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Who is the enemy?Then he [the resistance leader] made an extraordinary confession: “Last week I was driving in my car with my smallest child when a soldier came up and started playing with him. I saw a tear in his eye. I thought: ‘He does not have a choice about being here. And I wished him no evil. I swear to God,’ he tells me, ‘it hurts me to see an American bleed. I admire them, but in their own country.’” – Peter Beaumont Sunday January 11, 2004, The Observer
Assuming that the 14 "Saddam Hussein loyalists" left do lay down their arms, that only leaves several million Iraqis who hate Hussein and the occupation both to keep on fighting. That's not counting the Shiias, who make up 60% of the population.  So far, their leaders have held most of them back from joining the armed resistance. Now, their leaders are demanding free elections. They are also threatening that if they don't get free elections, they will start moving against the occupation.
What does Bush say about that? Among other lies, having told the public and the armed forces he ordered the invasion of Iraq for "democracy," the Bush regime is saying no to free elections. That would mean every soldier in Iraq is there to kill and get killed so there are NO free elections in Iraq. That's such in-your-face hypocrisy it simply can't be sustained for long, especially if the Shiia leaders go into open resistance to the occupation. The Shiia leaders aren't saints. They have their own reasons for demanding one Iraqi-one vote. Since Shiias are the majority, these leaders are really campaigning to become the new rulers of Iraq themselves, trying to use their followers as the lever to put them on top of a new Iraqi government, in control of all that lovely oil money. Far from being insane religious fanatics, as Bush would like you to believe, they're really like most preachers everywhere, more interested in how much they've got in their pocketbooks than in anything holy. Bush says the Iraqis can't organize an election by June. “Too complicated.” This is bull! Every single Iraqi has an ID card from the U.N. oil-for-food Program, which is what they still use to get their food rations today! You could make a big list of everybody who had a card, then vote, and check them off one by one. Bush is afraid of a fair election. He was in Florida, and he is in Iraq. So, the bottom line is, what exactly are U.S. soldiers dying for? Not WMD's, not overthrowing Saddam Hussein, not capturing Hussein, and now, plain as day, not for democracy. Bush & Co. react to the idea of democracy in Iraq the way a vampire reacts to garlic and sunlight. Every day this war goes on has one overriding purpose now: make Bush look good for the fall election. Bringing all the troops home now wouldn't be a defeat for the soldiers, or ordinary Americans who are paying for this war, or for the military families, or for anybody who really matters. It would be a political disaster for Bush. Even the armed resistance leader quoted above is feeling sorry for U.S. soldiers. But he's wrong when he says, “He does not have a choice about being here.” You didn't have a choice about being sent to Iraq, true enough. But you do have a choice now: keep on keeping-on dying for votes for Bush and the corrupt thugs that run this government, or start organizing your own resistance to the whole senseless war. Soldiers who did that stopped the Vietnam war. Burying the politicians in an ocean of letters and petitions might be one place to start. Sometimes, that’s how organizing a resistance begins, very carefully. Any member of the armed forces may lawfully write members of Congress without any interference whatsoever from command. The right to circulate a petition to Congress is heavily limited, particularly if the petition concerns conditions of military service or a war, or if the service member is stationed overseas. For details on your rights, contact Traveling Soldier. Page 9--> |
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