Staying in Iraq

[WilliamPitt]

Staying in Iraq
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 06 April 2004

http://truthout.org/docs_04/040604A.shtml

These are the numbers out of Iraq: 616 American soldiers killed, 18,000 medical evacuations of wounded American soldiers, 102 non-American coalition soldiers killed, more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed, somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 billion spent. There are no numbers available for the Iraqi civilians wounded.

These are the numbers out of the Bush White House, first put forward by George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address and which remain even today on the White House website: 26,000 liters of anthrax in Iraq, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin in Iraq, 500 tons of sarin and mustard and VX gas in Iraq, 500 tons being 1,000,000 pounds, along with 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents. None of this, not one little bit of it, has been found.

This White House webpage, titled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein,' which parrots Bush's 2003 speech, likewise claims that Iraq is seeking uranium from Niger for use in a nuclear weapons program. It claims, as Bush did in his speech, that Iraq possesses mobile biological weapons labs. It claims, as Bush did in his speech, that Iraq enjoyed an operational relationship with al Qaeda terrorists during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The Niger claims were proven to be an embarrassing lie, the mobile weapons labs were revealed to be weather balloon launching platforms sold to Iraq by the British during the Reagan era, and no proof whatsoever has been put forth to establish a connection between Hussein and al Qaeda.

This is what the numbers say: Every reason put forth to justify the invasion of Iraq has been proven to be either a wretched exaggeration or an out-and-out fabrication. The number of dead and wounded in the American invasion of Iraq is appalling, and the amount of money we have spent and will continue to spend on this misadventure is staggering. It was White House spokesman Ken Adelman who said on December 6, 2001 in a CNN interview, "I don't agree that you need an enormous number of American troops. Saddam's army is down to one-third than it was before, and I think it would be a cakewalk." It has been anything but.

Because the Bush administration has gone out of their way to block media access to Dover Air Force base where American casualties are brought home from Iraq, because the Bush administration has gone out of their way to block media access to Walter Reed hospital in Washington and Fort Stewart in Georgia where thousands of badly wounded American soldiers have been convalescing after coming home from Iraq, because the Pentagon has changed the term 'body bag' to 'transfer tube,' because of all this and more, many Americans are not fully aware of how dangerous it is to be an American in Iraq.

...more...

[Daisey Mae]

1. I imagine that * blunders won't stop.

He will stay there with our troops (while his yellow ass is half way around the world ) He has no fear and no sense otherwise he could see what is coming as a result of his folly.... but he can"t and he won"t and many more will die and be horrifically disfigured and crippled from this ignoramus's lack of sense.

[Martin Eden]

2. The international community will rescue us?

Even if president Kerry manages to undo most of the diplomatic damage inflicted by Bush, and convinces the international community -- by relinquishing all claims and authority in Iraq -- that all nations have a common interest in a stable, peaceful Iraq -- what are the real chances that other countries will send their troops into this meat grinder?

Obviously we have to make every effort to bring some legitimacy to this situation, and it is doubtful the U.S. military presence in Iraq will ever be considered legitimate by the Arab world, but I have my doubts that we can convince others to commit troops.

I may be wrong; I hope I am.

It just seems to me that this situation may already be beyond repair.

[bpilgrim]

3. UPDATE: We abandon Afghanistan in the summer of 2002

AGAIN.

the only way this bloodletting can end is to let THEM run their OWN COUNTRY.

we should make them KEEP their promise to let them have a VOICE in their 'gov'

maybe i'm just an old fashioned american...

vietnam hasn't turned out as bad as the doomsayers and soothsayers of the BEST and the BRIGHTEST of our fathers genration were clinging to in the bitter end.

peace