America Should Leave Iraq, But For The Right Reasons
“Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond. … The vitality of the U.S. economy and the economies of much of the world depend on the oil that comes from the Persian Gulf.”
With these statements, Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, ranking minority member of the Foreign Relations Committee, recently came out against the war in Iraq. The speech ran 5,644 words, with frequent mention of the importance of Middle Eastern oil.
Nowhere in the speech was there any mention of the rights and interests of the Iraqi people. Without this recognition of the results our actions have had on the lives of Iraqis, we will continue to find ourselves haunted by the aftermath of actions based on immoral decisions.
I applaud and wholeheartedly agree with the reasons given by Senator Lugar and others for leaving Iraq - those of national interest. But you would think that Iraqi interests would deserve a mention. This war has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the wounding and traumatizing of millions of Iraqis. More than 4 million refugees - half of them children - have been forced to leave their homes. Unemployment is over 50 percent.
The health care infrastructure is destroyed; more than 2,000 physicians have been killed, and many thousands more have fled the country. Iraqi girls as young as 12 have resorted to prostitution in their desperation to support their families. The education system also has been destroyed. Yet many of our politicians, fearful of being labeled as soft on defense, resort to blaming the Iraqis because they have not met our “benchmarks.”
The reports of death and destruction in Iraq have become so routine that major media outlets now relegate the deaths of dozens of Iraqis to minor coverage; meanwhile, Paris Hilton recently got almost two hours of coverage on CNN in a single evening.
Most Americans are moral and fair, once we know the facts. If the American people were to see and feel the pain and suffering of individual Iraqis, I am certain the moral outrage about what is happening in Iraq would be intense. The troops would be home sooner rather than later. But our leaders - Republicans and Democrats - first must know the real pain and suffering of the Iraqi people.
Individual Americans donate billions of dollars to total strangers in a devastated area or because of the HIV/AIDS scourge. Americans fly all over the world to adopt orphans. Our people are good, but our government is no longer as good as its people. We now know that the facts about Iraq as given to us before the war by the president and his advisers were not true. Now it is up to our legislators to right this wrong perpetrated on the American - and Iraqi - people.
Legislative leaders such as Senator Lugar need to demonstrate leadership by informing the American people that our moral compass is working and that we should leave Iraq not simply because it is in our interests, but because it is the right thing to do. We will only begin to find peace in this region when our strength is shown in our moral and human acts, not just in our military might.
We can begin by telling the American people that we will leave Iraq in an orderly and safe manner and by apologizing to the Iraqi people for the havoc we have wreaked.
Adil E. Shamoo, who was born and raised in Baghdad, is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus. His e-mail is ashamoo@umaryland.edu.
Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun
AND the prime minister of sovereign Iraq Has
NOW SAID SO!
“Most Americans are moral and fair, once we know the facts.”
I sincerely question this statement. As much as I want to believe it, our current behavior and our historical behavior prove otherwise. We need to strip away such illusions if we want to change things for the better.
Great article Adil Shamoo and being a professor and born and raised in Iraq, you should know the facts and how it really is.
The major problem and fact is, and I’m certain you are aware of the fact, Bush and company are not planning to leave Iraq.
They offer several reasons for not leaving immediately. For one, they state it will take months to set up a withdrawl plan to safely move our troops out of the country. Almost everyone, even those in congress who say we should leave now, buys that bull. The truth is, we could be out of Iraq in days___IF the intent was to leave.
Our Airlift Command is far better equipped and prepared to move masses of troops and material now than it was when we began the Berlin Airlift. That massive operation was planned in a day and was in operatinn the next day. In Korea in 1960, using cargo aircraft only, we moved a division of US calvary, the troops and their equipment, three hundred miles in a single day. Of course we had several generals like Curtis E. LeMay at that time in our history. They got things done, done in a hurry and done right. We didn’t argue with those gods.
I was in a troop carrier squadron stationed in Japan, we supported military all over the Far East, when those troops roared out the cargo doors of the C-124s and 130s, they were combat ready. We didn’t shut engines down, we’d land, taxi to the taxi ramp, off load and taxi back to the far end of the runway and takeoff to go pickup another load of troops. There were three aricraft landing every three minutes. We weren’t under fire, it was an exercise. We were under fire in Vietnam though, and we did the same type of “exercises” there. Now we have aircraft that carry five times the ammount of cargo we could, C-5s, stretched C-141s and the newer C-17s. We also have contracts with private companies.
We could move all of our troops and the support personnel out of Iraq in a day or two if we wanted to do it. The heavy equipment and most of the vehicles could motor out, it’s about four hundred miles to Kuwait. “Too dangerous, people will be killed the highway will be a death trap”, Bush and the Pentagon experts say. Will it be safer a year from now, three years,___ more?__ Bull, It’s flat open country, the highway does not have to be used in any potentially dangerous locations. We didn’t worry too much about people being killed when we went in there.
We have hundreds of support aircraft available there to escort the caravan. We have the AC-130s, A-10s and hundreds of Blackhawk helicoptors that could fly along the entire route and take out any insurgents who might show up. Most of those aircraft can function perfectly in any type of weather, 24-7. We may lose some troops, we are losing more than a hundred a month now. The sooner we leave the sooner the killing stops.
“If we leave now or set a deadline, things will be worse in Iraq” WORSE! How in hell could it get much worse? We have destroyed the country, there is a civil war, play sematics with words Bush and company and call it any word you wish, but it’s a civil war. A war WE started.
“If we leave, al Quida will follow us here”. I heard Senator Graham say that yesterday___ and he sounded good if you weren’t thinking. If Al Quida or any terrorists want to come here to America, they will come here whether we are still in Iraq or if we have left, or if we had never gone there in the first damn place. Just go to Canada or Mexico and walk right in and buy atomic waste on the internet.
We are so screwed up and it’s Cheney/Bush who are screwing us. Don’t impeach them Nancy, we don’t want the Democrats to look bad, or start a squabble.___I’m gonna go throw up. Later,__ Kem Patrick
Unfortunately public discourse on Iraq does not allow for acknowledgment of Iraqi rights, and certainly not their right to not be occupied by a foreign military. Our national consciousness has been overtaken by an ideology of self interest and greed as the only rational motivation for action. I have always maintained that subliminally everyone knows that this war is all about oil. We will do whatever it takes to control as much oil as possible, and no amount of death and destruction will stand in our way. Indeed, the MSM has made sure that we are not even reminded of the horrendous damage we have brought upon the Iraqi people.
We need to leave Iraq because we’ve invaded & occupied that nation immorally. This is the most important issue facing us today,& it breaks my heart that this doesn’t seem to occur to so many of us.
We’ve brutalized, imprisoned, humiliated & murdered their citizenry. We’ve destroyed their schools, their hospitals, their cities. We’ve taken for our own use Saddam’s palaces & prisons. We break into their homes at night & seize & imprison those suspected of… well, no one really knows why. We’ve determined that those who oppose us aren’t really entitled to to know their accusers,or the charges or evidence against them.
Unbelievably, we continue to continue to accept the grotesque fantasy that we are there to promote democracy, &, incredibly, that the Iraqis are to blame for the chaos & destruction. Sorry, I’m gonna throw up, too.
The right reason to leave Iraq is that we should have never been there in the first place. You can not start an illegal and immoral war based on a pack of lies and look for a right reason for anything.
Thank you for your article Adil. I think about the Iraqi people/women and children every day who have suffered and are continuing to suffer unbelievably since this war/occupation started. I feel ashamed to be an American and only hope that we can help these people as much as possible as soon as we get rid of the criminals in charge of this madness.
Uhhh, Lynne___ hope we can too. But afraid it’s too late to help them. Go to Google and ask for depleted uranium. Read all of the articles, written by doctors and scientists, ignore those that state DU is safe, those people have political agendas, and or have a monetary reason for recommending the use of DU in weapons. The tons of DU we have spread all over Iraq cannot be cleaned up. Over the next thirty years, everyone there will be dead or wished that they were.
RE: WAR OF OIL?
jp July 16th, 2007 2:51 pm
“I have always maintained that subliminally everyone knows that this war is all about oil. We will do whatever it takes to control as much oil as possible, and no amount of death and destruction will stand in our way.”
I have a different view. I think “subliminally” the U.S. right knows this war is about exploiting 911 to pump up war hysteria and, thereby, continue their domestic agenda with the goal of Karl Rove’s “permanent Republican rule.”
The right never gave a rat’s ass about the truth of the WMD/al Q. charges; what was important was that it strengthened a far right Executive branch and gave a club to shut up opposing views while they continued wrecking the country. The right will do “whatever it takes” to achieve total control and “no amount of death and destruction” will stand in their way.
Oil? That would be good - but it doesn’t matter whether or not they get it, if the right wing war culture enables their domestic putsch.
We should leave immediatly. Iraq will sink or swim on their own account.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Except when I listen to the BBC, it’s almost as if the Iraqi people count for nothing. We go in there, we make life hugely more miserable and dangerous for the average Iraqi than under Saddam, we unleash civil war and chaos - and listening to US news programming, the overwhelming impression you get is “Why can’t those Iraqis get their act together? Oh well, it’s always been like that over there. Time to pull out. We tried to help ‘em but they won’t help themselves.”
I listened in shock and awe recently when Bush compared what’s going on there to the American revolution. Guess he mustn’t have done so well on the analogies portion of the SATs.
Baska, I think we are both right, but the difficulty lies in determining what are ends and what are means. I believe the ultimate aim of right wing war culture is control of resources, as was Hitler’s. It helps that oil is in a part of the world in which ethnic and religious “others” can be more easily demonized and dehumanized, so that we can kill them with relatively little concern. In order to preserve power, the corporate capitalist masters need access to now-threatened supplies of energy, or they cannot maintain themselves and their death machines, let alone “permanent Republican rule.” I believe the war culture they foster is the means by which they hope to achieve worldwide US domination of energy. After that is achieved, the cultural norms will refocus more exclusively on endless and mindless pleasure seeking.
“We’ve brutalized, imprisoned, humiliated & murdered their citizenry.” We’ve also brutalized,humiliated & murdered our own citizenry, most of all close to 1 million those who served in Iraq.
Once in jail, your chances to keep your integrity after that are slim. Participaiting in the unjust war is even more destructive.
Re: “… importance of Middle Eastern oil.”
Lots of people in the US (including lots of progressives) seem to think that it IS important that “we” control the oil, since we’re so dependent on it & all. I doubt it…
Supply-wise, it makes no difference who controls the oil fields; whoever does have control will sell it to whoever offers the best price. We’ll be able to buy it from a state-owned entity just the same as we do from Exxon.
What we are protecting with these military adventures is not the supply of oil, but the profit margins of western oil conglomerates.
Not being a natural born citizen, Adil is mincing his words, cautiously pussyfooting. Is he afraid the government may take back his citizenship?
Call all the war criminals for what they are. Call the apathetic, insensitive people for what they are. Call a spade a spade. Have courage and voice what you really feel. Being a US citizen nowadays is nothing to be proud of.
baska,
I think you make some good points. Iraqi oil was definitely high on the list, but power was the big deal. The politics of fear allowed a power grab like never before and one of the principles is “obtain power and maintain power”, this was the big prize.
George Bush is holding our troops hostage in Iraq. The ransom he demands from the American people is enough money to secure the oil fields long enough to divide them among his friends.
Someone better send out for pizza and cigarettes before he kills them all.
JP: Excellent points, and I, too, see no disconnect between two or more simultaneous objectives. Hey, it’s the trifecta if you get oil, control of a nation (and other ones thanks to its bloated military), and even one up on the Roman arena, making TORTURE legal! Just appoint your own attorneys, bend the meaning behind long-established words, corrupt meaning, control the media, alter perception, etc. Which takes me to the point AMCD made: WE. I hate that word as per US foreign policy. It implies a consensus. It implies that those of us who marched, wrote letters, and GIVE a damn somehow are complicit. MANY of us have changed our lifestyles to NOT feed the corporate machine. When a population is overworked, lied to, and entertained by covert subliminals that help to render them sheep, the issue of CONSENT is vastly altered. Of course the excellent article posted a few days ago about that awful cruise sponsored by Conservative media, and the heinous disregard its guests showed for others’ lives qualifies THAT type of individual unequivocally as the WE you speak of. Less than 30% support Bush and that’s with a 24/7 media disinformation campaign. Imagine if news and media were fair and balanced, if the average person GOT the truth? What percentages would we be looking at then? What if our “leaders” weren’t OIL men, doing snake oil dealings? We could have invested the wasted treasure spent on the killing fields of Iraq to develop alternative fuel sources, and teach children conservation, not consumerism that has turned the nation into a legion of overweight oafs, symbolic of their disproportionate consumption of ALL products. A wake up call is inevitable, whether the great MOTHER nature delivers it, our bank accounts, the karmic blowback of war, or other…
What is our oil doing under their sand?
“Most Americans are moral and fair, once we know the facts.”
I agree with tj. This is a very naive statement. Our great country prospered due to the annihilation of the native peoples (to steal THEIR resources). It may be that the American people are moral and fair. But PEOPLE don’t run this government. Companies and Corporations do and they are not people. Actually GREED and CAPITALISM RUN AMOK run this country. Stealing resources justifies the means in any decade of our history. Why do Americans continue to believe that our country has ANY MORALITY at all.
Its pretty sad when an Immigrant citizen thinks better of our citizens than natives. You can disagree with the government, but to call most Americans immoral and unfair is silly. Immoral and unfair compared to whom?
The author of this article is living in a dream world. Since when do ruling classes base their actions on “the right thing to do”? Their right thing is not ours. The US murdered some 3 million Vietnamese.
The US capitalist class cannot pull out of Iraq. They are stuck there just like the British have been in Northern Ireland.
Look at the consequences. A US withdrawal without leaving a stable puppet government would embolden most of all the Islamic fundamentalist groups and all other religious nuts.
It would also strengthen other anti-imperialist forces around the globe. It would be a crushing blow for the US capitalist class.
A section of the US bourgeois have the strategy of using massive force and when that fails, use more force. Sure they miscalculated. But they cannot abandon such an important resource to the likes of Iran, Syria, or even the Kurds for that matter.
As for the Kurds, neither Turkey nor Iran will tolerate an independent Kurdistan, Turkey has some 15 million of them.
No, it’s a mess alright. But they’re stuck there. They might try to make some deal with Iran and/or the kurds but I think an attack on Iran cannot be ruled out and might even be likely, either by the US or its proxy, Israel.
Saila, you state, Adil is mincing his words, pussyfooting.
It’s his article, and I and most others here so far, believe it’s a very productive, timely, well written paper. Yours on the other hand is about what we would expect from one who anymore criticizes almost everyone and every article. You weren’t always like that. Go take some pills or something,___ lighten up.
RE: IRAQ INVASION: FOR OIL, RIGHT WING DOMESTIC POWER or BOTH?
jp July 16th, 2007 5:30 pm
“…we are both right, but the difficulty lies in determining what are ends and what are means. I believe the [end]… is control of resources…[T]he corporate capitalist masters need access to now-threatened supplies of energy, or they cannot maintain [power or achieve] ‘permanent Republican rule.’ I believe the war culture they foster is the means by which they hope to achieve worldwide US domination of energy.”
So: a corporate ruling class needs control of oil to rule - and, presumably, as daveg writes, maintain high profits - and thus supports not only Iraq-type invasions, but a permanent, expansionist (’pre-emptive anti-terror’) war culture to justify it?
That may be the motive of some corporate capitalist sectors of the right. But 1) - to continue your comparison with German fascism - the right is made up of different groups, and its “petty bourgeois” mass base has its own U.S.-focused agenda; and 2) I think the idea that the corporate sectors of capitalism positively needs direct control of oil to survive, at this particular time - again, see daveg’s comments - is not simply self-evident but is, rather, a model that must be tested.
I agree that this does not rule out a desire to control oil as one motivation, either by big capital or the mass right wing base.
Thomas Hartmann has written about the domestic agenda - which he regards as the dog to Iraq’s tail - recently:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/29/1500/
America, your president is about to launch WW3 and yet the top story on the news would be Paris Hilton farted.
The bottom line is, the Americans want to own all the worlds oil and they are using Iraq as a shield, they will never leave Iraq until the government signs over the oil.
Or they pipeline goes directly to the state of Zions*Israel*
Now they have raped and pillaged 1 country, will they do the same with Iran…yes of cause they will. You talk about civil wars, if Isramerica keeps going then the zions will own everything. Your war will just begin, nobody will want to help you.
Excellent points Siouxrose. Sure glad to see you are back.
Then we have the point written by Richard Mellor. He opens his disartation, by stating the author is living in a dream world. Is that so?
Well, reading some of the authors credentials posted, I would tend to believe he has the knowledge to write what he has written here and state the facts in a very professional and reasonable manner. A ten year old could easily understand the gist of the problems and believe what the doctor has written is factual and correct. His opinions are backed up with years of experience, living both here and in Iraq and the facts he states are facts. Dream world, Uh-hh__ right.
Then Mellon, you blithly write about the United States or Isreal bombing Iran, as if that would be of no consequence, (we cannot rule that out, you write. ) We can’t? We’d better rule it out, Both Russia an China have stated, that if we do it, they will support Iran. If we use nuclear weapons?__ Oh-oh.
If you meant somethig other than how your out out in right field comments sound, it does not read that way. You sound like some of our far right Bush supporting neighbors talk. “Oh yes we may have to Bomb Iran, they are a threat to us and to the stability of the Mid East and to Isreal. If we use nuclear weapns against them, they will only be small ones”. Oh my God,___ help us please.
RE: PARIS HILTON FARTED
Chopper July 16th, 2007 9:58 pm
“America, your president is about to launch WW3 and yet the top story on the news would be Paris Hilton farted. The bottom line is, the Americans want to own all the worlds oil….if Isramerica keeps going then the zions-”
Get out! Paris Hilton did that? Omigod, that must have been so, like, embarrassing for her. I’m gonna do a search, but do you have a link, or remember where you read it?
Evelyn writes:
“Well, reading some of the authors credentials posted,”
I don’t judge someone’s intelligence or knowledge of a subject by their academic credentials.
It also seems that Ms Evelyn has trouble reading what others write, this is the second time she has done this responding to me.
I was commenting on the situation from the point of view of US imperialism. If you look at it from their position, pulling out isn’t an option. Unlike the professor that Evelyn admires so, I do not believe the strategists of capital base their decisions on what is right for me or the rest of the working class.
I think that a continued and serious disintegration of morale among US combat forces much like occurred in Vietnam would force the powers that be to withdraw, but not being on the ground there it is hard to gauge the level of this but I am sure it is happening. Either way, but the stakes are high for US imperialism here.
If I were a professor perhaps Evelyn would be impressed. My actual credentials are HEO (retired) but I don’t like to brag.
Was your comment, “the author is in a dream world”, based upon the point of view of US Imperialism. You may have a truck full of credentials Mellon, so did Robert Mac Namarra, Henry Kissinger, and so does Cheney and Carl Rove. I don’t base my opnions on credentials alone. I aslo listen to peoples messages. Yours is not good. Pulling out of Iraq is the only decent option, for many reasons.
Yes I am critical of those who post comments like yours, and I often reply. Someone may believe you.
from an imperialist point of view, It would have been better to have held on to kuwait than get involved in this mess.
If bush Jr had been the president at that time, we probably would have. Then he would have invaded Iraq and it would be the same as now or worse.
Like your observation sigma, you are right.
“I sincerely question this statement. As much as I want to believe it, our current behavior and our historical behavior prove otherwise. We need to strip away such illusions if we want to change things for the better.”
No, as much as some may not want to believe it, most Americans are moral and fair. It is America’s leaders who are immoral and unfair, not by an large its people.
I really, REALLY, wish that people on the left (it’s not all of us I know) would just STOP raking Americans over the damn coals. It is not helping. It is clearly wrong to demonize Iraq and for that matter the Arab world. If that is, then is it any better to demonize Americans.
“I feel ashamed to be an American…”
Don’t be. Self-hatred won’t get anyone anywhere. Our leaders lied, and once that came out, support for this war has gradually declined. THEY do NOT represent us.
America’s people are progressives for the most part. We need to engage them, not spit on them and shake our fists at them.
I have never supported this war or this administration. As I have stated ad nausem, they all should not only be impeached but also at the very least jailed or better yet executed for treason. The entire Iraq war is just one of numerous crimes this cabal has committed.
We can and must exit Iraq ASAP as well as every nation we currently occupy as well as pay Iraq reparations.
There is a groundswell building against these people currently in power. If we were a bunch of ogres and trolls that would not be. There’s an election around the corner. We the people can turn the tables on these jackals.
Ok? Let’s roll.
I really like you iwarrior, well said.
Thank you Evelyn. I’ve just been very angry at the left as equally as I am the right as of late. The left puts off way too many people by alienating them with self-righteous slander. And WE’RE supposed to be in the corner of the PEOPLE! We can’t afford to devour our own.
I am an American. As far as I am concerned, the people currently running the show are not. Let’s kick them out. We can do it.
Let The RIGHT alienate and slander everyone else. Let them make all the bigoted remarks they wanna. Let them expose themselves for what they truly are. And then let’s welcome those alienated and slandered people to our team. That goes for at least 90% of the public, who like it or not, are being taken for a ride at the very least.
It should be noted that Hillary Clinton is among those who blame the Iraqis for not meeting our benchmarks.
Richard Mellor,
“But they cannot abandon such an important resource to the likes of Iran, Syria, or even the Kurds for that matter.”
And why not? And who the hell are you, or anybody else for that matter, to decide what they should or should not do with their own resources? Get the FK out of Iraq, you stupid oil stealers, and Iraqi murdering pigs!
iwarrior, I couldn’t agree more on the need to quite slandering all americans. It appears that some on the left believe that average americans have a deficiency that is unique in the world. In the process, they are quite happy proclaiming me, my kids, my mom, my mailman, Jimmy Buffet, ect as idiots, killers, and so on. To these people I say quit hating americans, it’s not right and it’s counterproductive. If you can’t, then you can kiss my ____.
Evelyn Smith,
Hi, pal, you are right about the author, and so was I. I never disagreed with what the author said, but how he said it, which was: He didn’t say it forcefully.
Now, if you disagree with my fire and passion, your criticism is well placed, and perhaps we can discuss it on a cup of coffee?
For some time I have been recommending that the Dem’s sponsor a congressional resolution declaring Iraq a humanitarian disaster for which we, Americans, bear primary responsibility. The resolution should also state that “success” in Iraq will be measured ONLY by how well we reduce the unnecessary death, human suffering and havoc we have created.
I’d like to see the Republicans try to filibuster that.
Thank you for stating the case for leaving so clearly. I knew before we ever went into Iraq that there would be no way to ever make it right. The only thing we can do now is to leave in an orderly way and deeply apologize - to Iraq and the world - for this horrible mistake. And get on with the urgent R&D necessary to totally replace oil with clean and renewable energy sources - for America and the world.
Saila,
how can we affect any change without first having some perspectives. Perspectives cannot be developed without some sort of review of the objective situation, the forces at play etc.
Obviously I am opposed to US imperialism’s predatory war in Iraq. I was involved in the shutting down of San Francisco’s financial district in the beginning. In my union I took a lot of slander for actively opposing the invasion and attempting to introduce a resolution opposing it.
The question is what is likely to happen?
The Democrats which is the other party of US capitalism that competes with the Republicans for which section of the capitalist class can plunder the world’s resources cannot and will not serve the interests of either the US or Iraqi working class.
We must have no illusions in them.
So I think it is important to recognize that from their (understand this) “from their” strategic viewpoint, “their” class interests, they cannot afford to just walk away and leave this.
I’ll bet they haven’t halted the building of the bases and that huge palace of an embassy they are building over there.
For those of us not there it almost impossible to have a clear understanding of the situation on the ground. But it is possible US imperialism will make some deal with various thugs in the area to maintain some influence and control. It’s puppet government is not fairing too well. And again, it cannot be ruled out that the US or its proxy, Israel will not bomb Iran as crazy at that might seem but as I said before there is a section of the US bourgeois that has the strategy of first apply force and if that doesn’t work, use more force.
Reports indicate that the US is now funding some Sunnis and also trying to get the Saudi’s and Syria more involved to counter the Shia/Iran influence. There is a Shia minority in Saudi Arabia also. But whatever they do, they cannot win, capitalism cannot solve this crisis. On the news here last night Bush re-affirmed the US’s complete support for Israel. This in itself shows they have no intention of dealing with what is one of the main causes of middle east crisis, the Zionists.
I see that the US is increasing air strikes and increasing this type of weaponry, are these the actions of withdrawal? The war is becoming more unpopular here because of the cost and US deaths. It’s a nice war when only the others are dying.
As I wrote before, I think severe demoralization and desertion of US troops would have a major impact on things such as happened in Vietnam (see Sir no Sir, you can get it from the Iraq Veteran’s Against the War website) but for me anyway, it’s impossible to tell the level of demoralization among the troops there.
You might find the last FFWP interesting reading. It is on this website in pdf form:
http://bringdownbush.org/
I know the remnants of the once powerful Iraq workers organizations are there, the oil workers in the south for example. It is to the working class we must orient for a solution to this crisis, not the likes of Barak Obama, or Hilary Clinton.
The Government and the media have nicely clouded the reasons why the US corporations are committed to keeping the military in Iraq until the “OIL LAWS” ARE FIRMLY IN PLACE (THAT GIVE THE U.S. CORPORATIONS EXCLUSIVE OPERATIONAL RIGHTS to Iraqi oil)and the Iraqi military is capable of securing Iraqi society and the oil complex from the several Iraqi ethnic divisions that seek to expel the U.S. invaders from their land.
All other “invented” reasons (Iraqi freedom…, a democratic Iraqi government, etc.) are superficial pap for us to swallow and allow Bush to “stay the course.”
The real irony is that here in our own society, we, the people, have no direct voice or vote in matters that affect OUR lives…,which is the essential factor in any system that can call itself a “democracy,” so how can we believe that the corporate Bushies in control of our government are interested in democracy for Iraq?
The basic problem here is that the conscience that most Americans have is reserved for the local community and it is common practice not to apply the same mandates of conscience to the behavior of the state as a whole.
There is a profound disconnect between the personal morality of American citizens, as captured by the serious moral challenges proposed in the Judeo-Christian tradition (which supposedly reflects the moral tradition of more than 80% of Americans) on one hand — and the tradition of foreign policy tactics.
Foreign policy as practiced by the US is strictly rational self interest. It is Ayn Rand all the way to the bank. It is amoral from the standpoint of Christianity and Judaism. It is moral in the Objectivist tradition because acquisition is a moral value in that system.
The essential problem is that Americans are not moral agents when it comes to the debate of foreign policy. One could argue that Iraqi civilian deaths are not reported because most Americans don’t care all that much.
Again, PROFOUND disconnect with Christianity.
Personally, I believe this tension must be resolved one way or the other. Practicing Christianity locally and practicing the opposite of Christianity in foreign policy is ultimately unsustainable.
The encouraging thing is that so many comments realize the connection between oil and invasion….Then “Wally’s” comment correctly hits the nail on the head…its economic in its cause,
systemic in its origins. Profit, control of markets and people, control of institutions, resources, labor “by any means necessary”
is the impetus for war, militarism, support for despots and fascist ‘governments’ and despoiling of the planet…..What we must now begin is a step beyond “realization” and criticism.. and towards development of a political party option to vote support in future elections for a platform that authentically & clearly opposes the system itself, not just THIS war or THE NEXT….but all wars (and economic decisions)conducted NOT for humanity…
but to expand profit for the corporations and prevent the ‘natural’ movements toward greater justice and democracy in this country & globally. Wars are fought, not to ‘build democracy” but to safeguard Capital and put in place institutions that suppress and misdirect the natural flow of human progress. This time Iraq and the Mid-East, next time somewhere else. As we
focus on Iraq, the Poles, Czechs, Latvians,etc are being drawn into protection of American capitalists’ access to the oil pipelines near their borders. We don’t have enough fingers (or time)for each of the holes of this capitalist dike. We either begin to build our better future or we face ultimate disaster. Important as it is to build awarenhess, we’ve got to go beyond critique. “And”, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, “so it goes”.
We know they’re bastards. We know it is about oil, money, power. We know they care not at all about Iraqi people or American people or any people..but their own little greedy circle.
HR 333 Impeach. Let’s do it. Today.
Well said, Saila, about the author pussyfooting and not being forceful enough. The fact that he may now be an US citizen does not change the fact that he is Iraqi and that it is his motherland which has been desecrated and fellow Iraqis have lost their lives, irrespective of the nationality he holds today. There’s no grey area between right and wrong and saying that ‘most Americans are moral and fair when they know the facts’ is stretching it a bit too far. Americans are already aware of the horrors of Abu Ghraib and all the atrocities being carried out in their names by leaders they have elected.
Yes, Mr. Shamoo, do call a spade a spade - the Truth can never be coloured, just to be polite.
DLC-Harold Ford: “We have vital interests in Iraq and the region, and we can’t let the countless mistakes of the Bush administration in the conduct of the war divert us from continuing to project American power and influence in the region to protect those interests”
Obama “I will not hesitate to use force, unilaterally if necessary, to protect the American people or our vital interests whenever we are attacked or imminently threatened. We must also consider using military force in circumstances beyond self-defense….”
John Warner: “This nation of ours has got to remain in that area,” Warner said, pointing to the United States‘ “vital security interests” involving Middle East oil and relations with Israel.”
Bush: “By doing this, we’ll create the conditions that will allow our troops to begin coming home, while securing our long-term national interests in Iraq and in the region”
Hillary Clinton: “It is right in the heart of the oil region,” she said. “It is directly in opposition to our interests, to the interests of regimes, to Israel’s…”
All singing the same tune and there are no other considerations. These are the only reasons.
RE: WILL IRAQ PASS THE ‘OIL LAW’? HARD TO SAY.
Wally July 17th, 2007 9:59 am
“US corporations are committed to keeping the military in Iraq until the “OIL LAWS” ARE FIRMLY IN PLACE”
It is not clear Iraq’s parliament will pass it, nor that the US can strongarm them into it. Internal opposition appears to be increasing. The best laid right wing plans, you know…
Iraqi Oil: A Benchmark or a Giveaway?
Why Iraqi oil workers oppose the much-vaunted oil law.
DAVID BACON July 6, 2007
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=iraqi_oil_a_benchmark_or_a_giveaway
I’m sorry Saila, guess I should lighten up.
When we can all not fear being carted off, and stop being up-tight. I would love to meet you and many others here and have coffee after a nice dinner. I fear we may all meet in a concentration camp. Glad I don’t have any tattoos.