What the American People Know

The politicians in Washington keep belaboring the point that if we don’t do this or that or the other in Iraq, we will have failed. The people of the United States know one thing. We HAVE failed in Iraq. And the Iraqis know that the only reason the US ever had an interest in Iraq was OIL. If there were no oil in the Middle East, the US would have been content to let everyone in the entire area kill each other off, commit rape and whatever other atrocities they could think up, and we never would have lifted a finger. The world knows this is true because this is the stance the US has taken regarding despotic regimes in Africa and every other area of the world that is of no economic use to the United States. The US got involved in Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and produced the Gulf War because of oil. And fool that Saddam was, he gave the US a perfect excuse to disguise its preoccupation with Iraq’s oil when he refused to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. According to InfoPlease, US and British bombers began daily attacks on Iraqi targets in 1999. The hope was that the constant barrage would weaken Saddam Hussein’s grip on Iraq. Jan. 29, 2002-In President George W. Bush's state of the union speech, he identified Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, as an "axis of evil." He vowed that the U.S. "will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." (Iraq had never threatened us.) June 2, 2002-President Bush publicly introduced the new defense doctrine of preemption in a speech at West Point. In some instances, the president said, the U.S. must strike first against another state to prevent a potential threat from growing into an actual one: "Our security will require all Americans…[to] be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.” Jan. 28, 2003-In his state of the union address, President Bush announced that he was ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate. March 19, 2003-President Bush declared war on Iraq. What the people of the United States know is that we are not in Iraq to bring democracy to the people. We are spending 5.8 billion a month and 2,114 American soldiers have been killed because Iraq had a huge resource of oil the US wanted to control and Saddam Hussein decided he controlled Iraq’s oil. What the American people know is that all the words and speeches and daily rewrites by the Bush administration are bullshit. We are not in Iraq to implement the glorious vision of bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. The war in Iraq was over trying to gain control of Iraq’s oil and the war has failed. Not only that, we have failed the Iraqi people. And we have failed our troops. All the rhetoric and rose petals in the world cannot cover up this truth. The American people know what’s going on. It will take awhile for the politicians to catch up.