When Will It End??????
Dear editor:
Iraq has redefined civil war -- with Shiites and Sunnis killing each other, militias battling the government, insurgents targeting coalition forces and al-Qaeda in Iraq fighting everyone. Over two million Iraqis have left their country because of this civil war, another one and a half million have been displaced within the country, and Lord knows how many of them truly have died during the “Bush War.” That’s a total of almost four million human beings who have suffered because of a civil war the administration in Washington refuses to admit is in progress. Four million who might question whether they are better off now than they were under the dictator Saddam Hussein and his hated regime.
The White House has said in a statement that defining a date in 2008, or any other time, for an American military pullout from Iraq would place freedom and democracy at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration’s plan to develop the Iraqi economy. So when will it be safe? Two years from now? Five years? Ten years? Shiites and Sunnis have been fighting for fifteen hundred years with no end in sight. And a pull-out would endanger us here in the United States? Whenever, if ever, we leave that beleaguered country, tomorrow or ten years from now, Islamic Extremists will hate us and try to harm us and the rest of the West. Timing has nothing to do with it.
The war in Iraq is not the answer, and never was. If anything it has opened a Pandora’s Box that has made the world a more dangerous place. Responsibility for that huge mistake and miscalculation lies squarely on the shoulders of Bush/Rove/Cheney/Rice and those brilliant neo-cons who lied to us and the rest of the world about the perceived dangers of leaving Iraq alone. Their stubborn, egotistical stand on this war only kills and maims more of our troops. The numbers speak for themselves and undercut what these four have been saying about improvements in the war.
The war started in March 2003, and four years later we are experiencing the deadliest month of March on record. For the month in 2003 the total American deaths were 65; in 2004: 52; in 2005: 36; in 2006: 31; and as of March 27, 2007: 77. That’s with four days to go in the month. On top of this, if you look at the first quarter of the year, instead of just one month, the story is just as bad. For 2004: 119, 2005: 200; 2006: 148; 2007: 239. That’s improvement?
By staying in Iraq we are not honoring those brave Americans for what they “died for,” but rather destroying what they “lived for.”
Iraq has redefined civil war -- with Shiites and Sunnis killing each other, militias battling the government, insurgents targeting coalition forces and al-Qaeda in Iraq fighting everyone. Over two million Iraqis have left their country because of this civil war, another one and a half million have been displaced within the country, and Lord knows how many of them truly have died during the “Bush War.” That’s a total of almost four million human beings who have suffered because of a civil war the administration in Washington refuses to admit is in progress. Four million who might question whether they are better off now than they were under the dictator Saddam Hussein and his hated regime.
The White House has said in a statement that defining a date in 2008, or any other time, for an American military pullout from Iraq would place freedom and democracy at grave risk, embolden our enemies and undercut the administration’s plan to develop the Iraqi economy. So when will it be safe? Two years from now? Five years? Ten years? Shiites and Sunnis have been fighting for fifteen hundred years with no end in sight. And a pull-out would endanger us here in the United States? Whenever, if ever, we leave that beleaguered country, tomorrow or ten years from now, Islamic Extremists will hate us and try to harm us and the rest of the West. Timing has nothing to do with it.
The war in Iraq is not the answer, and never was. If anything it has opened a Pandora’s Box that has made the world a more dangerous place. Responsibility for that huge mistake and miscalculation lies squarely on the shoulders of Bush/Rove/Cheney/Rice and those brilliant neo-cons who lied to us and the rest of the world about the perceived dangers of leaving Iraq alone. Their stubborn, egotistical stand on this war only kills and maims more of our troops. The numbers speak for themselves and undercut what these four have been saying about improvements in the war.
The war started in March 2003, and four years later we are experiencing the deadliest month of March on record. For the month in 2003 the total American deaths were 65; in 2004: 52; in 2005: 36; in 2006: 31; and as of March 27, 2007: 77. That’s with four days to go in the month. On top of this, if you look at the first quarter of the year, instead of just one month, the story is just as bad. For 2004: 119, 2005: 200; 2006: 148; 2007: 239. That’s improvement?
By staying in Iraq we are not honoring those brave Americans for what they “died for,” but rather destroying what they “lived for.”
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 5:51 PM
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