The United States of Aftermath

[WilliamPitt]

A statue of Saddam Hussein stands in front of the
burning National Olympic Committee building in Baghdad,
on April 19, 2003. (Photo: Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)

The United States of Aftermath
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 21 February 2013

It's hard to say grace and to sit in the place
Of someone missing at the table
Mom's hair sprayed tight
And her face in her hands
Watching TV for answers to me
After all she's only human
And she's trying to find her own way home, boys
She's trying to find her own way home

My legs ache
My heart is sore
The well is full of pennies

- Tom Waits

Ten years ago on this day, my life was a blur of frantic activity. The week before, tens of millions of people had taken to the streets in more than 600 cities around the world to protest the looming invasion of Iraq, an attack that had been pursued with single-minded ferocity by the administration of George W. Bush. As the author of the book "War on Iraq", which had been published in October and argued Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction or al Qaeda connections to the September 11 attacks, I was one of the voices crying out in the wilderness of the "mainstream" news media trying to make it clear that the whole thing was a sham, and a disaster in the making. I did as many television, radio and print interviews as I could - at one point, CNN interviewed me in the gymnasium of the high school where I was still teaching, because that was the only time I had available - in an attempt to halt the calamity in its tracks.

One month later, I and every other person who tried to stop it encompassed the totality of our collective failure as we watched huge swaths of Baghdad be incinerated by the "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign that heralded the opening festivities of America's nine-year debacle in Iraq.

(snip)

The war against Iraq, in the end, was nothing more or less than a massive money-laundering operation that took American taxpayer dollars, soaked them in blood, and redirected them to Certain Friends In High Places. It was, as I said years ago, a smash-and-grab robbery writ large, aided and abetted by an American "news" media which had its own profit motive, and which made a nifty sum off the whole deal. Even better for them, today they get to enjoy the ratings and advertising dollars to come when they broadcast their somber "documentaries" about how terrible it all was, how many lies were told, how many mistakes were made, and all without ever looking inward at their own enormous complicity.

They say the war is over now, but Halliburton is still getting paid to "rebuild" Iraq, the military contractors are still there, bombs are still going off all over the country, the hundreds of thousands of civilians who were killed are still dead, the hundreds of thousands of civilians who were wounded and maimed are still scarred, and many of the millions who were displaced are still not home. Almost 5,000 American soldiers are still dead, nearly 40,000 more are still scarred, and the VA is utterly incapable of dealing with the aftermath.

Three trillion dollars of taxpayer money was laundered away, and today we have squadrons of politicians who voted for the war and made sure it happened now talking about cutting Medicare, about cutting Social Security, about how we can't afford decent health care or the United States Post Office, without even a blink of acknowledgement toward their own overwhelming share of blame for what has happened to the nation.

Ten years ago, they used 9/11 against us, with the happy help of the "news" media, to unleash butchery for a payday, and broke the country in the process.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14688-the-united-states-of-aftermath

[MrYikes]

1. Thank you.

[lonestarnot]

2. K & R!

[hfojvt]

3. very well done

although I disagree that the country is broke - "broke the country in the process"

The same people - OBAMA included - who say we need a grand bargain, we need to cut spending here or there in order to balance the budget, or reduce the deficit by $4 trillion are the same people who just passed a law giving another $3.7 trillion in tax cuts, with 65% of that amount going to the richest 20% - including $1.3 trillion to the richest 5% http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022130101

So, we have to slash the post office because it supposedly lost $16 billion last year. I mean, we could NOT possibly pay for that by taking part of the $130 billion a year in tax cuts going to the richest 5%. To do that would kill the economy or something, whereas laying off postal workers is good for the economy.

Also, that is a great collection of quotes at the end, but it seems to let the media off the hook again, as all the quotes are from administration officials. Some quotes from Judith Miller might be apropos http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/08/16/judy-miller-s-war/

Or the fact that for the months before the invasion, CBS news began every nightly news with a segment called "Countdown to War" - implying that the war was as inevitable as an Apollo launch.

[CrispyQ]

4. An excellent commentary.

The war against Iraq, in the end, was nothing more or less than a massive money-laundering operation that took American taxpayer dollars, soaked them in blood, and redirected them to Certain Friends In High Places.

The quotes at the end . . .

k&r

[WilliamPitt]

5. Up

[rustydog]

6. I stood on street corners protesting in Yakima, Wa and was taunted by Repugnants

"...George W. Bush, during his State of the Union address in January of 2003, looked solemnly into the television cameras and told the American people that Iraq was most assuredly in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 30,000 munitions to deliver the stuff, mobile biological weapons labs, and uranium from Niger for use in their "robust" nuclear weapons programs. One month later, Colin Powell stood before the United Nations and fleshed out these claims in an address that will go down in history as one of the biggest bag-jobs ever perpetrated by anyone, ever."

I still remember their "proof" of the trailers was artist's renditions because our spy satellites could not locate one single trailer anywhere in the country! So they drew a picture! And that was proof.
"You don't want the proof to be a mushroom cloud over (not, Omaha,not Butte, not Cheyanne, Not new Orleans) NEW YORK CITY!"

"You are either with us or with the terrorists..."

Thank you WilliamPitt, always excellent information. You inspired me back then and today still!

[WilliamPitt]

7. Up