The Anti-Empire Report
"Most people don't understand what they have been part of here," said
Command Sgt. Major Ron Kelley as he and other American troops prepared
to leave Iraq in mid-December. "We have done a great thing as a nation.
We freed a people and gave their country back to them."
"It is pretty exciting," said another young American soldier in Iraq.
"We are going down in the history books, you might say." (Washington Post, December 18, 2011)
Ah yes, the history books, the multi-volume leather-bound set of "The
Greatest Destructions of One Country by Another." The newest volume
can relate, with numerous graphic photos, how the modern, educated,
advanced nation of Iraq was reduced to a quasi failed state; how the
Americans, beginning in 1991, bombed for 12 years, with one dubious
excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew the
government, tortured without inhibition, killed wantonly, ... how the
people of that unhappy land lost everything — their homes, their
schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their
neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their
careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their
physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare
state, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their safety,
their security, their children, their parents, their past, their
present, their future, their lives ... More than half the population
either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or
in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, blood, and genes drenched
with depleted uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... unexploded
cluster bombs lying anywhere in wait for children to pick them up ... a
river of blood running alongside the Euphrates and Tigris ... through a
country that may never be put back together again.
"It is a common refrain among war-weary Iraqis that things were better before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003," reported the Washington Post on May 5, 2007.
No matter ... drum roll, please ... Stand tall American GI hero! And don't even think
of ever apologizing or paying any reparations. Iraq is forced by
Washington to continue paying reparations to Kuwait for Iraq's invasion
in 1990 (an invasion instigated in no small measure by the United
States). And — deep breath here! — Vietnam has been compensating the
United States. Since 1997 Hanoi has been paying off about $145 million
in debts left by the defeated South Vietnamese government for American
food and infrastructure aid. Thus, Hanoi is reimbursing the United
States for part of the cost of the war waged against it. (William Blum, Rogue State, p.304) How much will the United States pay the people of Iraq?
On December 14, at the Fort Bragg, North Carolina military base,
Barack Obama stood before an audience of soldiers to speak about the
Iraq war. It was a moment in which the president of the United States
found it within his heart and soul — as well as within his oft-praised
(supposed) intellect — to proclaim:
This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the
making. And today, we remember everything that you did to make it
possible. ... Years from now, your legacy will endure. In the names of
your fallen comrades etched on headstones at Arlington, and the quiet
memorials across our country. In the whispered words of admiration as
you march in parades, and in the freedom of our children and
grandchildren. ... So God bless you all, God bless your families, and
God bless the United States of America. ... You have earned your place
in history because you sacrificed so much for people you have never met.
Does Mr. Obama, the Peace Laureate, believe the words that come out of his mouth?
Barack H. Obama believes only in being the President of the United States. It is the only strong belief the man holds.
Source: killinghope.org
Also see:
Items of interest from a journal I've kept for 40 years, part VI