sagawizard (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sagawizard) wrote,@ 2009-03-19 14:12:00 |
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Reflections on today, the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War's onset
March 19th. The sixth anniversary of the Iraq War.
As of today, 4259 US soldiers have lost their lives, and 45,583 injuries have been reported (to be accurate, this is injury count, not people count - some are multiple injuries to same soldier).
Between 91,000 and 99,000 Iraqis have been killed.
656.1 billion dollars of our tax money have been spent already, and President Obama has just requested $75.5 billion more.
And for what? A shaky, barely-stable Iraqi "democracy" that most experts say will fall apart the second we leave. A country that was never meant to be one country and which already is in essence two countries (Kurdistan and the rest), and which may well become three countries after the US withdraws. Worldwide condemnation and loss of moral authority. Thousands of new recruits to Al Qaeda.
Yes, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, which no one argues is a bad thing in and of itself, except this isn't a movie, and the credits don't just roll once the "bad guy" dies - if you kill the bad guy and in doing so set the conditions which lead to over 100,000 more deaths and no end in sight - maybe it just wasn't freaking worth it? And come on, isn't Saddam II just going to replace him once we leave?
In the wake of the financial crisis, you would never know there are in fact TWO wars going on right now, or even that one, in Iraq, is continuing. As usual, the media cycle obscures as much as it reveals.
But I remember.
I remember on this date in 2003, I watched as, despite the largest day of worldwide protest in recorded history, the US launched a preemptive war against Iraq. At the time, every major news source cheered the invasion, and the 50% of the country that opposed the war was silenced as the media broadcast unsubstantiated WMD claims and showed off the sleek, sexy military technology.
I remember how I spent the next five years attending protest after protest, few of which saw any media attention despite the tens or on occasions even hundreds of thousands who attended. In 2004, President Bush won re-election despite the fact that by then the WMD and AL Qaeda pre-war claims had both been exposed as false.
I remember how, despite being exposed as having made 935 false statements about the war, President Bush was never impeached, censured, or charged with anything, no matter how many US Soldiers and Iraqi civilians died or how many times he violated the Geneva Convention or the US Constitution. I remember how Nancy Pelosi rode the anger of voters in the 2006 congressional elections and then pledged to never attempt impeachment.
I remember how over the last nine years I've written hundreds of letters to dozens of publications. I got published in several, including USA Today, the Boston Globe, and Newsweek. Not sure what good any of it did.
I remember that all six years that have passed. Now I see a December 2008 ABC News/Washington Post Poll of 1,003 adults nationwide that found 64% felt the Iraq War "was not worth fighting".
That's cold comfort now.
I remember how for three solid years of proposing at the statewide meeting of the union to which I belong that the organization come out publicly against the war, I was jeered, called a traitor, watched colleagues get their microphones shut off, had people refuse to shake my hand..and then the fourth year, the motion passed nearly unanimously. United States of Amnesia, indeed. Now everyone's against the war, it seems, and always has been. I find this bizarre.
I see President Obama promising the troops will be out in a year. I hear every pundit saying he won't be able to pull it off. But then, every pundit also said he would never win the primaries, and many said he couldn't win the general election, so I hope he continues to surprise. I hope he further continues to surprise by reversing his current course on Afghanistan, another unwinnable conflict, and bring ALL our troops home. I am prepared to be surprised.
But what does NOT surprise me are the results of this needless, unjust and disastrous war. We *called* this, six years ago. The antiwar movement has been warning about it for six years since. And the fact that events have proven us right leaves nothing but a taste of ash in my mouth, because it didn't matter. I'm not happy to see all the horrible results I predicted. I'm ashamed and saddened, and embarrassed because I wasn't willing to withhold my tax dollars and go to jail rather than fund this war, which I've been doing every April when I file.
I would have thought Vietnam would have taught us a few things. It evidently didn't. The *only* good that will come of this is if we learn NOT to wage this kind of war again, not to get swept up in a leader's evidence-less claims and appeals to our fears. I hope the next generation has learned from this.
My students have no idea why we're in Iraq. It doesn't make any sense to them. This may be a good thing. But I'd rather they understand WHY we got into it. Only then can they prevent it from happening in their time.
- SW
March 19th. The sixth anniversary of the Iraq War.
As of today, 4259 US soldiers have lost their lives, and 45,583 injuries have been reported (to be accurate, this is injury count, not people count - some are multiple injuries to same soldier).
Between 91,000 and 99,000 Iraqis have been killed.
656.1 billion dollars of our tax money have been spent already, and President Obama has just requested $75.5 billion more.
And for what? A shaky, barely-stable Iraqi "democracy" that most experts say will fall apart the second we leave. A country that was never meant to be one country and which already is in essence two countries (Kurdistan and the rest), and which may well become three countries after the US withdraws. Worldwide condemnation and loss of moral authority. Thousands of new recruits to Al Qaeda.
Yes, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, which no one argues is a bad thing in and of itself, except this isn't a movie, and the credits don't just roll once the "bad guy" dies - if you kill the bad guy and in doing so set the conditions which lead to over 100,000 more deaths and no end in sight - maybe it just wasn't freaking worth it? And come on, isn't Saddam II just going to replace him once we leave?
In the wake of the financial crisis, you would never know there are in fact TWO wars going on right now, or even that one, in Iraq, is continuing. As usual, the media cycle obscures as much as it reveals.
But I remember.
I remember on this date in 2003, I watched as, despite the largest day of worldwide protest in recorded history, the US launched a preemptive war against Iraq. At the time, every major news source cheered the invasion, and the 50% of the country that opposed the war was silenced as the media broadcast unsubstantiated WMD claims and showed off the sleek, sexy military technology.
I remember how I spent the next five years attending protest after protest, few of which saw any media attention despite the tens or on occasions even hundreds of thousands who attended. In 2004, President Bush won re-election despite the fact that by then the WMD and AL Qaeda pre-war claims had both been exposed as false.
I remember how, despite being exposed as having made 935 false statements about the war, President Bush was never impeached, censured, or charged with anything, no matter how many US Soldiers and Iraqi civilians died or how many times he violated the Geneva Convention or the US Constitution. I remember how Nancy Pelosi rode the anger of voters in the 2006 congressional elections and then pledged to never attempt impeachment.
I remember how over the last nine years I've written hundreds of letters to dozens of publications. I got published in several, including USA Today, the Boston Globe, and Newsweek. Not sure what good any of it did.
I remember that all six years that have passed. Now I see a December 2008 ABC News/Washington Post Poll of 1,003 adults nationwide that found 64% felt the Iraq War "was not worth fighting".
That's cold comfort now.
I remember how for three solid years of proposing at the statewide meeting of the union to which I belong that the organization come out publicly against the war, I was jeered, called a traitor, watched colleagues get their microphones shut off, had people refuse to shake my hand..and then the fourth year, the motion passed nearly unanimously. United States of Amnesia, indeed. Now everyone's against the war, it seems, and always has been. I find this bizarre.
I see President Obama promising the troops will be out in a year. I hear every pundit saying he won't be able to pull it off. But then, every pundit also said he would never win the primaries, and many said he couldn't win the general election, so I hope he continues to surprise. I hope he further continues to surprise by reversing his current course on Afghanistan, another unwinnable conflict, and bring ALL our troops home. I am prepared to be surprised.
But what does NOT surprise me are the results of this needless, unjust and disastrous war. We *called* this, six years ago. The antiwar movement has been warning about it for six years since. And the fact that events have proven us right leaves nothing but a taste of ash in my mouth, because it didn't matter. I'm not happy to see all the horrible results I predicted. I'm ashamed and saddened, and embarrassed because I wasn't willing to withhold my tax dollars and go to jail rather than fund this war, which I've been doing every April when I file.
I would have thought Vietnam would have taught us a few things. It evidently didn't. The *only* good that will come of this is if we learn NOT to wage this kind of war again, not to get swept up in a leader's evidence-less claims and appeals to our fears. I hope the next generation has learned from this.
My students have no idea why we're in Iraq. It doesn't make any sense to them. This may be a good thing. But I'd rather they understand WHY we got into it. Only then can they prevent it from happening in their time.
- SW
