Does anyone honestly believe we are fighting for democracy in Iraq?

[killbotfactory]

Is anyone still really that naive? Do you think for a minute, that if the Iraqi people voted to end the occupation and close down all US bases, or to honor the oil contracts that existed under Saddam (giving most of it to France and Russia), that the US would allow it? No country spends as much money as we have and expects nothing out of it. We are not staying there because the Iraqi's are incapable of self-governing, we are staying their to protect our investment.

At first it was claimed this "pre-emptive" war was one of self-defense against the horrible scourge of WMD's and Saddam's close personal ties with terrorists, with "freeing iraqi's" as a secondary feel-good objective. When the WMD threat proved itself to be non-existent, we turned to the freedom angle. Both are bullshit. The only thing we are freeing the Iraqi's from is their natural resources and lives. Great, Saddam is gone, but I doubt there are many crimes he has committed that got us claiming he was the devil incarnate in the first place that the US hasn't done while controlling the country.

Any politician that says we can't "let the troops die in vain" is pissing on you and trying to convince you it's raining. Like almost every fucking war that has preceded it, this war was an illegal war of aggression, based on lies and false ideals, for material greed. Nothing more, nothing less. The troops and iraqi's who have been killed have already died in vain, because they died for lies. They put their trust in the government to do the right thing, and were stabbed in the back by war profiteering politicians and the political cowards who capitulated to them. The ones who claim we can't let the troops die in vain are the same ones holding the knife in their backs.

The people who put their life on the line for this idiotic fucking war crime need some goddamned honesty, not patronizing feel-good bullshit from our politicians and pundits. They are adults and deserve the truth. The truth isn't pretty, in fact it is obscene and infuriating, but after being recklessly put into the middle of a war zone for no good fucking reason, I'm sure they understand that.

[samdogmom]

1. Nope. We don't have it here. How can we spread it over there?

[zorro349]

2. I don't think people w/ a brain think that

It's pretty obvious we went in there for any reason OTHER than that. What really confuses me is that people don't understand that we supported Iraq in the 80's so they wouldn't become like Iran. And now, we are offering them to become just like Iran. Seems counterproductive to me.

[killbotfactory]

3. Have we ever thought through our foreign policy?

It seems like we never think ahead, and we will never think twice about betraying the ideals of this nation in our "interests". Malice without forthought.

[catmother]

7. iraq

and then we sold weapons to iran. our country has done some really fucked-up things.

i wanted to refresh my memory so i recently rented several movies

the reagans
the pentagon papers
salvador

[killbotfactory]

8. It's all bullshit, just like Vietnam

We just HAD to pour money and lives into that quagmire in indochina to stop the "communist domino" from falling, killing probably millions of people, and then we turn around and engage in relations with fucking Red China.

Same bullshit with Iraq. We invaded a country for supposed wmd's and terrorist links, when our friendly nations in the middle east are brimming with terrorists and those that fund them.

[1932]

4. Serously. Democracy is powerful force for development and progress.

I'm inclined to believe that Wilson was very right about this and very right about fighting against anti-democratic forces in Europe (even if shipping lanes were such a big factor for the US fighting WW1).

But our government has wrapped Wilson around something that I sense is, at its core, the exact opposite of what Wilson would have supported.

I think it's still not completely obvious that this is the case.

Sometimes I wonder if the Republicans are moving so slowly in Iraq because they want to keep Democratic and progressive critics on the sidelines by having them think that maybe there's still a chance that this won't really turn into a money-printing machine for corporate America, and while the liberals are on the sidelines, all the tools for deeply entrenching corporate control of Iraq are being put more firmly in place, which will guarantee even more instability and more chaos and more misery for iraqis.

[killbotfactory]

6. We are stealing iraq's wealth, and raiding our treasury

To make rich people richer, and poor people dead or poorer. All under a guise of freedom and liberation. It's not the first war like this, and probably won't be the last, but that doesn't mean we have to sit here and take it.

[400Years]

5. You can't export something you don't have.