As more Americans come to terms with the way this nation rushed to war against Saddam based on discredited intelligence sources like "Curveball" and stale reports from past intelligence sources, the scales of ignorance are beginning to fall from our eyes. Seeing the distortions, we now look more closely at each of the different programs put forward by this Administration. We compare the waste of dollars for corporate allies to perform the reconstruction of the Iraqi areas that our military devastated to the still fumbled waste of monies to provide shelter for Katrina's evacuees and the rebuilding of levees that, we now learn, may have been shoddily built by Army contractees in the first place. We learn to question the reports of Iraqi "insurgents" killed, and wonder just how many innocent men, women and children have been slaughtered in this horrible war. See here for more about Iraqi civilian deaths.
As we watch the corporatization of our universities and the privatization of our military and the monetization of our elections, we worry. Can a university dedicate itself to the fundamental research that has always been the driving energy of human civilization if it is spending most of its time chasing the corporate dollars that promise big labs and bigger name recognition? Can a military dedicate itself to defending our people and our society if it is spending most of its money for corporate mercenaries whose focus on the bottom line allows them to cut corners while the military brass leave the troops on the ground without adequately protective armor? Can a government elected by kow-towing to corporations and their owners and spending millions of their money to secure its seat expect to deliberate on proposals for the good of society rather than simply shoveling legislation towards its corporate masters? These are the questions we have to ask, now that we doubt the sincerity and the good intentions of the heads of state.
We worry most, perhaps, about an endless war to secure a nameless goal on behalf of a people that wants our occupation forces to be gone from their land. We are building permanent military bases along the oil pipelines in the North of Iraq, but failing to provide decent health care to the children. We are continuing to bomb homes, even when they contain women and children, and to imprison "detainees" without providing due process to determine guilt. We continue to condemn other nations for what they do not do that we think they should do, but we continue to render prisoners to countries that commit torture and to hold prisoners in "black sites" in the secret recesses of the world where we may commit torture.
This war can bring us no good; nor can it bring the world good. Our occupation of Iraq is merely inciting terrorists who will grow in numbers the longer American troops remain on Iraqi soil. It is time to bring our troops home, close the new bases we established in Iraq and Afghanistan, and let detainees go unless we provide them a fair trial.
See this article in this week's The Nation for a novel approach to this issue--taking on the corporatist establishment by pushing politicians to make ending the Iraq occupation a top priority.
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