I knew the war was going to be a dirty mess when it started, but there was a "jingoism" in the air at the time and it seemed like nothing would stop it.

The whole political campaign on the right kept harping on it. I mentioned to some people before the war that there would be inspections and that we could find out more about them having WMD or not. The reply was, inspections...yeah, like that is going to do anything.

Most people were ready to go to war for one reason or another. I was not and I knew it was going to be a mess, but there was no talking people out of it. I just hoped that there would be some door to door fighting for a few months and that would be it. Beware of wishful thinking.

It took the Germans a painfully long time to realize the Nazi regime was a mistake. Americans are just beginning to talk about the invasion and occupation of Iraq as a war crime. And like Vietnam, we are blind to the suffering of people who we see as being from another culture or "race". Most of the debate is about us and not our victims.

This illegal occupation of Iraq has placed the Iraqi people in an untenable position -- no power, no water, no groceries, no fuel, no safety. I bet the Cheney/Bush crime family is really proud.

To me a life is a life - no exceptions.

Hey, we care - we've already let 169 Iraqi refugees into the United States!!! Even though 54 of them did not say "thank God for Bush" three times before boarding their flight from hell, er, I mean, from Vegas-potamia!! And just the other day, Baghdad had nearly a whole hour of electricity! What else do you want from us God blessed Americans already!!!

"There's something of a whiff of racism "

A whiff huh ? How about stench ? Its more apt.

Yea verily, the Bush republicans are truly Pro-Life.

KPHX, an Air America affiliate in Phoenix, aired a show yesterday with an Iraqi-American woman, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi. She was on a show produced by the Phoenix chapter of Veterans for Peace, called "Standing Ground." Dr. Wasfi was recently in Iraq for 4 months, and spoke of the "unmitigated misery" going on in Iraq. It was refreshing, yet saddening, to hear from someone who has been in Iraq who isn't an embedded journalist or a member of our empire's military.
Maybe people know of other radio hosts, or journalists, who may want to speak with this brilliant person. Her website is http://www.liberatethis.com if you want to connect with her.

...this analysis misses the larger purpose of why U.S. troops are meant to be in Iraq: to make life better for the Iraqis."

Uhm, what planet are you from, Mr. Pal? The U.S. has only one purpose in Iraq - to steal their oil. The chances of that making the average Iraqi's life better are none to minus none.

The constant shifting of our Government's "why we are there" pronouncements has long since ceased to be taken seriously by any thinking person. Our Government's actions have made clear that "we went there" to change the Sadaam Hussein regime, that we are "staying the course" to control whatever new regime emerges, and that we have no intention of completely (or even substantially) "withdrawing or redeploying" from Iraq in the foreseeable future. That is perfectly clear from the huge fortified administration center ("embassy") that we have constructed in the heart of the capitol of Iraq, along with a number of equally huge military bases strategically located throughout Iraq. Our Government (Republicans and Democrats alike) has adopted a geopolitical goal of controlling the world primarily by overwhelming military force (see "National Security Policy of the United States," 2006 revision, Government Printing Office), so it logically follows that if our Government regards our own casualties in Iraq as "acceptable" relative to our geopolitical goal, certainly our Government regards the larger Iraqi casualties as "acceptable." Indeed, our Government DOES NOT EVEN BOTHER TO COUNT IRAQI CASUALTIES, which surely is an implicit indication of the negligible value that our Government assigns to Iraqi lives. (As to the latter point, those who accuse our Government of hiding Iraqi casualties are too kind; our Government simply has no interest in how many Iraqis die -- any more than our Government has ever expressed any interest in or regret for the several million Asians that lost their lives during the Vietnam War.) Whoever it was that said "the United States has interests, not friends" was nothing if not realistic. The acceptance by our Government (Democratic or Republican) of responsibility for the death, destruction and misery our Government's "war of choice" has inflicted upon the largely innocent people of Iraq will occur some time after Hell freezes over.

It is interesting that the religious right (or wrong) want the Ten commandments posted in all schools and public buildings but must not ever read them. How about do not murder (war of choice), steal (oil), lie(take your pick) for a few items to consider. We do not hear much from them concerning the Sermon on the Mount (Beatitudes) where the meek and the peacemakers are looked upon favorably. It seems it would be difficult for those who supported and are still supporting our countries actions based on religious grounds. Our nations founders knew what bad things can happen when religion and government policy get mixed up as it tends to destroy both of them. We used to have a great constitution and bill of rights that was respected and adhered to--now it is only what our decider says it means.

Hey, didn't you hear the Repug debate today?
The Republican party was touted by the line up of saber rattling, Christian pandering fools as the Pro-Life party. It is obvious from the beginning of this war that dead Iraqis do not matter because they are not counted by our government. The Pro-Life Party-- the embryo worshippers-- only keeps track of abortions.

+The right wing Christians are just the latest EXCUSE to the public. Yes - it is supposedly believable that this group wants war etc - but like a magician or a thief - it is all about misdirection.

What I WOULD like to see Mr. Pal and other journalist's do - is actual Journalism - I mean am I the ONLY one who notices that all major hits with massive casualties are from CAR bombs and NOT suicide bombers- and the fact that there are 100,000 Blackops - sorry Blackwater personnel there who have NO accountability might NOT be a bad place to look.

If I in america - can SCARCELY believe this is the work of terrorists -can Iraqi's actually believe this?!?!?. I mean this is SO 1600s with the divide and conquer and keep killing people on both sides till they finally go crazy and kill each other.

I CAN NOT believe there is not a SINGLE book on this !!!
Or that no SERIOUS and CONSISTENT new articles are reviewed to higlight the insane inconsistencies of these so called sectarian incidences.

Journalism is not meant to be a profession that arouses rebellion - but the flashlight of truth does expose what has been delierately darkened and purposely infammed. Responsible journalism owes a duty to enlighten people who are being used - and why are we americans - so special when we are not the ones dying by the thousands from this misinformation?!?!?

Does Mr. Pal forget the masters of deception who succeeded in partitioning his own country ? It is simply stupendous that no one has written about the global epidemic of amnesia which is occuring today!!

We have neighbors who are very good friends, they were over for some Arizona wine and some good cheeses before dinner tonight. They are die hard repugs, who loved Bush, (the love has recently faded) they are church going evangelicals and really are a swell couple who have a wonderful family.

After dnner I brought up the subject of using depleted uranium for weapons of war. I explained what it was doing to the citizens of iraq and to our troops, the enviroment and to all life on the planet.

After listening very attentivedly to my ten minute spiel, they responded. "Well Kem, it's God's will, we must leave it in his hands. If God wants the world to end that way, it is the way it will end".

I didn't argue, they're our best friends. I do wonder however, why they have smoke detectors in every room of their house, why they use their vehicle's seat belts, why they have gunlocks on their weapons so their grand kids don't ever accidently shoot someone. Why they have their dogs vaccinated against rabies and why they have annual medical checkups?

Using DU to kill is God's will? Not unless Bush is God. We have killed every single person in Iraq by using DU, every one of them. It will take a few years for the last one to die of radiation poisoning, but they are all dead. It is much worse than what is stated in this article.___ Much worse, and after time, we will all be witness of how much.

I have always been disturbed by the rationalization many americans have that "a life isn't as important to those people". Those people being from vietnam or iraq for example. I believe that all good parents grief as much from the lose of a child no matter where they are from.

KEM you sure have self-control. I could not DINE with such as those for there is such an evident SMUG disregard for OTHERS' lives dismissed casually to US aggression. To presume that bad political policy necessaily corresponds with God's will is some VERY primitive thinking, and as I have elaborated in this forum many times prior, the PURPOSEFUL WORK of the snakeoil war salesman disguised as evangelical ministers. The profound irony that those that cloak themselves in the name of JESUS cheerlead for war and destruction is blasphemy, pure and simple. On the other side of the "spiritual" coin I have new age type friends who mortify me with a different species of selfishness. One refuses to speak of such things, shades of Barbara Bush's elite attitude that it will spoil her "beautiful mind." This friend argues, "It's just some karma playing out." Another one said, "It's not my karma." Since when is karma a parcel of real estate? Sure, we all have a ledger based on PERSONAL responsibility, but add to it that we are part of a collective, and that collective incurs group karma. There is no free pass for standing by when injustice runs rampant, you know, the "good German" description. As we ask in this forum, what ARE our options--vote 3rd party, stop shopping, go to protests, write our congress people, talk to neighbors--these have yet to make a difference. And yet it is the single drop of water that continues to drip that eventually cuts through the mountain.

any american who is not ashamed of the destruction we have caused to iraq is either ignorant or sadistically racist. If they knew half of the facts most on this website know there is no way they could STILL support this war and no way they can consider themselves christians. It is no victory for those of us who opposed both of these unneccessary wars to know we were right... it just adds to the bitterness we feel listening to those like Kem's friends and many like them. there is definately a chasm between those people and us that i don't know willl ever be spanned in my lifetime!

Anyone who goes to war in the name of God creates god in his own image.

Hi siouxrose. They'll come around after they think about it and I'll continue to work on them, they really are good people. When people are brain washed, it takes time to heal the damage. I'm patient, even if I do have a short fuse when people are mean. They aren't mean,__ just ignorant.

I get so frustrated when people do not get it, that using DU in weapons is gonna kill everything on the planet if we don't put an immediate stop to it. One example, a very good article on the subject comes up here on Common Dreams, we get 130 comments and after a day it's buried in the archives and some mundane articles with ten comments stay on the front page for three days.

I don't understand why the public is not having fits about using DU, the evidence of it's slow death killing power is so clearly obvious. Facts are facts.

Someone will write a good blog aout DU use and give a good website to read, one that should scare the devil himself and the next ten blogs are about subject matter, that is like the writers are out of touch with reality. They don't want to hear the fact that we are killing our kids and our grandkids and everything alive on the planet.

I dunno.___ It's like Okay, the experts warned you, if you wish to see everyone die and not protest,___ have a ball, wait until the axe falls before you wake up.

Siouxrose,

Well put, but like you say it takes continuous and long term effort. I am not sure that the distracted, "can't be bothered" set of people that we have in America now will provide that.

guliper,

I have no idea what you mean by that and I do not think that I want to know.

Let's not forget Madeleine Albright's statement regarding the deaths of several hundred thousand Iraqi children in the 1990s as a result of the sanctions: "we think the price is worth it."

Both Democrats and Republicans have been bloodthirsty imperialists. To the extent there are differences, it would be that the Republicans would think "the price is worth it" if the kids had been American and the benefit had been lowering taxes on billionaires.

The "we think the price is worth it" phrase may have been taken out of context. Saddam had plenty of money to feed his people, but he chose to use them as human shields to try to get his oil back on the market and buy more weapons.

If a dictator is holding his own people hostage and harming them, what are you to do? Horrible things happened in Bosnia, Rowanda and now Darfur, but we are powerless to do much about this. The U.S. wants to think of itself as an all powerful nation, but we can not even get things right in a small country like Iraq.

If we believe the pros (the statisticians who published the report of 2/3 million dead), and then extrapolate to now, the monthly death total is probably in the neighborhood of 15,000 to 20,000 per month.

Amitabh,

The answer is that an Iraqi life is of no value, no interest to our elected leaders.

Afterall, you track things that are important. You set goals for things that are important. In business, and we have a Harvard MBA in the White House right now, you measure anything that is of any significance.

But we don't count the Iraqi dead. So, any claim that minimizing civilian casualties is a prioroty must be dismissed as nonsense as no attempt is made to set goals or track progress against goals. If we value it, we want to know how we are doing relative to how we hope to be doing.

It is a very hazardous thing to be born in a country that floats on oil.

Perhaps Iraqis can take comfort in knowing they are not alone. There is only a very small segment of the American public that is of any consequence to the single corporatist party in this country, with its two factions.

Of the 6 billion inhabitants of planet Earth, probably 3 million or so here in America are of any consequence -- not even one hundredth of one percent.

Katrina is all the evidence one needs. Or, Bush's recent claim that there is no health insurance problem in America as we can all just go to the Emergency Room.

I think the quote in money masters (great video on google) goes something like this:
"Those who understand the system are so dependent on it for its benefits that they will go along with anything proposed."

In short - everyone in politics - no exceptions - and business, governemtn etc - all like the ride on the gravy train and therefore despite moral, ethical, and personal conflicts will not and dare not speak out. Surely when the carte blanche offered to those admitted into the elite class - it is a small price to pay in giving up your soul.

What I find most troubling - is the fact the United States has definitely undergone a brilliant bloodless coup. In the short span of a few decades - social reform, accountaility and regulation for the benefit of the public good has eroded and almost disappeared -except for the sake of 'appearance'.

Why - then - despite the explosion of blogs, websites, articles, protest's has there been no massive staging of civil disobedience -say as in France?

The answer quite simply lies in the supposed pathological aim of the book called the 'Fight Club'. The goal if many of the fans and cult followers remember was destruction of the credit agencies - or more specifically the records. If these major consortiums of public databases were destroyed - instantantly the world would be thrown into dissarray.

Why? Because - fractional reserve bankig no longer depends on reserves - instead it depends on debt. A quick aside - the meaning of the word Mortgage -comes from French and means 'DeathGrip". An apt metaphor and an unsual display of honesty.

The bloodless coup of the US government succeeds BECAUSE of DEBT. It doesn't matter what kind - Credit Card, Mortgage, Loans etc. The more debt the average american is forced to under take the greater the grip. As can be seen - this has worked splendidly.

Millions upon millions of hard working, honest americans are silenced bythe heavy shadow of debt. To make sure that even the efficient saver of funds and frugal persons are pressured - we have assisted government debt - no I don't mean Fannie Mae, School Loans - facades that cloak the greedy faces of bloddless corporations -but rather-TAX.

Property tax -ensures you can never truly retire-even after paying off your debt. Add to that the slowly infringing hands of income tax on almost everything -including social security!! (isn't this the double jeopardy of taxation?!!?)

I think thats what it is all about. A nation gripped by debt and hence there is no reason to manufacture consent - or fear disobedience. The recent bankruptcy law change is just another example of a meticulously planned coup that has reduced elections to a mere ceremony and the courts to perfunctory aides in the execution of power and abrogation of even nominal protections.

It's amazing how insightful the book was -

I second iyamwutiam's reference to "The Money Masters" and here is hopefully a good link to the video on google.com. If it don't work, just google Money Masters and select the google video link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=money+masters&total=1298&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Beyond the video, I really despise the notion that "victory" can be achieved in Iraq. After all the death and destruction, calling what has happened, and will continue to happen, in Iraq a victory will only contribute to the hatred of the United States.

It makes you understand why apparently four fifths of the Iraqis now both want us to leave and think it is okay to kill invaders. What is worse is how it speaks about our own leaders' and journalists' distrust and fear of democracy.