"An Immediate Withdrawal, Would Mean an Immediate Cessation of Civiliian Casualties"

[leftchick]

Anti-War activist, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi's take on the US occupation rings more true than anything I hear from most Democrats. Here is her website....

http://liberatethis.com/posts.html

Dahlia S. Wasfi, M.D.

An Excerpt from Congressional Forum testimony, April 27, 2006:

"I speak to you today on behalf of relatives on my mother’s side—Ashkenazi Jews who fled their homeland of Austria during Hitler’s Anschluss. It is for them that we say 'Never again.' I speak to you today on behalf of relatives on my father’s side, who are not living, but dying, under the occupation of this administration’s deadly foray in Iraq. From the lack of security to the lack of basic supplies to the lack of electricity to the lack of potable water to the lack of jobs to the lack of recon-struction to the lack of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they are much worse off now than before we invaded. 'Never again' should apply to them, too..."



Anti-war speaker paints disturbing picture of Iraq

http://www.canyoncourier.com/story_display.php?sid=4857

<snip>

An immediate withdrawal, Wasfi said, would mean an immediate cessation of the aerial bombing of suburban safe houses, the single greatest killer of Iraqi civilians. It would spell the end for U.S. military prisons containing thousands of citizens who are being held without charges. It would stop the use of depleted-uranium munitions that many blame for a surge in Iraqi children born with physical and mental deficiencies. It would end the training and arming of paramilitary Iraqi "death squads" that spread death and fear throughout the country. And it would put the more than 100,000 mercenaries on the U.S. payroll out of work.

"They call them ‘security contractors,’ " she said, "but it’s really war profiteering, and that’s illegal."

Though perfectly familiar with the many arguments against rapid troop withdrawal, Wasfi remains unconvinced. Far from welcoming the protection of foreign armies, she cites a poll taken by the Iraqi Defense Ministry suggesting that 82 percent of the population wants all foreign soldiers out of the country, and perhaps as much as 60 percent believe that attacks on the United States and United Kingdom are warranted to achieve that end.

And while Wasfi admits that civil war is one possible outcome of the withdrawal, she also contends that the "counterinsurgency" and "sectarian violence" taking place throughout Iraq are greatly exaggerated in the Western press. Indeed, Wasfi believes a strong case can be made that many of the most heinous internal outrages — the bombings of mosques, schools and hospitals, for example — are actually perpetrated by occupying agencies in order to justify a continued coalition presence.

"The problem now isn’t so much the chickenhawks that started this war; it’s progressives who want to stay and help," she said. "I believe there’s a large element of ‘white man’s burden’ here. The fact is, they aren’t helping."

[Time for change]

1. I don't understand the concept of "wanting to stay and help"

The Iraqis are vehemently against our occupying their country. If we were doing them any good, why would more than 90% want us to leave and more than 50% oppose our occumpation so strongly that they approve of violence against our troops? Why doesn't our corporate news media ever talk about what the Iraqis want?

[phildo]

2. Only there to make sure the Iraqis pass the "Oil Law" and that our Transnation Corps profit from it.

NObody gives a rat's about the civies or civil war.

It is just a beneficial cover until we can work out the details for the Corporations to grab the resources. At that point we withdraw to the fortress compounds and the Green Zone.

Economically we are at the point that those oil resources are needed to offset out debts. The currency has no other value to it other than being used for international trade, while we debase it.

If we fail at Empire Pax Americana, we become Bankrupt America -- same as what happened to the Soviet Union.

The R's know this, the top end D's know this. They are all working for and being funded by the same people.

[leftchick]

3. exactly right

And Dr. Wasfi addresses the real reasons for the US occupation in her speeches.