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The long awaited Congressional appearance by General David Petraeus has begun. If anyone anywhere needed more convincing that a., the Bush Regime fully intends to continue and extend its utterly unjust, criminal war in Iraq, and b., Congress, including the Democratic Party leadership, will do nothing to stop it, they now have that evidence. As Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post wrote in his blog about Petraeus” testimony, “the bottom line is, this is a roadmap for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq for many years to come–2010, 2011, maybe 2012 or later.”
The entire terms on which the farcical drama in D.C. took place, and the terms on which Petraeus, Ambassador Chester Crocker, and Bush himself will continue a public relations blitz for continuing war over at least the rest of this week are against the interests of the people of Iraq and the Mid East and Central Asia generally, the people of this country, and in fact of the entire world.
World Can’t Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime will be reporting and analyzing more fully on Petraeus” statement and responses to Congressional “questioning” in the days ahead. But the essential thrust from Petraeus was this: the “surge” is working, there will be a “drawdown” of US forces – reducing the number by 4 or 5 thousand by December, maybe – because predicting the future in Iraq is difficult, and Iraqi military and political forces must “carry their share of the load”. American occupation forces will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future.
There was no mention of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead. There was no discussion in these hallowed chambers of the torture at Abu Ghraib at the hands of U.S. military personnel. There was no discussion of the estimated 4 million Iraqi people – 13% of the entire population – displaced since the American invasion and occupation. There was no discussion of the destruction of the Iraqi city of Fallujah. There was no discussion of the criminal lies that had been used as a pretext for the U.S. invasion in the first place. There was no discussion of the endless atrocities perpetrated against the people of Iraq by the Bush Regime and the U.S. military, and there was definitely no mention of Congressional complicity in these crimes.
A few brave women denounced and disrupted the hearings. But much more is needed. Accepting the world Bush & Co. are creating means being complicit in its horrific consequences. An uprising of orange – the color of the Guantanamo detainees, the color of resistance to the crimes against humanity of the Bush Regime – can and must burst forth everywhere. The “normalcy” of perpetual war for unjust aims, backed up by torture and repression, must be shattered by mass political outpourings. The world the Bush Regime is moving very energetically to lock down must be repudiated by millions of people who will not accept any more of the wars, the lies, the torture, and the crimes against humanity.
The sand is running through the hour glass. Not much time is left to reverse the direction in which the world is hurtling. A massive expression of political resistance is urgently needed, and WE ARE WHAT WE”VE BEEN WAITING FOR!
DECLARE IT NOW: WEAR ORANGE, DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME!