Off The Record
initial
| Author | Date | Time | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B Ruberton | 2007-01-07 | 19:57:04 | There is no child in the burning house. |
| It did not take long for any hope, created by the mid-term elections, of an early end to the Iraq war to fade into a distant memory. We are once again hearing the same, “stay the course”, rhetoric from the White House. Apparently there will be no orderly withdraw from the region anytime soon. One has to ask, what difference can be made by staying this course for even one more minute. There is no dishonor to the thousands who have given their lives by admitting this war was a mistake and moving toward ending our involvement. Maybe if we look at the war as a burning house, instead of a war, we can see the insanity of what we are doing. Besides the heroes who are fighting this war in faraway lands, there are firefighter heroes who fight the battles here, everyday, and who gave there lives on 9/11.
If a firefighter was to give his life trying to save a child in a fire, and it was discovered that there really was no child in the burning house, we would certainly not send in anymore firefighters. The fact that we did not send in anymore firefighters certainly would not dishonor the heroic effort of the first firefighter. Yet, somehow we have the notion that by admitting the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and pulling out the troops would somehow dishonor the many soldiers who have given their lives there already. This could not be further from the truth. Indeed, if a fire chief sends in more firefighters, knowing that there are no children in the house, this can become a dishonor, not to the brave men doing their duty, but to the entire fire department as an institution. Imagine now, if the burning house in which the fireman gave his life trying to find a child that didn’t exist, turns out to have been set deliberately in order to make room for a new multi-national corporate center. Now imagine that while the fire is still burning and more firefighters are being sent in to die, the plans for the corporate site are discovered and they were written well before the fire was started. Even still, imagine that by now everyone has admitted that there are no children in the house, but now the fire chief is saying that there is an old man in the house. When that is discovered to be untrue the fire chief says that we must send in more firemen because the house is a very special house and must be protected. Then, when that doesn’t seem to be working, the fire chief says that we will keep sending even more firemen into the house until the owner of the house tells us to stop. Could there really be any justification for sending in any more firefighters? Knowing that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and still sending over our bravest souls to be killed is dishonoring the very country that these soldiers are sworn to protect. The fact that the motives for the war were suspicious at best, is nothing less than criminal. The plans for the Iraq oil fields to be divvied up were in place well before 9/11. The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) was also in place before 9/11 and was counting on a new ‘Pearl Harbor’ to hasten their goals. Dick Cheney, a signer of the PNAC doctrine, has stated that he would still have invaded Iraq, even if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction there. Paul Wolfowitz, another PNAC signer, has said that the weapons story was simply one that everyone could agree on. The Downing Street memo describes Washington’s determination to invade Iraq. Even during the invasion, the main sites to be protected were the oil ministry and oil fields, leaving the rest of Iraq’s infrastructure, history and utilities to be looted and destroyed. Shifting the reason for being in Iraq from weapons, to removing a dictator, to spreading freedom, to propping up the government does not solve the problem or absolve those who share the blame. Recently we were told that we will keep our soldiers in Iraq for as long as the Iraqi government wants them to be there. This is the same Iraqi government that had ordered US soldiers to take down their check points, being used to search for a missing US soldier, because we were causing a traffic problem. There is clearly no good reason for continuing to send our soldiers to die in Iraq. The genie is out of the bottle, and nearly 80 percent of the country can see that the emperor has no clothes. Even the Baker report has come to the conclusion that there will be no victory for us in Iraq and we must bring together all of the Iraqi neighbors to help control the problems there. Top generals have said that adding more troops will not help the situation, yet there is much talk of a surge of troops. What will it take for Mr. Bush to wake up and smell the ashes? If this madness continues, the only logical conclusion can be that this madness is exactly what is wanted by this administration. This madness, that is creating huge profits for the large multi-national corporations, who are collecting the billions of dollars that the American taxpayers are spending each week on this war, must be why we are there. This madness, that is creating the largest national debt in history, that will serve to further the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots”, must be the reason. This madness, that is diverting our attention from the rest of the world that we should really be concerned with, must be the motive. If nothing is done to end our involvement, it can only be concluded that this madness IS the reason, no matter what excuse is to be contrived by the White House. The house IS still burning, the firefighters ARE still being sent in to die. |
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