| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"GW *AWOL* Chimpzilla" |
| Date: |
19 Sep 2004 01:41:46 PM |
| Object: |
How many ways was war in Iraq wrong? Let local veteran tell you |
By MICHAEL AUGUST
I am a Vietnam Veteran and I have participated in a number of political
demonstrations in Nashville as a member of the local chapter of Veterans for
Peace. This organization is made up of people who have served in the armed
forces and count themselves among those who stand up against the militarism and
the politics of fear that have taken over our country.
We believe that war should be an action of absolute last resort in defense of
our country and not the preferred alternative. It should certainly not be used
for selfish economic gains (''No War For Oil''). We are living in a time when
our leadership has convinced many Americans that going to war is in their best
interests. It is wrong.
We were told that the war in Iraq was a pre-emptive war, but this is not so. In
a pre-emptive war, it is known absolutely that an enemy is about to strike, and
we beat them to the punch.
What we started in Iraq could have been called a preventive war. In this
scenario, the country in question is disagreeable to us and is suspected to
have the capability to harm us, but there is no indication of intention to do
so.
As most people know by now, we Americans were lied to in order to justify an
unnecessary war. There was no link between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein
and no weapons of mass destruction (mass distraction?). The war, which has
caused so much destruction and death on both sides, was not only unnecessary,
it was unjustifiable.
Let us be clear. When the term ''protecting American interests'' is used as an
excuse for military interference in another country, it is not referring to
America as a collection of individual citizens. It is the interests of the
multinational corporations that are being protected, often harming the
interests of ordinary people.
The war on Iraq has cost the American taxpayers over $134 billion so far.
America's largest and wealthiest corporations hire experts to evade taxes,
thereby increasing the burden for the rest of us. These war profiteers are now
standing in line for the largest piece of the Iraqi reconstruction pie that
they can swallow, with the government's blessing. Oil and energy companies like
Halliburton are at the head of the line. They will make millions of dollars
while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet.
The present Bush administration is largely made up of a group of
neoconservatives (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearle, etc.) whose agenda Sept.
12, 2001 was the invasion of Iraq. The idea was to establish military bases,
gain hegemony over the area and ensure the flow of cheap oil. Iraqi freedom and
the protection of Americans had nothing to do with it.
We veterans join with other members and associates of the Nashville Peace and
Justice Center in protesting the economic and military policies which lead to
perpetual warfare. Dwight D. Eisenhower had this to say:
''Every gun that's made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in
the final sense a theft from all those who hunger and are not fed, from those
who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money
alone; it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life in any true sense. Under a
cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.''
http://tennessean.com/opinion/nashville-eye
archives/04/09/57128047.shtml?Element_ID=57128047
--
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas -- that says, fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
http://www.diymedia.net/audio/mp3/tdntb-bushwack2.mp3
.
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