Who grieves for dead Iraqis? BY ANDREW GREELEY

[jbfam4]

Who grieves for dead Iraqis?

July 28, 2006

BY ANDREW GREELEY
http://suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel28.html

Rarely do Americans tell themselves that the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is responsible for this slaughter. In a spasm of arrogance and power, we destroyed their political and social structure and are now unable to protect them from one another. Their blood is on the hands of our leaders who launched a war on false premises, without adequate forces, without plans for the time after the war and then sent in inept administrators who could not provide even a hint of adequate public services.



There was, therefore, no just cause, no attempt to exhaust all possible alternatives short of war, no real hope for victory, no postwar plan, and no ability to prevent the postwar butchery that was easily predictable to those who understood Iraq. The war leaped from slogan to slogan -- weapons of mass destruction, the critical front in the global war on terror, stay the course, freedom and democracy in Iraq. All these slogans are false.

Were America's leaders deliberately lying? Did they really believe that the Shiites and the Sunnis would not murder one another, or did they know better? One must leave the state of their consciences to God. However, they should have known, and in the objective order, they are criminally responsible for the hundred deaths every day. They should be tried for their crimes, not that such trials are possible in our country.


Is blood on the hands of those Americans who support the war? Again, one must leave them to heaven. But in the objective order it is difficult to see why they are not responsible for the mass murders. They permitted their leaders to deceive them about the war, often enthusiastically. How can they watch the continuing murders in Iraq and not feel guilty?

[bronxiteforever]

1. Great post-all fellow Americans should read this

Greeley is a great political writer-i remember reading him in political science back in the 1970s-the best line is the last, so tragically true

We cannot permit ourselves to grieve for Iraqi pain because then we would weep bitter and guilty tears every day-

[babylonsister]

2. RECOMMEND! Stating the obvious, but needs to be said!

:applause: :applause:

[TexasProgresive]

3. delete.

[TexasProgresive]

4. Kick and recommend

:kick:

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. Father Andrew Greely was the first catholic priest

that made me think that maybe all priests
weren't bad.

[gademocrat7]

6. Amen

[PATRICK]

7. Hard enough

to make them feel their responsibility(they cherrypick that which justifies themselves) for what we directly caused. Guilt is something even more easily evaded. Some of the Gospel stories tell fables of the damned asking God or complaining "why didn't You say so" or asking someone to go rub the faces of sinners in wthe truth so that they might be spared their fate. Besides the easy effort employed to avoid both truth and responsibility, truth HAS been rubbed adequately in their faces. The response has been escalation of anger and shooting the messenger. Commoners who follow the perpetrators all this way share all the responsibility with very few of the perks and payoffs, the self chosen moral victims hiding behind the liars.

This is a terrible time of testing. Exult with the powerful and fail and be damned. Choose justice and fail and carry the weight of failure in the subsequent suffering of everyone. One can see why the Lord's prayer specifically finishes with a plea that one never comes to this.

[DesertRat]

8. Thank you, Father Greeley

:applause:

[yurbud]

9. I posted a blog called What Iraqis Want with polls on Iraqi and Arab

views of the occupation and US.

My other blogs would get 30-50 hits a day per entry, but so few people care about what Iraqis want that it never broke 10 and rarely got above 5.

http://whatiraqiswant.blogspot.com/

[DesertRat]

10. That's a sad commentary

I wonder why that is?

[yurbud]

11. self-centeredness, inability to put ourselves in others shoes even when

we are pretending to try to help them.

[GAPeace]

12. Powerful, and the author better beware of death threats

Even in a very liberal city like Chicago I'm sure there are freepers waiting to jump on someone who suggests we bear responsibility for murder (which we plainly do).

[DesertRat]

13. Would freepers threaten a Catholic priest?

:shrug:

[GAPeace]

14. They had no problem taking on the religious left

during Vietnam or when it all turned against the Iraq War (as most global christians did).