Accountability for the Iraq War
We have been engaged in an illegal war in Iraq for five years - and there is no accountability.
It is beyond doubt that our leaders lied us into this war - and there is no accountability.
More than four thousand American and coalition soldiers are dead - and there is no accountability.
Tens of thousands of American and coalition soldiers are seriously wounded - and there is no accountability.
Our surviving soldiers are coming home traumatized from the war without proper medical and psychiatric care - and there is no accountability.
More than a million Iraqis, mostly civilians, have been killed in this war and countless others wounded - and there is no accountability.
More than four million Iraqis are displaced as internal or external refugees of this war - and there is no accountability.
By using so-called “depleted uranium” weapons, we are poisoning the earth, air and water of Iraq, causing serious health problems to Iraqis and coalition soldiers - and there is no accountability.
America has become a nation that tortures - and there is no accountability.
America has become a nation that spies on its citizens - and there is no accountability.
America has become a nation that hides the body bags of its soldiers killed in action - and there is no accountability.
We are spending $12 billion a month on this war - and there is no accountability.
Reputable economists calculate that this war will cost American citizens more than $3 trillion - and there is no accountability.
This war is burdening unborn generations of Americans and Iraqis - and there is no accountability.
This war has brought respect for America to its lowest ebb throughout the world - and there is no accountability.
The war in Iraq has stretched our military forces to the breaking point, making us far less able to cope with real threats to our security - and there is no accountability.
The war in Iraq has been a training ground for terrorists, making us far less safe - and there is no accountability.
Accountability means holding to account those who are responsible for a war that is illegal under international law - in this case, it means holding to account those who have been irresponsible and criminal in their behavior. It means holding to account George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and others. It means not just their disgrace, but trials to bring them to justice.
This is not a partisan issue - it is an issue of responsibility and accountability and, at a deeper level, an issue of restoring our decency, our dignity and our democracy.
Americans must hold those responsible for this war to account.
David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
I wholeheartedly agree. The administration has demonstrated extreme contempt for the Constitution through their actions. And Congress has shown contempt for it through INACTION.
Our two-party system has clearly failed. If the Democrats care about democracy, they will work towards opening up the system. If we had simple reforms like the National Popular Vote and instant runoff voting, people could vote their conscience without fear of “spoiling” the outcome.
As long as the voters are only given two choices, and Democrats can blackmail them into voting for them, there will be no free market of ideas, no competition, and no accountability.
Those who started this war have been very accountable — to the war profiteers benefiting from it.
Shhh….
Be very quiet.
The citizens of this democracy are sleeping…
…or watching a movie.
Of course, you are right, David Krieger. Their massive war crime has been going on in plain view for more than five years. However, if you read Don Santina’s article on Counterpunch about Pelosi and the “Vichy Democrats,” it is clear that nearly all members of Congress have been actively collaborating with the criminals you named. Like the problem of “belling the cat,” it becomes an issue of who is going to try whom, when the guilt is so widely (not to say “proudly”) shared. Who?
… or just as guilty and hoping you won’t hold them accountable, either.
How right you are, however, you must include 911 too. There has been no accountability for that. The whole official story about that is hogwash. Scientifically impossible! The crimes of our government are so massive and all levels are implicated which means we have no tools to deal with such widespread criminal behavior. With the losss of freedoms any protest will be silenced.
Accountability will be impossible until two things happen: enough of the citizenry of the USA wake up to the fact their country has been hijacked by incompetent corporate fascist cabal, & at least four of the conservative troglodytes on the Supreme Court (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts) are removed.
I could not agree with you more. Spot on! David
I think that it’s pretty obvious that the whole data mining operation of the Cheney/Bush criminal conspiracy is all about gathering dirt on the Democrats.
Wall Street and the corporatocracy HATED Elliot Spitzer.
And he was dumb enough to give them a means to end his political career.
Did anyone else notice that the DOW had it’s greatest single-day jump in years after the news of Spitzer’s foolishness hit the airwaves?
And it seems pretty obvious to me that years of illegal surveillance have yielded enough dirt on Democratic politicians to effectively neuter them.
How else to explain the inexplicable unwillingness of Pelosi and Reid to put up any sort of fight against a President and a Party with approval ratings at historic lows?
The whole FISA program is a cover for political surveillance of opponents of the REPUBLICAN FASCIST NEO-CON agenda.
I don’t know the way out of this.
I suspect that the Cheney/Bush cabal has at the very least career ending dirt on certain Democrats and possibly enough to send some of them to jail.
I say “send their asses to the same cell block as Rove and company”. But finding someone to pursue it is the problem.
Any suggestions?
Accountability used to be America’s strong suit. When did America become a country of wimps? We are now a thrid world country doomed to repeat our mistakes. For me, I am lucky. I am an age where I will not have to live that much longer in this third world country. I feel sorry for those who will have to live in a country created by Bush and the Republicans. Like in Shakespeare, “oh, what fools these mortals be.”
Vote for anyone you like to end the war… just make sure that the candidate is neither a Democrat or a Republican. Voting for either the Democrats or the Republicans does nothing for democracy while reinforcing the corpocracy that runs D.C.
While our governments, their corporate masters and their media revile China and Iran, let us remember that we are no more in control of our so-called democracies than they are.
The criminals in business and government will NOT be held accountable by the thoroughly corrupt political system. Instead we are all going to be held accountable as the American economy sinks further into mediocrity and bankrupcy. The truth which hasn’t yet been grasped by the vast majority of Americans is that the US is headed for an inevitable and dramatic fall into second class status. We are at the moment that the Soviet Union was at in the end of the 80’s. Our cutthroat capitalism doesn’t work. Our military is demoralized and exhausted from imperial overreach. Ordinary Americans are exhausted from overwork and insufficient sleep. We are weeks or months away from the events which will seal our doom as a super-power. The reckoning will come in the form of a massive financial collapse which will place us in a depression. US capitalism is now on life support via huge infusions of money from the Fed, but this won’t succeed in staving off catastrophe. We will thus all be held accountable for the sins of this system.
Accountability in a government of, by and for the oligarchy? Never happen.
Now that Senator Gravel has been made a non-person, is there a politician out there who is willing to give up his power and give it to the people via the referendum?
Once you establish it, it’s the best assassination protection you can have.
America had better not write another word about CHINA and Tibet or China and Torture or another word about China and Human rights. Remember the saying that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones ?
The empire called capitalism (c. 1500 BCE - c. 2000 Common Era) is in its end-game. Its history strongly suggests that much worse is to come, and it takes the breath away to read this article’s list of facts and realize that not one of them is in genuine dispute anymore. One morning in the USSR, when things had become just finally too absurd, people found ways to stop going along with it and stopped contributing the energies of their lives to its continuance. That was their success, while they failed to put anything like real social bonds and a new Constitution into practice in the empire’s wake. Without new relations, as empires fail, dictators are the only “hope of order”….So what are Americans going to do? Watch others try on cable. I can only reach back for something M.L. King Jr., said, that once we ended the war, we were going to start talking about economic justice. Stop buying into this colossal lie that competition brings out the human best, that there is not enough for everybody, that if we don’t use Chinese labor the Chinese will come and take the Americans’ refrigerators…
Of course there is accountability. Pelosi will be rewarded, McCain is already being rewarded. Of course there is accountability, the leaders are supported by the people because they do what the people want, which is to kick ass and dominate the world. Why should they be punished for doing what the people want? Don’t fool yourself. The American public is not against the Iraq war, they are only against losing. If the people really were displeased with the rationale for the war, would they be supporting Pelosi and McCain? No, it is the conduct of the war they don’t like. face it, we live in a cesspool. They like the game, just not the pitcher.
Krieger’s accounting of the unaccounted for is focused primarily on US foreign policy around Iraq/Afghanistan. The list would be far longer if it also included the egregious tax policies, the social programs gutted or underfunded, the Katrina debacle, the relaxing of EPA and FDA standards, and so MANY other unconscionable acts that were nakedly designed to profit only the industries who gave their lobbyists money to play the big DC game of massive coruption. When mammon is all that matters (to a nation or person) it begins a process worse than cancer, a full-out corruption of its soul. That is the fact of the USA today. So many people absolutely do not care so long as they can shop for food, watch TV, or keep up their social circuits with a small circle of friends. Phil Ochs got it…
I realize you folks are purposely ignoring riverman101’s off topic comments. However, I’d like to post this one brief reply to him.
riverman101,
Sperm itself is alive, so it obviously doesn’t die once it fertilizes an egg (which also is very much alive). I don’t think any serious person would argue that. The question is whether that fertilized egg is A PERSON, and therefore entitled to the rights of a person. It’s not so much an argument about life as it is an argument about personhood. Now, are you really arguing that a zygote is a baby, or that a blastocyst is a person and should have the full protection of the law because it is “living?” If you are indeed arguing this, then don’t you also think that the living sperm and egg be protected under the law? I mean, are you against menstruation and masturbation as well?
I assume you’re religious. To argue that at the moment of conception a person is created follows an extreme platonic view of the human person. That line of thinking would result in the belief that every speck of germ plasma has a human soul. Obviously this is not consistent with Christian theology, and certainly not with science. If you’re a Catholic (I noticed that you mentioned the pope), I suggest that you read A Brief Liberal Catholic Defense of Abortion by Dan Dombrowski and Robert Delite. It’s an excellent book which discusses the approach of Catholic faith and tradition to the question of abortion.
CALL BUSH: 202.456.1111
Alexnosal,
i think i hear you. When you say:
“Vote for anyone you like to end the war… just make sure that the candidate is neither a Democrat or a Republican. Voting for either the Democrats or the Republicans does nothing for democracy while reinforcing the corpocracy that runs D.C.”
…you are speaking some basic truth about the Democratic and Republican party operations. But i think you are making a basic error in your statement. In fact, each person - even including higher-ups in the Democratic and Republican parties - remains a person, and is capable of many different things.
As a point of logic, just because someone fits a certain profile, does not reduce that person to a robot. It remains possible that a major party nominee in the US may turn out to be a human if elected President.
Here is one example that may serve to make my point - Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorby was a high-ranking functionary in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and yet, once he was in power, he acted in the interests of humanity, rather than in the interests of the Communist Party.
i understand that there is no concrete evidence to support this notion, but some of us have the crazy hope that Obama may retain his humanity if elected…
David Kreiger has writen a short, no-nonsense accurate portrayal of the ethos of Pax Americana in the first decade of the twentieth century. In a nation of over three hundred million people, very few are actively engaged in opposing this criminal regime. As long as it’s somebody else’s loved one who is killed, maimed or pyschologically wounded after taking part in murder, torture, rape, and harassment, or just having witnessed it is enough to drive a person to dispair.
As long as it is somebody else who lost their job or home or car or is being evicted from their apartment, it’s okay, because I still have my job, car, roof over my head, food in the refrigerator and that greatest mesmerizer of all time, the television set! With ten zillion channels to choose from. Oh, and the cell phone with all the latest gadgets. How did humanity exist before the cell phone? Must have been dreadful.
WE are a materialistic, self-centered society, uneducated in the truest sense of the word, and frightened of the unknown because of our willful ignorance. The religious fanaticism of the right-wing is pandemic and the clergy have a ready supply of self-induced “Manchurian Candidates” who follow the herd instinct of the rabid “fire and brimstone” charlatans and tricksters who profit handsomely from their sermons and product sales of fear, hatred, and intolerance. If Christ cracked the whip at the shylocks in the temple, imagine what He would do to these despicable hypocritical “ministers” of today. One can only speculate.
We do not have representative government in the United States anymore. The Senate is worthless. In the House, some Representatives are trying hard to do the right thing but their efforts are squashed by the Republican Crime Family and Democratic collaborators.
I’ve had three of my postings removed from Common Dreams yesterday and the day before, as they were awaiting moderation. At least they were posted for almost a day before the “censor” kicked in.
The point Mr. Kreiger is trying to make, I think, is for the public to get involved. So few of us are.
American politics, is a full smelly outhouse,
Our Dictators are Ruthless, Clueless, and Careless. Horrible Monsters from the depths of Hell. All that evil needs to prosper on this planet is too have good people do nothing.
Enough Said. bye bye planet earth, Its being consumed by corrupt evil and stupid people who care about nothing and no one. Its the end of the road,
Kiss thw american dream, america and our planet good bye, the days of respect for anyone and anything are just about gone. Its over, Pollution, corruption, and Global Warming will consume us all. Its the end of the road, I can’t say much more except to Pray to the Good Lord to take you and keep you. He’s the only hope the sorry ass country has left.
Common Dreams,
riverman101 is spamming every thread with his deranged ravings.
What does it take to get 86′d from Common Dreams?
Thanks, David, for stating the obvious, once again.
There is no government of, by, and for the people.
There is only a global regime of corporate majority owner terrorists intent on the subjugation of every single tenet to the theme of “material wealth” for themselves as well as the social control of humanity in their own deluded interests.
When you realize that there is no place else to turn for justice, for there is no such thing extant in any society today, perhaps you will pick up the weapon of choice and eliminate by the most expedient means possible the criminals among us. Whomever, wherever, you find them, at all levels.
Until then, face the fact that you are mere slaves without rights on a planet under the occupation of a pathologically criminal regime.
The issue is not “umerikun”, it is global.
The hour is getting, truly, late.
Lizard,
I’m an American and I don’t want the Iraq War. Your remark is offensive and meant to provoke. I guess you expect me to go storm the White House? What country do you live in? What have you done to correct the wrongs going on in your own country? And if you feel so strongly about it, what are you doing to stop the Iraq War?
peaceman, it’s unlikely that Common Dreams is censoring you. Much more likely that Microsoft’s crappy software is crapping out on you in your interface with CD. Try switching to Linux and see if that and a few other problems don’t clear up. I’m running Linux and it never has problems. Those giant corporations are just so flakey cuz their “management” spend all their time not fixing their products but instead spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) everywhere like their evil twins in the public policy arena enjoy doing.
Didn’t I hear Bush’s trademark snicker as he stated a few days ago that the war was good for business? He’s only accountable to the war profiteers.
Jefferson said this about chattel slavery, but I’m saying it about Iraq and the whole idea of American interventionism: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and His justice will not sleep forever.”
America has sowed the wind, and one day—perhaps sooner than anyone thinks—it will reap the whirlwind.
Right wingers always talk about accountabiity, and often attribute personal failings to absence of accountability in youth.
Now, please, if I am to continue my modest contribution to Common Dreams, GET RIVERMAN THE HELL OFF THIS BOARD!!!!
PEACEMAN: Great posting. Cindy Sheehan wrote on another post that FOUR of her articles were NOT posted on CD. I’m sure there are some space requirements, but it is ironi that RIVERMAN gets to publish his illogical rantings in the name of logic, while others’ materials are either censored or placed into temporal limbo. RTDRURY… is it really the operating system?
riverman101: What are you going to do with all these extra mouths to feed???? Or do creeps like you even care? You whine and bellyache about Abortion while the world is crumbling around you from over population. Creeps like you are responsible for all the misery, suffering and starvation in this world. Maybe when there is a human being on every square inch of the planet fools like you will wake up to what you are doing to the planet! I personally do not believe God wants us to destroy ourselves in the fashion we currently are. He doesn’t believe in self-induced suicide!!!!
bakunin: I would like to think you are wrong, but I don’t. Thinking logistically, it is not reasonable to expect that the judiciary will file
or press charges against the criminal cabal/administration. Neither will the Extreme Court permit extradition to the Hague. It is a safe bet that none of the cabal will ever set foot in Europe
after their terms expire, so how, exactly, should the mechanisms of arrest and trial take place? This is not a rhetorical question; I really don’t know…but I think it is of the utmost urgency that accountability be demanded by the people of America, and the people of the world.
Note to riverman: seek professional help.
The “bush years” will be known as the most shameful period in US history.
In my Dreams, Congress approves our membership in the World Court and the Bush team is sent to the Hague for trial. The World Court has not the babaric capitol penalty, so we will be able to enjoy hearing of the convicted prisoners ‘Adventures with Bubba’ from time to time. Suits me.
RTDRURY and SIOUXROSE,
In my reply to you, which is above, the “Your comment is awaiting moderation” message came on again. I’m convinced now that software is not the problem but standing up to imperialists and fascists is. I hope you see the 11;46am post before they remove it.
RTDRURY, I wrote something for you on the David Sirota article last night.
Peace, Harmony, Wisdom and Understanding to Everybody on this planet.
~JEHOSEPHA~ Love that name but it’s not easy for poor “spelers”.___Ahhhh Lizard, he’s a Canadian, but once posted that he’s going to vote for Hillary or Obama. He also says he’s a practicing MD, a scientist and has a PHD in geology.
For a practicing MD, he spends a great deal of time, posting argumentative and often insulting remarks here at CD. One day, about the 20 and 21st of Feb, he posted about 90 comments, 75 on one thread alone, denying global warming. He’s a Neo-Con troll, so just consider the source and totally ignore him. He’s a genuine nut case, but sometimes he makes sense. Trolls do that for a reason.
~PEACEMAN~ open the “Contacting us”, on the heading and then scroll down to the Webmaster, Write him and briefly explain the problem. I had a serious problem once and he replied and fixed it immediately. He possibly does not work on Sunday.
KEM, Thanks for the advice. This is weird. The comment is now back again with the moderation thing. I’ll contact them tomorrow. I did send an email yesterday, but like you said, don’t hold your breath.
Right now I’m taking a break from yard work and drinking a Samuel Smiths lager beer from the Unitd Kingdom.
Hi, Johosepha
No hard feelings. We’re in the same boat.
Riverman, like most of the Christian right you have a habit of pulling medical statistics out of your ass. There is no basis for any of the excrement that you are pawning off as medical evidence. Like most of the Christian right, you aren’t pro life anyway. You freely support the death penalty, even in states like Texas that have children and mentally retarded on death row. Also you fake Christians all support the Republican agenda that cares nothing for the mother and child once the child is brought into this world. Not health care, not food, not housing, not clothing, not prenatal care, not child care. Nothing. Don’t insult us to call yourself pro-life when you are only pro birth. If you want to mandate all of these pregnancies by law to come to term, get out your fucking check book and start caring for these people instead of preaching to them. The world doesn’t need more ignorant fools like you. Noone ever was forced to have an abortion. If you are against it, you only need to be sure that you don’t go and get one.
Jeff, I think the answer is for private citizens to start their own investigations to find out how cheney/bush have spied on the dems and the rest of America. When we find out that dems or repugs did something illegal, expose it. It will likely leave only Kucinich and Paul in Congress, however.
That lizard seems like one impressive reptile. Looks like we got each other’s back, KEM.
Peace back at ya, peaceman.
riverman101:
If you aren’t presenting a comic perspective and instead take what you say seriously…
all I can say is: “Really?!”
Psss. (For the sake of your soul try to wake up just a little bit more. Be compassionate with yourself. I know you’re suffering).
Your belief system has got you by the b…
and your mind is scamming you bigtime.
I know…your mind disagrees with all this. You KNOW you’re not mistaken. Others like me are on the road to you know where.
That’s fine. Don’t change a thing. And for God’s sake do Not attempt to get a higher, “meta-perspective” on the worldview you hold dear.
Your gift of free will is in fact inviolable.
As you prefer….
Yes, your truth is The Truth. Your interpretation the only valid one. The subject is closed - like a steel trap-door.
Your cell is comfortable enough? OK, some folks learn to like their sentence of, “Life in Thought Prison.”
Peaceman
They shut my home computer account out totally. Perhaps because of what I wrote or the 4 letter words that I used. They have to control the speech as well as the thought.
twistoflex,
The only thing I can think of is writing about a peaceful insurrection within the military. Let’s see what happens when I send this post.
Riverman 101
You sound like a bornagain Christian Borat to me. For a minute there I thought you were pulling our legs.
By the way, I guess a high-logic fellow such as yourself can easily read up on spermatogenesis and oogenesis, which by the way, stands for sperm development and egg development. Cheers.
Also, if all the liberals are so dumb, then why are most college professors liberals? On the other hand, if you insist that greed is the mark of the dumb-monster-beast-people, then why are most rich Americans staunch republicans?
Your “voter-logic” argument makes no sense to me.
Personally I don’t like the idea of abortions. Still, you need a far more adult argument than “You guys are a bunch of dumb girls.” Grow up already.
Thank you David for the clear call for accountability. Every Congressional member should have this posted as a reminder about how they have neglected their duty.
We are in a very difficult moment in history. This is where the people have to be heard or any kind of healthy democracy will be gone.
Please everyone who reads this post must commit to action. Here are some actions I recommend immeditately:
A Call To Action
The time is now to bring the forces of human will power, intelligence, heart and consciousness to challenge what is going on. If we do not, if we lack courage, if we are too busy or lack caring than there is expanding trouble ahead. Here is where we absolutely must act:
First, the checks and balances of all three branches must be returned to how they were originally established. The executive branch has extended its power and Congress is becoming less and less able to hold the president accountable. The president is not to be involved in making legislative policy by pocket vetoing or otherwise rewriting laws to his liking. That is criminal and he should be held accountable. The political appointments of the Supreme Court must end immediately. A new court of impartial judges is essential.
Second, all spying, on Americans must come to an end immediately and a panel of neutral citizens must be appointed to oversea any further requests for domestic spying. Presently this administration is making their own rules and spying whenever and on whomever they please. This is a violation of the peoples rights and those in violation must be held accountability now. Also all torture and illegal incarceration must also come to an end and this administration should be held accountable for its violations of decency, people’s rights and any treaties we have signed.
Thirdly, the war in Iraq must be brought swiftly to an end with an international committee assisting the Iraqi government in the transition. The can be no delays and all US bases in Iraq must be closed as the well as the fortress call the new US Embassy in Bagdad. We have killed enough innocent Iraqis and US military for this insane war that we were lied into. This administration should be held accountable for those lies and all the debt incurred. The huge profits made by the friends of the Bush administration should be reclaimed as payment for the debt.
Fourth, all corporations must return to what they were originally designed for, to be of service to the citizens of this nation and the world. The pursuit of profits over what is best for the people, the environment and the greater good must now come to an end. Those companies and the executives who have violated the public trust must be fully prosecuted by citizen panels. This especially includes the industries of banking, insurance, oil and other energy companies, military-industrial complex, and any others that have profited hugely at the cost of the people and our nation.
Fifth, We must make sure all voting is done unimpeded by those that want to limit turnout, eligibility etc. There must be a paper trail for each vote. There must also be the elimination of money influence in the election process. The only money they can be used for campaigns is supplied by county, state and federal funding. All lobby influence has to be eliminated. Without these 4 protections and complete transparency, our election process is completely compromised in a way that is very detrimental to democracy.
A few more brief recommendations:
• Any debt, created by the administration in office, should be paid off by the party holding the presidency.
• Universal health care should be immediately made available to all citizens.
• All companies doing business with the US government must pay medicare, social security and the appropriate other taxes. That means not business is done with off shore shell companies like KBR.
• The principle of “conflict of interests’ needs to be revisited and those acting inappropriately need to be held accountable.
• There needs to be total transparency in government. If there are true national security issues then an impartial citizen’s panel must oversea what is going on.
• A clearly spelled out immigration policy needs to be created by a citizen’s panel with consideration for all the work provided by those presently here working illegally.
• A new very simple tax code must be written that is fair to everyone.
What ideas and recommendations do you have? Please leave you comments.
Joseph www.explorelifeblog.com and www.peace-together.com