How To Bring Peace To Iraq Now

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

How To Bring Peace To Iraq Now
by Dick Kazan (posted with permission)

President Bush continues his grand scale horrific disaster in Iraq.

"But the U.S. can't withdraw now," say many people who oppose the war. "It would bring chaos." As if this wasn't already the case after nearly five-years of endless war, as the U.S. rockets to its own financial destruction borrowing massive sums of money to fight in Iraq.

As Mr. Bush grows more desperate, Iraqis opposing the U.S. occupation are often declared "Al-Qaeda" and all hell is reigned down on them and others near them including women and children. The U.S. isn't fighting "bad" Iraqis on behalf of "good" Iraqis. It is fighting Iraqis.

Yet this war could end very quickly and here is how. The U.S. could declare a cease fire and join the waring parties to negotiate a settlement. As part of that settlement, the U.S. as a brutal intruder in someone else's land must leave.

You may think it's impossible to reach a settlement with such diverse sides. Yet my experience with gang bangers, parolees, homeless people and others on the bottom rungs of society is that they are seeking respect and better lives for themselves. They strike out at us when they lose hope.

I know whatever peaceful actions we take will be far better than what we are doing. We Americans must find our moral compass again, our compassion for others. The longer we wait and the more harm we cause others, the greater the peril we are bringing upon ourselves and to all of mankind.

Mr. Bush and Congress have shown no interest in seeking peace. You may think that will change next year after the elections, but many of us thought that would happen when the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. Instead the funding of the war escalated as did the bloodshed.

We need to hear from you. It's not good enough to cast your vote and sit around until next year to see what happens as thousands more people die. The light within you shines brightly but you must lift yourself out of the vast sea of conformity and silence and speak passionately for those with no voice in America, your Iraqi brethren.

[MrCoffee]

1. If there was any hope that ALL parties would honor a cease-fire, it would be a good idea.

I'm not so sure that anyone has any reason to think that a cease-fire would be honored, though.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

2. "whatever peaceful actions we take will be far better than what we are doing."

I agree 100%