Amy Goodman: War Should Be an Election Issue

[marmar]

from truthdig:



War Should Be an Election Issue

Posted on Oct 26, 2010
By Amy Goodman


Just days away from crucial midterm elections, WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, unveiled the largest classified military leak in history. Almost 400,000 secret Pentagon documents relating to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq were made available online. The documents, in excruciating detail, portray the daily torrent of violence, murder, rape and torture to which Iraqis have been subjected since George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished.” The WikiLeaks release, dubbed “The Iraq War Logs,” has been topping the headlines in Europe. But in the U.S., it barely warranted a mention on the agenda-setting Sunday talk shows.

First, the documents themselves. I spoke with Julian Assange, the founder and editor in chief of WikiLeaks.org. He explained: “These documents cover the periods of 2004 to the beginning of 2010. It is the most accurate description of a war to have ever been released ... each casualty, where it happened, when it happened and who was involved, according to internal U.S. military reporting.”

David Leigh, investigations editor at the Guardian of London, told me the leak “represents the raw material of history ... what the unvarnished version does is confirm what many of us feared and what many journalists have attempted to report over the years, that Iraq became a bloodbath, a real bloodbath of unnecessary killings, of civilian slaughter, of torture and of people being beaten to death.”

The reports, in bland bureaucratic language and rife with military jargon, are grisly in detail. Go to the website and search the hundreds of thousands of records. Words like “rape,” “murder,” “execution,” “kidnapping” and “decapitation” return anywhere from hundreds to thousands of reports, documenting not only the scale and regularity of the violence, but, ultimately, a new total for civilian deaths in Iraq. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/war_should_be_an_election_issue_20101026/

[marginlized]

1. Why isn't it? n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. "why isn't it?"

You serious?

If people voted on wars, there would be few wars,less war profits.
taxes and wars, never brought to votes.

[alc]

2. couldn't agree more

I want us out. But even more, I want us talking about it. As long as we are making a conscience decision to kill people it needs to be the top discussion of politicians. Defend it if you want. Criticize it if not. But don't let it slip into the background where it just keeps going on with possibly no goal, or a goal that is no longer valid.

[felix_numinous]

4. War should be decided by those with the greatest to lose,

along with those who have the larger view.

Certainly those who would benefit the greatest from war have a conflict of interest in voting for it.