SUNDAY REFLECTIONS 9/28/03
BRING THEM HOME
Enough is enough ~
This war is an outrage !
The body count is now over 300 dead and over 2000
wounded and still counting .
And what is the justification for this charade ~ this illegal
war and occupation which has become a quagmire.
It was never weapons of mass destruction ~ it was always
oil and executive order # 13303 ~ signed by Bush in
May ~ which gives complete control of Iraqs oil and
production to U.S. oil corporations.
The clues are all there ~ the first Iraq assets seized were
the oil fields and the only ministry protected in Baghdad
was the oil ministry.
There was never meant to be a post war plan which would
hand over all power to Iraq or an exit strategy once we
won the illegal war ~ instead the neo conservative intent
was always to seize control of Iraqs oil production and
build a power base in the middle east.
This is why the Bush Administration is so reluctant to give up control of this occupation to the U.N. It's still corporate
greed and hubris , the ongoing theme of this admistration
from day one ~ which is now manifesting itself on a
national and international scale.
However, this duplicity can be halted in its tracks
if Congress withholds funds for Iraq's reconstruction and demands a multi national approach to Iraq with the UN in full control of its implementation.
You can help this happen by joining MOVE ON and
signing petitions and letters to our congressmen ~ who
are already hearing and responding to the rising voice of an angry and concerned public.
The achilles heel of the Bush administration is
credibility and troop morale.
The Credibility issue is already in full view and will be
an ongoing issue right up to the election in 2004.
The Troop morale issue is just breaking through the
fog of Defense Department spin and must be delt with
immediately before we sacrifice more of our young men and
women to the empire building schemes of this Administration.
In that regard , listen to the words of retired General
Anthony Zinni ~ the former commander of the U.S. Central Command ~ as reported by David Corn in THE
NATION.
On Thursday night, Zinni, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command, was interviewed by Ted Koppel on Nightline. And he was rather sharp in his assessment of George W. Bush's policy in Iraq. Before the war, Zinni, who had been an envoy for Bush in the Middle East, opposed a U.S. invasion of Iraq, arguing that Saddam Hussein did not pose an imminent threat .
Zinni raised the issue that Bush might have purposefully misled the public and not shared with it the true reason for the war: "If there's a strategic decision for taking down Iraq, if it's the so-called neoconservative idea that taking apart Iraq and creating a model democracy, or whatever it is, will change the equation in the Middle East, then make the [public] case based on that strategic decision ....I think it's a flawed--like the domino theory--it's a flawed strategic thought or concept.. But if that's the reason for going in, that's the case the American people ought to hear. "
Zinni was, in a way, being polite. Earlier in the month, he addressed a forum sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Marine Corps Association .
" I talked to a number of Iraqis there. And what I hear scares me even more that what I read in the newspaper. Resources are needed, a strategy is needed, a plan. This is a different kind of conflict. War fighting is one element of it."
Zinni displayed little confidence in Bush and his aides. He said that their Iraq endeavor has landed the United States into the middle of assorted "culture wars" in the Middle East .
" And I'll tell you, every time I hear...one of the dilettantes back here speak about this region of the world, they don't have a clue ."
" It kills me when I hear of the continuing casualties and the sacrifice that's being made. It also kills me when I hear someone say that, well, each one of those is a personal tragedy, but in the overall scheme of things, they're insignificant statistically."
"When we put [our enlisted men and women] in harm's way, it had better count for something, It can't be because some policy wonk back here has a brain fart of an idea of a strategy that isn't thought out."
Brain fart? That's not quite a military term. But those are fighting words. And Zinni practically counseled his audience to rebel against the Bush administration.
" Where are we, the American people, if we accept this, if we accept this level of sacrifice without that level of planning? Almost everyone in this room, of my contemporaries--our feelings and our sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and lies, and we saw the sacrifice. We swore never again would we do that. We swore never again would we allow it to happen. And I ask you, is it happening again? And you're going to have to answer that question, just like the American people are."
Brain fart. Garbage and lies. Never again. This was harsher rhetoric than Zinni deployed on Nightline, though his message was essentially the same. With such talk, he is in sync with Senator Ted Kennedy, who was blasted by Republicans for calling the war a "fraud." Note to Kennedy and other critics of the war: Fire away. If a Republican counter-attacks, you can always reply, at least I didn't say Bush is asking Americans to give their lives for a war based on mental flatulence .
BRING THEM HOME !
Allen L Roland
12:35:28 PM 
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