It seems as if a lot of people don't want to think about the war in Iraq or have anything to do with it on a visceral level. They don't read news accounts about death rates, troop levels, or the fiscal costs of the war. I suppose it may be the time of year. Everyone is preoccupied with thoughts of shopping and the annoying visits of unwanted guests, which precludes them from thinking about events of national and global import.
As a public service, I'd like to give a brief run-down of events in Iraq — as I see them — just to help the community through the stress, and the joys of stuffing our faces and buying stuff for secular holiday celebrations.
It's the least I can do to ease my readers — such as they are — into vacation mode.
There is no good news coming from Iraq. Things are deteriorating by the day. Violence is at an all-time high and we have lost control of this war of choice that was brought about by the cold warrior junta that has taken over our government. In reality, however, we never really had control in the first place.
The Bush administration is getting ready to ask for another $173 billion in order to fund a war that was supposed to cost around $17.30, and be fully funded by Iraqi oil sales.
It seems as if the only thing in Iraq that is self-supporting is the insurgency, and that is according to U.S. National Intelligence Director and merchant of Iran-Contra death, John Negroponte.
According to the United Nations, more than 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in September and October. Nearly 5,000 of those killings occurred in Baghdad.
In a series of coordinated bombings, more than 200 Iraqis were killed on Thanksgiving Day - the day before "Black Friday," our most sacred of holidays. Think of it this way; while we Americans were stuffing our faces - the thing we do best - some mother in Iraq was burying her children.
That just about sums up the war in one short paragraph. Innocent citizens of a country economically brutalized by world powers for its entire history are now being militarily brutalized by a country whose citizens are more interested in XBoxes and Wii.
It's not as if none of us are sacrificing for the cause though. The death toll of American troops has passed the 2,800 mark, and our military is being decimated by repeated deployments in a war that has lasted longer than our involvement in WWII. Additionally, equipment is wearing down to the tune of $8 billion a month, according to a report in USA Today.
Charles Rangel (D-NY) was excoriated recently for suggesting a return to the draft. His reasoning is that if the draft were reinstated, more U.S. citizens would actually have to share in the sacrifices being made by a very tiny number of brave people. This in turn would reduce support for the war because people would have to take part in the carnage instead of watching Ted Koppel's hairpiece recount brieft snipets of the day's bloodshed.
It's not to be though, at least for now, because we are not interested in the suffering of others - even our fellow citizens - especially when there is a dyn-o-mite sale going on at the mall, and there are so many good things to watch on the teevee.
As I sit on my fat ass prognosticating on the stupidity of U.S. policy in the Middle East, our people in uniform continue to die alongside innumerable Iraqi civilians.
When I look out of my window and see the gaudy Christmas lights and the big plastic Santa on the neighbor's house, I often wonder how many innocent lives were destroyed in some oil-rich, war-torn corner of the globe so that he could mindlessly waste the 24-hour electricity that we all take for granted.
There are about five such houses within my range of vision.
We are not sacrificing anything directly for this phony "War on Terror," but the payment will be deferred to future generations. We'll go off to the malls over the course of the next few weeks and buy cheap stuff made in China - even as we borrow more money from the Chinese government to fund the "war effort," and tax cuts - and not even think of the people who will really pay for this atrocity.
Please spare me the bullshit about fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them over here. Al Qaeda has very little control in Iraq. Any influence they have can be attributed to the U. S. military presence there and our successful destruction of Iraqi civil structure. It doesn't really matter who's doing the killing anyway. The dead are dead.
As an aside to my readers who may wish to waste time sending me venomous e-mails about my "dangerous" ideology, do something brave for once and join the Army or Marines over the holiday break. Stop the hypocrisy. For everyone else out there, happy holidays.
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