was not a safe place to live. Imagine… a country were you could be detained without trial, denied your official rights and protections, threatened and punished beyond all reasonable limits…
oh…
wait.