they have to choose: pushing for peace, supporting the troops
I feel as though, since today marks the start of the 6th year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, I should write of it, of my opinions and feelings about this foreign policy that “my” government adheres to “on my behalf”. Really though, I want to ignore it. I want it go away. Since wishing it to end won’t work, instead, I want to yell at everyone who supported the war back in 2003, but who now has realized what a clusterfuck our government embarked upon.
Back when Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched by BushCo, the media reported that a whopping 73% of the populace supported military action. No one called me, no called my friends. Between the 3rd of January and 12th of April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against war in Iraq.
According to wikipedia:
In February, 2003, the U.S. Army’s top general, Eric Shinseki, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take “several hundred thousand soldiers” to secure Iraq.[96] Two days later, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the post-war troop commitment would be less than the number of troops required to win the war and, “the idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces is far from the mark.” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Shineski’s estimate was “way off the mark,” because other countries would take part in an occupying force.
On March 19, 2003 the Iraq Invasion began. The cost of the war has exceeded $500 billion. Today, the support for war is at 31%.
Mind your manners wave your banners
What a wonderful world that this angle can see
So here’s my proposition, the 42% of all ya’all who have seen the light, who now realize that BushCo went into Iraq on false pretenses, with no plan, without an understanding of the delicate and historic chasms separating Shias from Sunnis from Shiites, who realize that this war is a damn bad thing, YOU all have a responsibility to end this war. Because those of us who believed from day 1 that this war was B.S., we have marched before the war started, we marched after it started, we have sent letters, we have voted Blue in Presidential and Congressional elections, some people have undertaken nonviolent direct action and have been arrested in protest — we have done all that we can do. But you all, you need to understand that Bush cashed you in the day he gave to he gave the all clear to bomb Baghdad. He’s still running up the charges on the blank check that you all gave him. You people - you red staters turned war haters, it’s your turn to pick up the banner, to stop this war, to vote against this endless war come November, to call your Senators and Representives today….this is your war, own it or stop it.
It is with sadness I say that this war will linger on through the sputtering end of the Bush/Cheney presidency. It will linger some more past there, as the new President figures out how to extract our troops while minimizing blowback yet maintaining whatever testosterone driven political egoism politicians find crucial. As of today, there are officially 3992 U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq. For each of our 19 days of March, we have lost one soldier - one more son or daughter, brother or sister, parent or friend. By the end of the month, we will pass the 4,000 mark. 4,000 people, and that’s just the ones who we bother to count. One more soldier is one too many. End this war, bring them home.
So you, red staters turned war haters, show us what you’ve got, please.
quotes from Jack Johnson’s new song, Sleep through the Static
