Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
1,800 Dead in Iraq and 1.8 Million Supporting the Troops
I see many many cars with "Support the Troops" ribbons. I sympathize with them and mourn 1,800 US servicemen and women, (as well as 25,000 - 100,000 Iraqi's dead), but let's cut to the chase: this war is not about the troops.
The troops should never have been sent there.
It's clear now that no-one needed to die to rid us of Iraq's WMD. No one needed to be maimed to stop a "mushroom cloud" over NYC. No one needed to endure the terror of IEDs in unarmored Humvees. To stop Saddam's terrifying drones, not one Haliburton employee needed to bill us an average of $2.64 a gallon to drive 10 cent gasoline from Kuwait.
The "mission" has changed many times since the troops were sent, but none of the public missions ever held water. The 1,800 died and continue to die for a series of lies and deceptions. The real reason was simple. Bush wanted to invade and so did Dick. They had their reasons. They didn't think we needed to know them. (Though they were hidden in plain sight in the manifesto of the New American Century.)
Wolfowitz was honest, after the invasion. He told us that all the lies were "bureaucratic". The Downing St. memo's reveal they were "fixed around the policy" to invade Iraq.
Do you think Bush and Dick ever believed any of them? I don't.
Sadly, our troops are now exposed in the worst possible way. They are the representatives of a country that had no right to invade and occupy another country that was no threat, and that country (us) will not be pulling out any time soon. We're building permanent bases all over Iraq. That says, "we're staying, for a long time!" (We'll have to scale back the troops, but we'll continue to have tens of thousands of them all over the country.)
On the other hand, the IEDs say the Iraqi's don't want us to stay. They say the troops your ribbon says you're supporting will continue to die. And our military might will continue to be the wrong weapon to fight terror.
The longer we stay in Iraq the more we play into the terrorists hands, as this administration has done since before 9/11 and especially since invading Iraq. (Doesn't Bush see that invading Iraq was like offering 99 Virgins in Heaven to a suicide bomber. His policies sure are effective, in motivating terrorists.)
So, my dear friend with the ribbon on your car; I feel the war has demonstrated our weakness, not our strength. Our government is out-of-control and our brothers and sisters are dying for no reason. So the next time you put one of those ribbons on your car, please tell me what does it mean to "support the troops"?
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