Iraq: An Odd Liberation

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

Iraq: An Odd Liberation
by Dick Kazan (posted with permission)
http://saneramblings.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=177&sid=787f1da83460ef661a7c6a2e789f92ba

The Bush Administration claims to have liberated Iraq, but if so it is an odd liberation. Why?

1) The U.S. is destroying the very foundation of Iraq: its families. Millions of Iraqi men, women and children have been killed or severely injured and many Iraqi children have been orphaned. Some of those orphans are left to fend largely for themselves.

The U.S. government accepts no responsibility for the horrific brutality its invasion and occupation have caused for it sees it as a necessary part of its "war on terror." And the U.S. claims, it is "the terrorists" who are causing these deaths and it does not see itself as conducting terrorism.

We in the U.S. speak of "family values" but what have we left Iraqi children with? A lifetime of horrible memories for they've seen death at its worst and it has become a fundamental part of their lives. Many of them have buried their parents and/or brothers and sisters.

They've often felt their homes rock from powerful explosions and witnessed people splattered into pools of blood or body parts. These sickening sights can traumatize battle hardened soldiers, yet this is what Iraqi children are subject to.

In addition, many Iraqi children have no school to attend because it's too dangerous to send them. Iraq hospitals are in desperate need of supplies and equipment and healthcare is rationed, which means Iraqi children may die of a disease that could easily have been cured.

Also, essential services most Americans take for granted such as electricity, clean water, garbage pickup and sewage treatment can be an iffy proposition for Iraqi families.

Electricity is no longer consistently available which means refrigerated food can easily spoil, lighting and TV can go dark, and air conditioning or fans, desperately needed in the summer's 120 degree temperatures can become non-existent.

Clean water is now sometimes also in short supply. For it takes large-scale amounts of electricity and extensive, well-maintained water filtration and distribution systems to provide it to people's homes.

It can be too dangerous for trash collection so the garbage sometimes piles high in the streets. And when sewage pipes break, it can take a long time to repair them in war-torn Iraq. meaning the horrid blackish grimy waste spills on to the porous, pot-holed streets, forming puddles of ghastly stench.

To an Iraqi child, having clean drinking water, safe nourishing food, a pair of new shoes and a toy as simple as a soccer ball can be a lot to ask for and is very much appreciated.

We in America say, "it takes a village" to raise children well, but in this U.S. led "liberation" we have not left Iraqi families with much of a village in which to raise their children.

2) We Americans say, "Home is where the heart is" but for millions of Iraqis, home is a squalid refugee camp in Iran, Jordan, Syria or they live in hiding in their own nation. The alternative is to live in constant fear in their homes, and do as their government recently asked of them, to arm themselves for their survival. For neither their government nor the U.S. military can protect them.

Yet this means when heavily armed U.S. troops abruptly burst into their homes ready to fire on enemy combatants, they'll find many Iraqis to be armed and potentially dangerous.

3) The U.S. says it is there to liberate Iraq but in Baghdad's Green Zone it is building the world's largest embassy compound. It is so large that satellites can easily spot it. It is also creating 14 "enduring" giant military bases. The American occupation would appear to be permanent.

Iraq has about 25 million people, whereas China has 1.2 billion and India 1 billion, yet the U.S. in each of these countries has a normal size embassy and has no military bases.

4) The Iraqi Parliament has asked the U.S. to withdraw its soldiers and last week, Iraq's Prime Minister said his nation was prepared to function without the U.S. military. In response, the U.S. government ignored the desires of the Iraqi government for it does as it chooses in Iraq.

In the U.S. polls have repeatedly shown the majority of Americans want their military withdrawn from Iraq, yet President Bush has expanded the war and Congress has continued to fund it. The U.S. has 160,000 soldiers in Iraq and another 180,000 contractors, many of them also soldiers. And what is their mission?

5) As the U.S. government tortures Muslims it calls "terrorists," it ignores the Geneva Convention, ignores Iraqi law and it humiliates the Iraqi people, for each knows they too could be subject to the same type of indefinite seizure and torture. And yet the U.S. still claims to be a democracy whose freedoms and institutions the world should copy.

6) U.S military contractors have found Iraq to be a financial gold rush as they profit into the billions of dollars with no end in sight and largely no competition allowed. Of course they are expected to make major campaign contributions to U.S. politicians and they generously and gratefully do.

7) Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was one of the world's and one of the U.S.'s largest providers of oil. But as a result of the war, Iraq's oil production has been cut and this has allowed U.S. based global oil companies to sharply raise their prices and reward their shareholders with record profits. Of course these oil companies are also major campaign contributors.

The U.S. government accuses Iran, an Iraq next door neighbor, with an 800-mile-long common boundary of "meddling" in Iraq. Ironically the U.S., located several thousand miles away, doesn't consider its 4 year military occupation of Iraq and the death and destruction it has brought, nor its attempts to control the nation to be "meddling," and has threatened Iran with military attack.

Yes dear reader, it has been an odd liberation, and yet at no-time has the U.S. sought peace. But as people of conscience, it falls to you and me and others who find this "liberation" unconscionable and heart-breaking to raise our voices for the Iraqi people. For if we don't, who will?

In America, it is often said that our President will be out of office in 2009 and only then will there will be change. It's a common excuse to do nothing.

But if we sit silent until 2009, how many more Iraqis will be killed or have a lifetime's worth of harm inflicted upon them? How many more U.S. troops will die or be severely injured? And what kind of U.S. government can we expect will take office next? One that sees apathy among its people and may follow the precedents set by this Administration, the most violent government in the world.

http://saneramblings.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=177&sid=787f1da83460ef661a7c6a2e789f92ba