Headlines routinely blare
the horror that besets the people of Iraq.
-
January 16- “100 Killed and 245 Wounded in Baghdad”
-
January 22 –
“Market Bombs Kill 100 in 2 Iraqi cities”
-
February
6 – “Dozens Killed As Baghdad
Crackdown Nears”
In this country, political
leaders and pundits of all stripes speak of the terrible violence tearing at Iraq as if the US invasion and occupation have had
nothing to do with it. Neo-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote
recently that “Iraqis were given their freedom, and yet many have chosen civil
war. Among all these religious prejudices, ancient wounds, social resentments
and tribal antagonisms, who gets the blame for the rivers of blood? You can
always count on some to find the blame in America.”
An essential point for Krauthammer – “freedom” is not
“given” through military invasion and occupation. For almost four full years now, the people in Iraq have been living a recurring nightmare of
death and destruction that commenced with the U.S. invasion in March 2003. The
British medical journal Lancet recently published a study which indicated that 655,000
people – children, women, and men – who would not have died otherwise have died
as a result of the caldron of devastation and violence that has torn through Iraq in those
four years. This is what the policies and military of the Bush Regime have brought to Iraq.
It is true that deep seated and
complex conflicts have erupted in Iraq. It is quite possible – even
likely – that some of this violence could increase in the context of a U.S.
withdrawal.
But the most fundamental
problem confronting the people of Iraq is that it is under military
occupation by a foreign power. And it is
an irrefutable fact that the torrents of violence ripping at Iraq began and were triggered when it was
invaded by the US
military. One thing that must be
understood – the US military
is not occupying Iraq
as a “peacekeeping” force. American
troops have not been thrown into a civil war. American troops were sent to invade and
conquer Iraq
by George W. Bush and his regime. The
American military has been directly responsible for the death and torture of
countless Iraqi people. And nothing good
can come out of this situation for the people of Iraq
while its occupation by the US
military continues.
American troops are not being
sent to referee a civil war. George Bush
and his crew are not sending more soldiers to mediate a conflict that somehow
materialized despite his “good intentions”. The American military is the primary source of
the violence that has taken so many lives in Iraq. The American military, carrying out the Bush
Regime policies of invasion and occupation, is the primary source of
perpetrating and perpetuating that violence.
This is the truth. And the sooner people in this country confront
that truth, and act on it by doing everything in their power to end the war and
impeach Bush for war crimes. Now.