22 August 2006

That niggly question ...

I guess the question still remains, same as yesterday, last week, last month, and last year. In fact, for three and a half years now, thoughtful Americans who love their country deeply have been asking “Why?”

Why is America fighting a war in Iraq?

What, exactly, is our mission there?

As Codpiece joked with reporters yesterday about their temporary digs across the street from the White House, four more American soldiers died in Iraq. Ten more Iraqi civilians died, too. On Sunday, 20 Iraqi civilians died.

Well, we’re not there because Saddam Hussein had anything to do with Sept. 11.

Codpiece said so during the press conference. That should clear things up nicely for all those mouth-breathing Americans who still think the Iraqi president ordered the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. And I’m sure that our soldiers serving in the middle of the hornets’ nest – the 90 percent who’ve been brainwashed into believing that Saddam was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks – are also scratching their heads, befuddled.

From the press conference transcripts:

Q: What did Iraq have to do with that?

Bush: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.

Bush: Nothing. Except for it's part of -- and nobody's ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack (except they did suggest it, many times) Iraq was a -- Iraq -- the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize, Ken.

Nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. (sigh) I have suggested, however, that resentment and the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill, to achieve an objective. I have made that case.

And one way to defeat that -- you know, defeat resentment -- is with hope. And the best way to do hope is through a form of government.

Now I said, going into Iraq, we've got to take these threats seriously before they fully materialize. I saw a threat.

I fully believe it was the right decision to remove Saddam Hussein, and I fully believe the world is better off without him. Now the question is: How do we succeed in Iraq?

And you don't succeed by leaving before the mission is complete, like some in this political process are suggesting.

Ahhh. I think I've got it now. The Iraqi people were resentful of Saddam’s viciousness and needed some hope. So to give them hope we went in and bombed the hell out of them, occupied their country, made a horrific hash out of the post-war period, and set ourselves, a bunch of corporations and a handful of Iraqi opportunists up to make a shitload of cash out the chaos. We made ourselves a nice, fortified Green Zone so Burger King could serve up freedom fries and Whoppers. We started building huge military installations while those hopeful Iraqi people, freed from the threat of Saddam once and for all, suddenly found themselves being oppressed and slaughtered by the violent, narrow-minded Dark-Ages mullahs.

After all, no matter how we try to gussy it up, the puppet government in Iraq hasn’t got the power to enforce even the simplest of secular laws.

Saddam was an asshole, but he was a secular asshole. Under Saddam, the various religions and sects might not have liked each other much, but kids went to school, women were allowed to get an education -- including college -- and they weren’t required to cover themselves from head to toe just in case they inadvertently made some horny goat of a man lust in his heart. Iraq was the most progressive, educated Muslim country in the Middle East.

No, it wasn’t perfect. Western sanctions had reduced the amount of food an average Iraqi could get, the water wasn’t always sparkling clean, and electricity wasn’t on 24-7.

But as long as you could stay on Saddam’s good side, you did OK.

Recently, a National Public Radio reporter in Baghdad informed listeners that religious extremists murdered a shepherd because, well, he wouldn’t diaper his goats to hide their naughty bits. And a grocer was killed because the stalks of celery in his market were too close to the tomatoes, lewdly suggesting – the horror – erect male genitalia.

Iraq is now in midst of civil war. They’re killing each other because of immodest goats and indecent vegetables. Simplistic? Yes. True? Yes.

But back to the point of this meandering post – why are we still hunkered down in Iraq, sending our kids out to be blown up by roadside bombs?

Once again: Exactly what is our mission there, Mr. President?

We got Saddam. He didn’t have any WMDs, but what the hell, he wanted them. Fine. Now we’re sitting in the middle of the shitpile we made as the country explodes around us, for all the world like stupid kids who started a huge grass fire while playing with matches.

Iran is sitting by, too, waiting for the right moment to step in and take the jewel – the second largest oil-producing country in the world – it’s always wanted.

So, are we still sitting there watching the grass fire blow up into a conflagration so Iran can’t steal the oil we stole for ourselves? Because we all know, down deep where it counts, that this war was about oil.

If so, we deserve to burn.

If bringing hope, freedom and democracy to the people of Iraq was the reason, the mission, the point of all the lost lives on both sides, we’ve failed miserably. Instead, we’ve brought hell on earth down upon the Iraqi people. They have no hope at all now, nothing but the grim promise of generations of senseless death, squalor, hopelessness and terrible oppression ahead.

Someone said, a long time ago, that you can’t force democracy at the point of a gun. What a damned shame Codpiece never learned that one – and, if this last press conference was any indication, he still hasn’t.

6 comments:

Kapt Krazy said...

All very interesting but what is your solution...withdraw and leave them to the mess we have created?

Wren said...

A very good question, Kapt.

We made a shameful mistake when we attacked Iraq. Lots of Americans predicted exactly what would happen -- Americans of some learning and experience -- and were accused of being unpatriotic and traitorous. They were ignored.
As were millions of rational, thinking people all over the world.

However, the Iraq War is now a done deal, and here we sit, watching as it all burns down around us. If we stay, we're doing exactly nothing to help the Iraqi people we ostensibly dropped destruction on in order to help. If we leave, we must face the fact that we've utterly failed in whatever the mission was in the first place (along with its various versions, trotted out one by one since). We'll lose face, credibility, and influence, along with the $308 billion (and counting) we've spent on the war so far. Those who've lost their lives serving Bush's fantasy of empire and the greed of the corporations who pull his strings must be mourned, and those who've returned maimed and injured for life, physically and mentally, must be cared for with compassion and understanding. We will never be forgiven by the thousands and thousands of Iraqi cilivians killed and maimed during this most opportunistic of wars. Nor should we be.

As a nation, America will wear this war as a badge of shame forever.

The men and women who told us lies to get us into it should be made accountable before both this nation and the world.

Is there a way out?

Fortunately, plans to exctricate our forces while salvaging what little honor remains to America do exist. The one that comes immediately to mind is Senator John Murtha's, which he put before the Congress, the president and the American people back in April of this year, only to be scorned, Swift-boated and called a traitor.

Yet, looked at with rational and unemotional eyes, it seems like a reasonable plan. You can see it here:

http://www.house.gov/list/press/pa12_murtha/pr060407.html

I'm sure that if we weren't being led by a cretin who can only repeat the same, senseless argument over and over again, a man who's too stubborn to face the fact of his monstrous mistake like a grown-up, Murtha's plan or one similar to it would be viable.

Yes, the Iraqis will continue to kill one another until a strong man -- or country, like Iran, unfortunately -- comes along to put a stop to it. But America can't stop it, and it's long past time for us to face facts. By staying where we are, we're accomplishing nothing. We're only acting as catalysts to bring more horror and bloodshed on the Iraqi people, who surely never deserved this.

By leaving, at the very least we'll stop killing our own. It's the right, and moral, thing to do.

The payment in pride is a small thing in comparison to the debt of blood and death America has on her hands. It needs to stop now, while we still have souls.

Tom ta tum Tom said...

Hi, Blue Wren...

What you don't understand is that
the invasion of Iraq was never about
'democracy'. It was never about the
'war on terror'. Invading Iraq was /
is about pillaging the American
treasury and picking the pockets of
the American people. In this way,
Iraq is much like Vietnam, which
was never about Communism. What has
happened in Iraq is of minor
consequence to the monsters who are
feeding off the spoils. They never
intended to have a stable society
in Iraq - else, we would be leaving
there before the end of the current
mistake (that we call an
administration) in Washington. The
longer we stay in Iraq, the more
billions they make. You give
Codpiece too much credit. The man is
nothing more than a thief and he
and his VP care NOTHING about the
suffering of others. Codpiece cannot
call Iraq a mistake because to him,
the resultant depletion of the
American treasury is no mistake at
all. This is what he intended all
along. Generations to come will be
paying for his lies.
I absolutely agree that there must
be accountability. These bastards
are war criminals, just as surely
as any of the worst of the Nazis.
This is the man who assured us that
"Jesus Christ has changed my heart".
Blue Wren, it is of little comfort
to those who suffer because of his
taking Jesus's name in vain but
Codpiece WILL be held accountable -
eternally - because he has no idea
that he should repent.
But this does not mean that you and
I should stop speaking out. You are
on the right track. Keep it up!

Wren said...

Thanks, Tom. In my family, when someone is talking but no one seems to be listening, the person talking says, with a bit of irony, "listen to the wind blow!"

There's a lot of wind blowing these days, and sometimes it seems like that's about all there is.

Kevin Wolf said...

Depending on events in the next couple of years, there's a good chance Bush will simply continue on the same track - oblivious of his errors and saying the same things over and over. That is, his own version of "stay the course," which is sure to be as beneficial to us as the same tatic has been for Iraqis.

roxtar said...

Helmut points us to this article at Times UK, which is sad on so many levels......