For The Iraqi People: I Have A Dream

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

From : Ramblings of a Sane Man ~ For The Iraqi People: I Have A Dream
by Dick Kazan (posted with permission)
http://saneramblings.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=259&sid=30c8f68ee17ff46d7ad3005bcdbce44a
(edited to add a link)

Iraq is the horrific victim of five years of U.S. military occupation. It is a shattered, blood spattered version of what it was before the U.S. invasion. Many Iraqis and Americans believe the situation is hopeless.

But it's not. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed so eloquently in confronting widespread U.S. discrimination and injustice in 1963 in his famous "I Have A Dream" speech, today I have a dream, and I hope it's one you will share and even add to:

I have a dream the children of Iraq will again feel safe and secure. That they will be able to play without the threat of being blown to bits, trapped in gunfire, kidnapped or abruptly orphaned. Nor will they suffer a lifetime of traumatic stress disorder from all the violence they have seen and felt.

I have a dream that every child in Iraq will receive a quality education, much as many of them did before the occupation.

I have a dream that every Iraqi child will get enough to eat, clean water to drink and medical care to ensure their health.

I have a dream that with peace and plentiful water the fertility of Iraqi lands will return and farmers will have bountiful harvests.

I have a dream reliable electricity will be restored so when Iraqis turn their air conditioning on in the 120 degree summer heat, it will actually work.

I have a dream the Iraqi economy will return to life and Iraqis will be able to support their families again, something 40 to 70% of the workforce is unable to do.

I have a dream four million displaced Iraqis will come back to their homes and rebuild their lives.

I have a dream the massive cement fire walls the U.S. military created like so many Berlin Walls will be torn down so that Iraqis are no longer prisoners in their own country.

And to paraphrase Dr. King, I have a dream Iraqis "will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by" ... their religious beliefs ... "but by content of their character." This was largely true before the U.S. military occupation and it can be true again.

I have a dream the U.S. and allied troops and the U.S. mercenaries will return home safely to their families and build new lives. But some never will for they returned in body bags, as others struggle with severe physical and mental trauma.

I have a dream that we as a nation will finally learn our lesson and resolve our differences not at gun point, which has led us to war after war, but with compassion and cooperation as we find our commonality with all humanity. And the world will rejoice for it will find itself "free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last" from the nightmare of U.S. military might.

Dick

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Wow, what a beautiful piece.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

1. No DU love for this opinion?

I'd K&R ...if I could.