The Terrible Truth About Iraq

[Barrett808]

September 17, 2003

Occupational Hazards
The Terrible Truth About Iraq
By TIMOTHY J. FREEMAN

A Great and Noble Thing?

When will America face up to the terrible truth about the invasion and occupation of Iraq? Every day the casualties mount. The number of American soldiers killed since Bush declared victory now outnumber those killed in the invasion itself. For every one soldier that comes home in a body bag at least another ten come home horribly wounded. If the first Gulf War gives us any indication, many times more will come home with devastating illness, most likely caused by our own depleted uranium weapons. On top of that of course there is the astronomical cost of the war and the occupation--some hundred billion dollars already gone and a billion a week and counting.

And what do we get for this tremendous sacrifice? In Iraq we get the daily humiliation and devastation wreaked upon the Iraqi people. Of course the Bush Administration and the American media are not at all interested in the numbers, but we can be sure that the number of innocent Iraqi citizens killed is already many times more than the number of innocents lost on September 11, 2001. It seems most Americans couldn't care less about that or the fact that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 911. With such completely unprovoked slaughter, it should be no surprise our troops are greeted with bombs and bullets instead of carpets of rose petals and jasmine. One thing we can be sure of: our sacrifice has not brought freedom and democracy to Iraq. We've set up a puppet government operating under our military dictatorship, a dictatorship which, unlike the previous one, has not been able to provide any semblance of order. The Iraqi people are faced with daily critical shortages of basic necessities and must live in constant fear, not only of being 'accidently' shot up and killed by our troops, but now even of being blown up in front of their holy places by bombs of unknown origin. No, it's not freedom and democracy our great sacrifice has brought to Iraq--it's terror; and thus, it's a seething hatred our sacrifice has earned, not only in Iraq but all across the Islamic world. Our sacrifice has certainly not made us any safer, it's only poured gasoline on the fire that is the problem of terrorism and thus made the whole world a much more dangerous place.

All around the world our sacrifice has earned not respect and admiration, but fear and enmity. All the sympathy and good will that came after 911 has evaporated. In the eyes of the world America's standing has never been lower than it is today, just two years after millions around the world expressed their sympathy and solidarity with America. The reason for this is that the rest of the world can see what America, blinded by a shallow patriotism, has been unable to face. Bush's poll numbers have been dropping and now stand at the lowest point since before 911; and yet the reason for this has to do more with the failing economy that the war and occupation of Iraq. According to polls last week, some 60 to 70% of Americans still think we were justified in invading Iraq. Apparently, the majority of Americans still agree with Paul Bremer, who recently referred to the invasion and occupation of Iraq as a "great and noble thing." <1> Now Bush has asked for another 87 billion to burn upon this funeral pyre and Congress will no doubt comply. And if some estimates that it will likely take 3-5 more years (at a billion a week) are accurate, then this is still obviously only the tip of the iceberg.

The terrible truth that America cannot face is that the whole thing was never justified in the first place and is thus certainly not a "great and noble thing." If the invasion of Iraq was not justified, then our continued occupation of Iraq can only make things worse. Of course it is a terrible, terrible thing to subject the Iraqi people to the horror they have been subjected to if the war was never justified to begin with. Of course it is a truly terrible thing (and thus a mockery of the slogan--"support the troops") to send our troops into this nightmare if the war was never justified to begin with. Certainly the majority of Americans can recognize what a terrible thing this war and occupation are if the whole thing was never justified to begin with.

Despite unprecedented protests around the world prior to the invasion of Iraq, protests which included respected statesmen, philosophers, and religious leaders including the Pope in Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury among many other religious leaders, America, as a nation, never adequately examined the case for war against Iraq. Despite ample evidence that the Administration's whole case for war proved to be based on lies and distortions and never amounted in the first place to anything more than a fig leaf for the neo-con agenda, Americans have not been able to face the terrible truth. America can never hope to even begin to try to set things right until she faces the terrible truth. As a nation we can never begin to really confront the problem of terrorism until we face the truth about America and this war and occupation of Iraq.

(more)

http://www.counterpunch.org/freeman09172003.html