Senator Patrick Leahy is trying to start a truth
commission

please go to his website and sign the petition or go to

bushtruthcommission.com

this is what we have been waiting for and could lead
to many good things for our country
please lend your name…get everyone you know to
sign this petition….please….please….please
for you, your children and their children…..........

Robinson acknowledges that the war has cost $700 billion (which is much less than the $3 trillion that many economists believe the war has cost) and has resulted in the deaths of more than 4,400 and injuries to more than 30,000 members of the US military.  However, although Robinson does cite some things that might be considered benefits by a portion of the Iraqi people, he doesn’t cite any benefit received by the US in return for its war efforts in Iraq

A country that spends at least $700 billion and incurs more than 35,000 casualties (including deaths) without getting any tangible benefit(s) in return is a loser.  Thus, while I agree with Robinson’s statement that the US didn’t win in Iraq, his statement that the US didn’t lose makes no sense.

Re: ofersince72,September 2 at 10:58 am.

Quote
=====

Raylan…....

You will be better off not responding to nonsense.

Unquote
========

Ofersince72,

I feel compelled to inform you that the comment of yours quoted above is one of the most SENSIBLE statements I have ever read in the last three plus years on all the threads I usually cover of Truthdig website.

Please accept my sincere thanks for having the sensibility I have much appreciated and admired in all of my adult life.

I must admit,and publiclly,that I really underestimated you when you were communicating so many annoying series of consecutive posts,one after the other,with Tennessee Socialist and others,I ended-up refraining from reading them. NO MORE.

By the way,what happened to Tennessee Socialist who disappeared suddenly after I started appreaciating some of his writings? Do you know? You and him seemed to be close friends in communications. I am just curious.

Again,thank you,ofersince72,for your admired and appreciated sensibility,at least,by me.

ofersince72,

Can you help with the State Dept. transcripts so that I may better understand your positions?

G0____________Wright___________Young___________Man________

It really doesn’t matter if we agree or not, your

philosophy of empire and U.S. dominance haw won. No matter

that it has left a cesspool here at home.  While Iraq

certainly isn’t better off than it was 25 years ago,  I

have to accept the reality.  It is going to be occupied

by the U.S. forever more now.  Our presense and our

secret OPs will keep the sectarian tensions going. It’s

over.  Your side won.  So how do we move on with all

of America’s domestic problems?  Do we keep a trillion

dollar war budget forever?

I will engage you on this

Go__________Wright___________Young_________Man

If what you call victory were achieved today, and all

troops were brought home.  How would America go forward

with domestic issues as unemployment, turning away from

the Military employment complex?

RayLan….....

You will be better off not responding to nonsense.

RayLan, - “Who is deluded enough to think this was a war of necessity?”

-

We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century. They feed on the free flow of information and technology. They actually take advantage of the freer movement of people, information and ideas.

And they will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. We simply cannot allow that to happen.

There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

President Bill Clinton. Feb. 1998

Who is deluded enough to think this was a war of necessity? - as a war of choice it betrays profound ignorance about the frabile complexity of middle East politics and relationships

ofersince72, - “Iraq invaded Kuwait,  not Saddam Hussain”.

-

We disagree.  By all accounts, including his own, Saddam was the Iraqi government. 

Can you help with the State Dept. transcripts so that I may better understand your positions?

For those who are interested in knowing how Daddie Bush’s administration encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1990 in order to cut him to pieces along with his Iraq that had become an example for the rest of the Arab countries to emulate just Google:

Ambassador April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein

Ms.April Glaspie was,then,in 1990 the U.S.Ambassador to Iraq.

It is strange how Ms.Glaspie voluntarily brought Saddam’s dispute with Kuwait into the friendly conversation and told him that the U.S.had no policy when it came to Arab-Arab disputes,like his dispute with Kuwait. It is obvious that Saddam miscalculated and thought it was an implicit green light to settle his disagreements with Kuwait as he saw fit. It was a trap.

Read the whole conversation and reach your own conclusion as I and millions of people across the globe reached similar,if not identical, conclusions.

It is interesting to notice that the meeting in Saddam’s office took place in July,1990. Ambassador Glaspie left Baghdad couple of days later for the United States. Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2,1990.

It is so obvious to me that it was a trap Saddam tragically and regrettably fell into.

Another troubling and unhealthy phenomenon resulted from such a trap is the fact that the U.S.Marines,Army,Navy and Airforce were used as mercenary for the money the emir of Kuwait,Saudi Arabia,Germany and Japan paid the administration of Daddie Bush to deliver Kuwaiti throne back to the corrupt emire so that he could have his toilet made of gold in his palace.

The proof that the U.S.military ended up acting as mercenary in the 1991 Gulf war was the testimony James Baker,the Secretary of State then,presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee,after the war,which was televised and I personally saw it on C-Span cable channel TV. When he was questioned about the cost of the war he responded that the government of the U.S.had made $26 billion dollars from the war.

Made profit from a bloody war!!

No need to take my word for what Mr. Baker testified. It is all in the Congressional Records. Perhaps by now it is in the Library of Congress. I am not sure whether or not the testimony accessible now. Anyone who is really interested should try getting a copy of it and read it for his or her own personal satisfaction. 

Unreal,is not it?

First of all,  talk apples to apples .

You speak of the American Govt. then Saddam Hussain…

Iraq invaded Kuwait,  not Saddam Hussain…...........

ofersince72,

The question was; Where did you learn that the U.S. motivated Saddam Hussein to attack Kuwait and, how were you able to confirm that information?

You’re saying that the U.S. State Dept. has released transcripts which show that the U.S. government motivated Saddam Hussein to attack Kuwait.  May I too see these transcripts?  Would you share these transcripts with me?

Whatever happened to “Hearts and Minds”?
Was it overwhelmed by “Shock and Awe”?

From State Dept. transcripts.

Not hardly

  It was neither emotional nor with any intent of conflict

ofersince72,

I wanted these questions to be in a different post as I believe it’s that important.

Where did you learn that the U.S. motivated Saddam Hussein to attack Kuwait and, how were you able to confirm that information?

ofersince72, - “Excuse me’ - ‘I guess I have lost tolerance….”

-

Yes, you have lost tolerance.  You have allowed your emotions to cloud judgments on historic events.  You also lean too quickly toward conflict with those whom you disagree.

You could look inward as a guide to how wars begin between humans, yes?

Anyone who thinks that the fight in Iraq is over has no idea what the true Iraqi nationalists are made of!!

To put it in simple terms: they are made of special kind of steel that endures all unfavorable odds. Their bloody history says so since time immomorial=from the era of Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon to Alexander the Great who after his military campaign failed miserably in Afghanistan retreated to Iraq and died there,to the Persian empire conquest to the Arab empire conquest to the Gengis Khan destruction of Baghdad to the Ottoman empire rule to the British empire rule that all ended up in total failures because Iraq belongs only to the true Iraqi nationalists who are made of Sunnis,Shiis,Kurds Christians,Assyrians and Turkomans who all fought for 10 years the Iranian Islamic Revolution which attempted to overthrow the SECULAR,I repeat SECULAR regime of Saddam Hussein and his enlightened and highly educated and dedicated Ba’athists who most of them were holding advanced degrees(Ph.Ds)from the U.S.,England,France and Germany and some from the Soviet Union universities including Eastern Europe as well as Russia itself. Just to name few who graduated from American universities:Dr.Sa’doun Hamadi,Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin,Madison.For several years he was Prime Minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein.Dr.Sa’ed Al-Rawi,Ph.D.from university of California at Berkley.He held the position as a President of one of Iraq’s major universities,again under Saddam.Dr.Meyyasser Al-Mallah,M.S.from Stanfard University in Palo Alto,California and Ph.D from University of Wisconsin in Madison,he was for a while the Director of Iraq’s nuclear energy commision but lost his job as one of his subordinates was bribed by a British salesman. Although Dr.Al-Mallah had nothing to do with the bribery,he lost his job because the bribery took place under his watch.Dr. Muhammad Al-Mushshat,Ph.D from the University of California at Berkley.Dr. Al-Mashshat was the President of University of Mosul and later on became Iraq’s ambassador to France and then later on Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S.A.This is just the tip of the iceberg.   

Through my countless business trips to Iraq in the 1970’s and 1980’s,on behalf of an American multi-nationals corporation,(my ofices were in Amman,Jordan since Jordan has flexible laws for foreign companies to operate from there),I had the privilege of knowing,perhaps,the most educated and dedicated group of competent professionals,as a group,in the world.I had the privilege of having technical and business sessions with those people and sometimes shared with them a non-technical and non-business pleasant conversations over sweetened-minted-tea or simple lunches.The more I knew the Iraqis,the more I had become fascinated by their culture and history. A remarkable people,indeed.

ofersince72 is corresct in his honest assessment of the achievements of Saddam Hussein for Iraq in almost in all fields of human endeavors,including the emancipation of women.

Saddam was NO threat to the people of the United states.Absolutely not.

Yes,Saddam Hussein was dangerous to two entities of “ism”: Zionism and Reactionism.

The point I wish to make clear is this:

The winners of the final fight in Iraq is going to be those true Iraqi nationalists who are not TAINTED as puppets for American occupation and militarism and also those who are not TAINTED as stooges for Iran’s old ambition of hegemony and dominance of the whole region.In fact,the real internal fight has not begun yet.The inhabitants Iraqis of the Green Zone in Baghdad,whether the puppets or the stooges are doomed in the long-run.I hope I will live long enough to see it happening and bringing the war criminals and those who instigated the destruction of Iraq to face justice.

There is no legal status of limitations for war criminals and instigators of wars,regardless how long it takes to bring them to justice.People of Iraq will take care of that.

Excuse me Go_______Wright_______Young_______Man

I guess I have lost tolerance to this criminal machine
of a government we have and to those that support those
those criminal lies.

I still know White , really is White and
          Black , really is Black.

And I am sick and tired of people telling me different
at the expense of innocent human beings dieing all over
the world.  I don’t have any more tolerance for these
actions.

Wishful thinking perhaps…
Iraqi Commanders: We Are Ready to Handle Security
As US forces formally hand over control to the Iraqi Security Services, there are questions as to whether the Iraqi army is up to the challenge. Iraqi troops have been training under US guidance since 2004. http://www.newslook.com/videos/246286-iraqi-commanders-we-are-ready-to-handle-security?autoplay=true

All of Obama’s predecessors were

lieing white Ivy bastards…..only difference today a..
lieing black Ivy bastard…....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The American little spoiled pampered babies didn’t

worry about anyone else but themselves until their

financial world started crumbling their sacred 401Ks

and mutual funds collapsed….Then oh my God,  they finally woke up and realized what fucking liars our
government is…their self-interest is their only concern
as usual.  Now going to act real concerned about
Palistinians, and others, when they really, really could
care less, because they are going to continue to empower
the murderers and thieves.

But lets not remember and pay tribute to

Americans like H A R R Y….B E L A F O N T E….

lets remember and enshrine Mike Jackson, Elvis, ect.

You fat spoiled yellow bellied fellow American

citizens turned your back in the seventies while our

CIA, both overtly and covertly destroyed Central Africa,

and while Jimmy Carter may be the best ex-president we

ever had he certainly was a butcher just like the rest of

them while in office. He is the one that initiated the

military response to the Nicaragua Revolutions, supported

every bastard president in Central and Latin America and

in Central Africa.  Then you yellow bellied American

citizens elected Reagon, who continued the butchery of

Central and Latin America and the Central Africa….
and you yellowbellied Americans Knew damn well that
Obama was going to continue to murder, maime, cripple
poison, starve, and every other bad thing imaginable
to innocent human beings around the world.

To get public support for Desert Storm the CIA asked the

corrupt media to report that the Iraqi were taking

babies out of incabators in the hospitals and burning

babies.  The American Public , like they always do in
\ order to relieve their conscience, ate this story up.

After the retreat and American occupation of Kuwait the

American Government had to admit that this was a lie,

and also the media admitted their cupablilty in perpetuation this lie on to the American Public….

If you have to lie about something like that,,,,then

you have absolutly nol credibility at all.  And in fact,

the American Government has no credibility whatsoever.

They are fanatical liars, cold blooded murderers, and

gun in the face thieves….
And the American Public is a bunch of spoiled brats living
on stolen property, with stolen goods, the world’s largest
debtor nation, you proud of that one? That hasn’t had
a trade surplus in so many years , not one of you can
name the last month and date that we did.
You all know we as a people are thieves and murderers
but don’t have the guts to stop it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The United States is a criminal nation that should

have been taken to some form of international court

years ago, however they continue to break international

law, kill innocent human beings all over the globe, and

are victims of their own Military Industrial Employment

Complex…Americans have no idea how to turn this around

so they keep demonizing and Hitlerizing all over the world

people that the American Pulic know next to nothing about.

The public,  not wanting to feel guilty, keep making

excuse after excuse to not address the criminal activity

of their government, however, the rest of the world is

begging and begging and begging that the citizenry of

the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA be responsible and finally

do the right thing and defang the animals that are running

the this country right now… We are evil.  And while

we deserve the likes of an Obama or a Beck or a Palin,

the rest of the world doesn’t.

The American Public knows damn well they are lied to

by the corporate controlled media and their government

but their selfishness, lack of any culture, lack of any

respect for other cultures keep them empowering murderers,

thieves and just in general scurges upon God’s earth.

Saddam Hussain, through his foreign minister

Teraq Aziz,  tried to negociate a peaceful withdrawal

from Kuwait.  They told the United Nations that they

would begin withdrawing, but that they wanted the

United Nations to address the oil theft by Kuwait, on

every occasion,  the bit Bully of the United Nations

blocked any peaceful solutions to this withdrawal,  so

Hussain ordered his troops and equipment back inside

Iraqi borders anyway….The Americans, like the coward

military that they are,  proceeded with a genocide on

this peaceful attempted withdrawal by the Iraqi troops

This is what we call Desert Storm…..it was shameful

then and is shameful now

and may God Bles Teraq Aziz and his family.

However,  we live in a fairy tale land of controlled

information kinda like the Orwellian books describe and

white is always called black and accepted and then to

make it even worse,  black is called white and accepted

as fact.l

Saddam Hussain was one of the most benevolent

leaders in all of history and the most generous president

of our times.  He lifted Iraq out of the Middle Ages

and poverty.  He established a universal health care

system for every citizen, unlike other Arab countries

and he shared the Oil Wealth with the public.  Public

Education was available for all Iraqi citizens.  The

infastructure was one of the best in the world with very

little poverty in that country.  He saw that he could

turn a better profit with the nationalized oil for his

citizens if he bartered in Euros rather than dollars and

for that got Hitlerized by International Investors.

So American Interests in Kuwait started robbing Iraqi

oil reserves by diagonal drilling that upset the Iraqis,

this a ploy by the Americans to drive a wedge between

neighbors just as they had down between Iran and Iraq

while arming both sides of the conflict.  Then the U.S.

ambassador to Iraq told the Iraqis to go ahead and invade

Kuwait setting the trap for Desert Storm.  To get this

Arab coalition against Iraq, the American government spent

untold billions of dollars in payoffs to other Arab

countries, who were already jealous of the standard of

living that the Iraqis had achieved.

Hitlerizing a foreign leader by the American government

with the help of their corporate controlled and censored

media is easy with a dumbass public like the U.S. is and

certainly Saddam Hussain was not the first leader of

a nation that the U.S. was setting up to steal their

resourses, to have the Hitler tag put on him!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ofersince72, - “Obviously, It is very evident you are ignorant of history and listen way to much to the MSMs. - but that is your choice….to be stupid…............ “

-

And I pegged you as more tolerant of others who see things differently.  In stead of tolerance and patients you thrust toward conflict and degradation in an honest disagreement.

Is that the type of peace-making you advocate?

“We didn’t win.

We didn’t lose, either”

Oh, we lost, all right.  We lost everything.  Go on, flunkie . . . keep apologizing for your man Obama, in many ways an even more savage fool than even George Worthless Bush.

And this same media is sure damn good at not

talking about the lies of Obama and where we are right

now.  Don’t talk about anything that is affecting our

daily lives….And please don’t mention all the

racist acts of the Democrat Party…..and all the Blacks

behind bars in our state and federal prisons.

Gerard….that is just another so called

“liberal progressive” so called “elite intellectual” giving more media attention to an idiot.

“Saddam Hussain was the singular most dangerous person
  on the globe.”

  Obviously, It is very evident you are ignorant of
  history and listen way to much to the MSMs.

  but that is your choice….to be stupid…............

ofersince72, - “I doubt there is one person on Truth Dig that believes your distorted version of history$”

-

Obviously I could not care any less about the opinions of most on this Web space.  Obviously I could not disagree more with Eugene Robinson.  Obviously you and I will not be agreeing on this issue. 

Saddam Hussein was the single-most dangerous individual on the globe.

I doubt there is one person on Truth Dig that believes

your distorted version of history$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Correction: As we near nine years after September 11, note how less common becomes the expression “not if, but when” concerning the next anticipated terror attack in the U.S.

Mr. Robinson,

There may be a lot to regret about the past policy of the United States in the Middle East, but the removal of Saddam Hussein and the effort to birth democracy in his place is surely not one of them.

Whatever our righteous anger at Khomeinist Iran, it was wrong, well aside from the arms-for-hostages scandal, to provide even a modicum of aid to Saddam Hussein, the great butcher of his own, during the Iran-Iraq war.

Inviting the fascist Baathist government of Syria into the allied coalition of the first Gulf War meant that we more or less legitimized the Assad regime’s take-over of Lebanon, with disastrous results for its people.

It may have been strategically in error not to have taken out Saddam in 1991, but it was morally wrong to have then encouraged Shiites and Kurds to rise up — while watching idly as Saddam’s reprieved planes and helicopters slaughtered them in the thousands.

A decade of appeasement of Islamic terrorism, with retaliations after the serial attacks — from the first World Trade Center bombing to Khobar Towers and the USS Cole — never exceeding the occasional cruise missile or stern televised lecture, made September 11 inevitable.

A decade was wasted in subsidizing Yasser Arafat on the pretense that he was something other than a mendacious thug.

I cite these few examples of the now nostalgic past, because it is common to see Iraq written off by the architects of these past failures as the “worst” policy decision in our history, a “quagmire” and a “disaster.” Realists, more worried about Iran and the ongoing cost in our blood and treasure in Iraq, insist that toppling Saddam was a terrible waste of resources. Leftists see the Iraq war as part of an amoral imperialism; often their talking points weirdly end up rehashed in bin Laden’s communiqués , Dr. Zawahiri’s rants and the writings of Nasrallah.

First, there is no longer a mass murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the world. Imagine what Iraq would now look like with $70 a barrel oil, a $50 billion unchecked and ongoing Oil-for-Food U.N. scandal, the 15th year of no-fly zones, a punitative U.N. embargo on the Iraqi people — all perverted by Russian arms sales, European oil concessions, and frenzied Chinese efforts to get energy contracts from Saddam.

The Kurds would remain in perpetual danger. The Shiites would simply be harvested yearly, in quiet, by Saddam’s police state. The Marsh Arabs would by now have been forgotten in their toxic dust-blown desert. Perhaps Saddam would have upped his cash pay-outs for homicide bombers on the West Bank.

Mohammar Khaddafi would be starting up his centrifuges and adding to his chemical weapons depots. Syria would still be in Lebanon. Washington would probably have ceased pressuring Egypt and the Gulf States to enact reform. Dr. Khan’s nuclear mail-order house would be in high gear. We would still be hearing of a “militant wing” of Hamas, rather than watching a democratically elected terrorist clique reveal its true creed to the world.

Mr. Robinson

But just as importantly, what did these rare Americans not fight for? Oil, for one thing. The price skyrocketed after they went in. The secret deals with Russia and France ended. The U.N. petroleum perfidy stopped. The Iraqis, and the Iraqis alone — not Saddam, the French, the Russians, or the U.N. — now adjudicate how much of their natural resources they will sell, and to whom.

Our soldiers also removed a great threat to the United States. Again, the crisis brewing over Iran reminds us of what Iraq would have reemerged as. Like Iran, Saddam reaped petroprofits, sponsored terror, and sought weapons of mass destruction. But unlike Iran, he had already attacked four of his neighbors, gassed thousands of his own, and violated every agreement he had ever signed. There would have been no nascent new democracy in Iran that might some day have undermined Saddam, and, again unlike Iran, no internal dissident movement that might have come to power through a revolution or peaceful evolution.

No, Saddam’s police state was wounded, but would have recovered, given high oil prices, Chinese and Russian perfidy, and Western exhaustion with enforcement of U.N. sanctions. Moreover, the American military took the war against radical Islam right to its heart in the ancient caliphate. It has not only killed thousands of jihadists, but dismantled the hierarchy of al Qaeda and its networks, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. Critics say that we “took our eye off the ball” by going to Iraq and purportedly leaving bin Laden alone in the Hindu Kush. But more likely, al Qaeda took its eye off the American homeland as the promised theater of operations once American ground troops began dealing with Islamic terrorists in Iraq. As we near five years after September 11, note how less common becomes the expression “not if, but when” concerning the next anticipated terror attack in the U.S.

Some believe that the odyssey of jihadists to Iraq means we created terrorists, but again, it is far more likely, as al Qaeda communiqués attest, that we drew those with such propensities into Iraq. Once there, they have finally shown the world that they hate democracy, but love to kill and behead — and that has brought a great deal of moral clarity to the struggle. After Iraq, the reputation of bin Laden and radical Islam has not been enhanced as alleged, but has plummeted. For all the propaganda on al Jazeera, the chattering classes in the Arab coffeehouses still watch Americans fighting to give Arabs the vote, and radical Islamists in turn beheading men and women to stop it.

A chance for Iraq to develop a representative form of government has won.

Mike789,,  That is a damn good idea that I have been

a proponent of for thirty years.
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Where are all these statistics coming from?????
I heard it was 49.9%  against and 50.1% for….....
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

  G O D….................I S…...............L O V E…

A higher up in my military career once made a very cogent statement. It went like this: “It’s no good unless you put the blood in it.” You have to have some skin in the game.

There should be a two year mandatory servive to our nation, whether it be military or humanitarian.

I believe that many individuals do not need to do anything; their moral and ethical standards and love of country is sufficient, but I also believe that if we all did something collectively, we’d stand a better chance of seeing eye to eye over what our level of commitment to society ought to be, especially when national security is the matter.

Tue Aug 24, 9:37 am ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) – A majority of Iraqis believe it was the wrong time for a major withdrawal of US combat troops, a poll said on Tuesday, with more than half also warning that it would have negative consequences.

When asked if it was the right time for American soldiers to leave—the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under 50,000 for the first time—59.8 percent said no, compared to 39.5 percent who said yes.

Some 53.1 percent of respondents said they disagreed with President Barack Obama’s decision last year to end the combat mission in Iraq on August 31, a move that triggered a major reduction in the US military presence here.

However, 46.2 percent of those questioned agreed with the decision.

Tonight you will hear one lie after another by yet

another American President…........................

Our next president, be it Obama, Palin, or other will

also tell us one lie after another about the Middle East,

about the Caspian Sea Natural Gas and all the other crap

and lies that our government tells us…..............

and our media will go along and not call one of these lies
out, because the same ones that own our government own
our media.  And the same ones that own our military own
our media.  Americans are some stupid bastards….........

Does anyone still really believe Iraq was ever about deposing “a heinous despot” (whom we helped create in the first place) or “implanting a pro-Western democracy?” If Iraq’s leading export was avocados would 5000 Americans have died?

I will read this article but a major piece of unfinished business is the prosecution
of the liars and war criminals who caused over 100.000 Iraqi deaths, and who
profited handsomely from their obscene efforts. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton-
etc, etc should take the place in the courtroom of ballplayers who lie about using
steroids.

the irony here is absolutely killing me.

gerard’s comment reminded me of an incident when an
official in the Bush Administration was touting
America’s ‘victory’ in Iraq before a group of
reporters.  One reporter, quoting the number of
American deaths sustained during the invasion and
occupation,  asked the official whether the taking of
those young lives was ‘worth it.’

The official replied, “Well, that’s just a number,
the point is we’ve been victorious.” How comforting
for a loved one of a fallen soldier to find out that
in the eyes of those who make the wars, but of course
never fight in them, that a fallen loved one was
“just a number.”

Perhaps we should consider that ANYONE willing to
start a war MUST also be prepared to lead its front
lines into battle.

Those of us who love justice are glad that Iraqi patriots will, we hope, continue killing America’s mercenary thugs until they ALL leave. 

Justice also demands that Bush, et. al., be taken to Iraq to receive the thanks of that liberated people.  Those war criminals should be given to families bereft because of American violence, and each family should be given 100 dollar for every day they keep their captives screaming but alive.

Second thoughts:  Regarding “The Ambiguity of War’s End”—sadly, there is no ambiguity about the deaths of all those (mostly young) men and women who “gave their lives” to the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.  If I was the parent of one of them I would be absolutely furious!
  The next venture in killing and destruction must be resisted before it is allowed to start—unambiguously.  Enough of voluntary insanity!

How about if the war-loving-money-mad corporations would just leave America to the Americans?  Wouldn’t that be nice!