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Countering the Iraq War Spinners
The Truth of the Iraq War is That We Destroyed Iraq
Almost eight years ago, I made my way to DC to meet up with Medea Benjamin and a few other friends to talk about what we could do to stop the Bush administration's insane push toward invading an innocent country: Iraq. The next morning, eight of us were in front of the White House, on the steps of Congress and in the hearing for the resolution on Iraq; the day ended with two of us in jail. Our message was US Inspectors, Not US War. We had read articles about how the White House had been dreaming the invasion up over the summer and was waiting until September to push it because "you don't launch a new product in August." People's lives were at stake, and they were treating war like the release of a new sports car.
We started CODEPINK in a desperate attempt to try to stop the war in Iraq. We vigiled outside the White House for five months, taking our message and outrage to the halls of Congress, press conferences and every invasion sales pitch we could gain entry to. We met with Nancy Pelosi, who told us she had a briefing with a Florida Senator that convinced her that there were no weapons of mass destruction. As the Democratic Whip she boldly broke with leadership to oppose the war. Sadly, her words were without action. The resolution swept through the committee hearing; we sat and listened with horror to Democrats arguing for the war, their arguments terrifyingly ungrounded in any real facts. Bush wanted to release his shiny new sports car and no one in Congress had the guts to say "This car is dangerous, it's way too expensive, it doesn't have any brakes, and it can only end in tragedy." Congress just sat back and let him have his deadly toy, while we did whatever could to try to keep it off the road.
While we did not succeed in stopping the invasion, we did spend the past eight years organizing, mobilizing, expressing our outrage and exposing the futility, stupidity and enormous cost of this debacle for both Iraqis and Americans. We have countered the constant lies spewing out of the Oval Office, the "think tanks" and the media. We have worked tirelessly to try to bring our resources back home where they're most needed--particularly as millions of Americans are turned out of their homes, people are desperate for jobs, and we need to reconfigure our entire energy system. By August 31, U.S. troops in Iraq are scheduled to be reduced to 50,000--marking what we hope will be the beginning of the end of this catastrophe. The Pentagon and the war supporters will undoubtedly spin this catastrophic intervention as a success--while Iraq lies in ruins and thousands of our soldiers have died in vain. Worse yet, it seems they have learned nothing from the disaster, as we are repeating it again in Afghanistan. Congress is voting for another $33 billion for the Afghanistan war while our states and cities go bankrupt and EVERYONE knows there is no military solution.
This insanity will have no end--unless we end it. This faulty "product" needs to be recalled.
Will you join with CODEPINK and other peace and justice organizations in sharing your voice during the week of August 25 to 31--the week that most of the US troops will return from Iraq? We need your help getting out the truth that the Iraq war was based on lies, has left Iraq in tatters, has drained our resources and MUST NOT be repeated for years to come in Afghanistan. There are so many who have paid the price of this crime....so many except those who are responsible. Sign up to join our action team for the last week of August; we will help you with tools and inspiration to write letters to the editor and op-eds, to call in to radio shows, to educate your colleagues. We need thousands of voices-yours counts.
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18 Comments so far
Show All"... there would be protests and you wouldn't slow them down even by a second."
You're flat out wrong. The protests DID slow down the warring - Syria wasn't attacked like the Neocons and Israel wanted, attacks on Iran and Lebanon have been postponed, the US bought itself out of heavy fighting in Iraq due to protests against how the war was going, etc.
Bloody defeatist. Literally; defeatism causes bloodshed in others.
History demonstrates well that public protest works. Don't give up. Don't always "forgive and forget" - it's far from "always best".
So you're saying it's all the fault of those damned immigrants?
We destroyed Iraq because Israel wanted it, and our congress and president obey their whoremaster. Now Israel wants Iran, but the going isn't so easy. Iran isn't under daily bombing runs from an American Air Force enforcing a 'no-fly' zone. Iran may be under sanctions, but the country's back hasn't already been broken by a war with a 'coalition' including all their neighbors. Iran also produces enough weapons to fight back, if Israel or the US were stupid enough to push their luck. I think the US is too broke now anyway, but you know how our congress, our president, and our media will answer their whoremaster's call.
Thanks for having the courage to state the obvious
in a time when we are asked to believe lies.
You underestimate the power of the US military... Not to win wars, but to blow stuff up. There is no target on Earth so well defended that it could not be destroyed before tomorrow morning if the president so ordered. Saddam's army was bigger than Iran's army back in 2002/2003. Shock and Awe brushed it aside in less than a week.
OK, maybe Iran won't be so easy. Saddam had no air defenses at the start of Shock and awe, so maybe it will take two weeks, or even three or four. No matter. By the time the first US boots hit the ground in Iran, their military will have no air defenses, no ships, no tanks, no crew-served weapons, and no factories in which to make any new ones. They will have no communications and control, and no bases from which to operate. Our troops will be harassed by disorganized soldiers carrying small arms and RPGs, just like in Iraq, and just like in Afghanistan.
The "war" will drag on for years, just like in Iraq, and just like in Afghanistan. The folks back home will watch video of bombs falling during those first couple weeks, and then they will change the channel back to "America's Got Talent." As soon as war morphs into indefinite occupation, TV news will stop showing it, and Americans will forget. Just like Iraq, and just like Afghanistan. We'll all have to tighten our belts yet another notch, but it will not occur to most of us to wonder why.
I think you overestimate the popularity of Bush's shadow (Obama) and the US in the world today. How many failed wars do you think the people of the world will allow the US to start before they take the other side? There are countries in the world who are trading partners with Iran who could make things pretty uncomfortable here in the US if they wanted to. They could (and perhaps already have) arm Iran with what it needs to prevent any 'blowing stuff up' and leave Iran prepared to wreak havoc on our army, most of which is stationed in countries all around them. Iran is not Iraq, and even though Saddam's armies melted away and (for the most part) wouldn't fight I think a very different story would play out if the people of Iran were faced by an invasion of infidels.
I suspect that the current counter attack by afghan forces against NATO is very organised, the Iraqi military was unable to fight in the same manner as its military had no experience of fighting in such a manner nor did it have the infrastructure to do so, however in Afghanistan the population knows very well how to fight against state organised armies with superior firepower, much in the same way the French resistance fought Germany in the 2nd world war.
Just because they don't have tanks and F16's doesn't mean they are disorganised, in fact co ordinating an attack without the communications infrastructure that NATO has, as well as supplying arms and equipment to combat zones using manpower and animals while under air attack suggests to me that they are very organised.
I also suspect that Iran is paying very close attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and will be organising its military to fight based on the lessons learn't in the other two countries.
Iran would have been attacked or invaded if it didn't have air-defense. Iraq's air-defense (and most of its airforce) was systematically taken out during the 1990's, so the initial part of the invasion was easy. Afghanistan didn't have air defense either. Can you blame countries wanting to build up their defense capability, or even a limited ability to counterattack by way of missiles?
for iraq veterans against war...
truth lives among our soldiers who refuse to let it die!...
the kind whose inborn conscience fights to stop these wars of lies!...
each serviceman who knows how fatal blows won't end those means...
that keep men's deadly reasons from seeing life in real scenes!...
they watch a world of leaders still pretend to play false gods...
wearing know-it-all mentalities that have yet to learn they're not!...
for pockets stuffed with body counts will never feel like gold...
around a sense of touch that bears aliveness by its hold!...
they see dying victims lying on these floors of walls of war!...
welcome mats in neighborhoods smell horror's putrid core!...
pouring over auras under shrouds of human waste...
in rigor mortis cobblestone kicked farther out of place!...
they hear abducted landscapes being swept from civil tongues...
booming demolition moving in where towns belong!...
root-based shoots upheaving in between tight cracks of clay...
catastrophically erode outside the groundwork words might lay!...
they tuck those aftershocks in every space their minds may find!...
blocking out bright light that fades sharp contrast over time...
for until the dark exposes these stark negatives in full...
it hinders mankind's sunrise to develop better rules!...
soldiers dare to face the consequence it takes to turn this tide!...
as it's from their brave positions waves of change begin to try!...
and once first steps are followed by successive ones in line...
remember it's these few who knew what most didn't realize!...
iraq veterans against war... http://www.ivaw.org
courage to resist... http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
the best of wishes'n'ways'n'todays to each'n'everyone!... :)
So the new strategy for attacking sovereign nations is not to talk about it, just do it?
The author obviously feels that the illegal invasion of Iraq was a disaster, but a disaster for whom? For the MIC, Big Oil and the wealthy elites, it was one of the greatest success stories of all time. This is precisely why CODEPINK and other organizations have had absolutely no victories on this front. The criminals responsible for this invasion don't really care who the average voter votes for, as long as they vote Democrat or Republican.
As for U.S. soldiers coming home, this is only occurring because the U.S. government believes that the oil fields are firmly in the hands of Big Oil at the moment. If the oil wells are at all threatened in the future (by internal politics or an insurgency) the troops will return quickly and with more force than before.
"The criminals responsible for this invasion don't really care who the average voter votes for, as long as they vote Democrat or Republican."
And the average voter will continue voting Democrat and Republican, because he/she is is just as greedy, just as rapacious as the people they're voting for. If the average Amercan voter were to start looking at the facts and staying informed on the issues, we'd have a chance; but I think we will continue to be stupid until everything just falls to pieces around us, and then blame the very people we voted into office instead of ourselves.
Not to be critical of Jodie Evans, but for clarity;
The War against Iraq was planned at least as far back as the Clinton administration when, within the pentagonally impaired group called "The Project for the New American Century", the outlines of "reasons" were defined.
It seems that the United States of Global Domination needed to first make certain that Iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction (because, previously, we had definitely provided them with more than they needed) before the war could be promoted.
Nancy Pelosi has never tried to cut off any war funding.
Senators Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton both played key roles in ensuring the war would happen and they have been rewarded.
The U.S. will not leave Iraq until the possible monetary profits from the Iraqi resources are greatly diminished.
There can always be a "new" reason to keep the troops in Iraq. August 2010 is just a made-up date which is dangled to give us "hope" (which can later be used to ensure disillusionment).
Sincerely, I wish you good luck in the upcoming efforts for decency.
Jodie Evans and Codepink deserve a lot of credit. They're raising awareness. It's the kind of work that ultimately stopped the Vietnam war. Protest works - so work with the protests.
A better world is very possible - one without war and wilful destruction. It's even easy when the idea takes hold.
When I hear: "It's the kind of work that ultimately stopped the Vietnam war", I get very upset. It is so typical of the self congratulating, self satisfied, egotistical, self centered Liberal/Democratic Party types we see so often on CommonDreams.org. What ultimately stopped the American War in Vietnam was the extreme sacrifice of the Vietnamese people who gave their lives and bodies to defeat the USA. Can you imagine telling an old Viet Cong soldiet that protests in the US "ultimately stopped the Vietnam war".
Most of the above are right in their observations. But Code Pink actually takes on the issues by daring to confront the perpetrators and make another opinion visible...no the war hasn't stopped but it never will if we all just say it can't be done.