Sep 01 2010

Not a Political Essay

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I don’t know if I’ll listen to Obama’s speech on Iraq tonight (8PM EST).  Got one of those “breaking news” emails from WaPo giving an excerpt of the speech:

“Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest – it is in our own,” the president will say, according to prepared remarks. “The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people. We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home. We have persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization.”

I used to be naive.  I used to believe the truth would triumph over both lies and denials.

I still believe this.  I just see it in a way different time frame, lol.

The truth eventually does come out.  Just takes longer in direct proportion to the power involved in keeping the truth … controlled.

We had a brief opportunity after the defeat of George W. Bush to face that truth in such a way that we wouldn’t go through a much longer period of time processing it in distorted dribs and drabs.  We were unable to grasp that opportunity, and I believe now we are witnessing why that has happened.

There is no fault here as far as I’m concerned.  My view at this time is not political but just human.

I’m not saying fault cannot be found.  Several lifetimes could be spent mining that rich vein.

I’m only saying my view goes in a different direction, not that anyone else’s view isn’t valid.

Well anyway, gibbering aside, here’s the truth.

We aggressively went to war against a sovereign nation that did not attack us.

We had the information at the time that there were no weapons of mass destruction.

We have overwhelming evidence that those in power lied to go to war.

Over a million Iraqis have died and millions are refugees.

Thousands of our troops have died and countless young men and women are coming home suffering from traumas the rest of us can’t even imagine, or are already home suffering from brain and other physical traumas they would not have survived in a previous time of war.

This essay is not political because I am no longer naive enough to think any politician with real power would say these things at the time it would be needed to be heard.

But I just wanted to say the truth.

As a human being, it’s important to me because I’m not separate from what happens to my fellow man.  I need to understand the truth in order to make choices that harmonize with my spirit.

I can run away from everyone, but I have to live with myself no matter what.

So it’s really a very selfish reason, in a way.

Anyway, my two cents.

30 comments

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  1. … as a live blog for the speech, please do so by all means.

  2. … I’m not saying the quote from the speech is a lie.  As a debater, I could defend the facticity of every word.

    It’s just not the truth.

  3. I am still naive enough to hope that Obama will say something even slightly pointing to the truth.  (A crumb, as it were.)

    Charlie Brown and the football has nuthin’ on me!

    But unlike the politicos who are interested in power, my bar is set really high … given the truth of the Iraq War.

    • Diane G on September 1, 2010 at 01:34
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    kabuki kabuki kabuki….

    Only the name of the same combat troops has been changed, and the leaving troops are being replaced with US (BY YOU AND ME) mercenaries…

    LIES, lies, lies, lies….

    Not sure I can stomach it.

  5. http://www.juancole.com/2010/0…


    Fellow Americans, and Iraqis who are watching this speech, I have come here this evening not to declare a victory or to mourn a defeat on the battlefield, but to apologize from the bottom of my heart for a series of illegal actions and grossly incompetent policies pursued by the government of the United States of America, in defiance of domestic US law, international treaty obligations, and both American and Iraqi public opinion.

    the rest

  6. have only thrown one or two shoes so far

    • Diane G on September 1, 2010 at 02:06
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    They defeated a regime… did every mission they were given, yaddda.

    Can I throw up in the 1st 2 minutes?

    • Diane G on September 1, 2010 at 02:10
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    can do this, that…

    and prevent forest fires… them and smokey the bear, wait: smokey’s dead… smokey mercenaries will help them only iraqis prevent forest fires…

    and ps: I smoked G Dub today too…

  10. Every time he said something about honoring our troops who fought for bla bla bla I kept thinking of all the people who’ve been dis’d with DADT.

    ANd that big wet slobbery kiss he laid on Dubyah…… ew.

  11. enough to make me nauseous.  Even the way he sat, reminiscent . . . . !  Is he, too, totally out of touch, or has he been “tortured?”

    The combat mission is over in Iraq?  

    I like David Swanson!

    Withdraw the Last Combat Politicians from Washington

    By David Swanson

    http://warisacrime.org/node/54588

    Pretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending “the mind-set that got us into war in the first place.” It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama’s description of war as “not only necessary but morally justified.”

    Over the past 20 years, the United States has imposed on Iraq two intense wars and many years of bombing and deprivation, the death of millions, and the displacement of more millions now left desperate and abandoned in Iraq and around the region. Violence in Iraq is common and increasing, sex trafficking is on the rise, the basic infrastructure of electricity, water, sewage, and healthcare is in ruins, life expectancy has dropped, cancer rates in Fallujah have surpassed those in Hiroshima, anti-U.S. terrorist groups are using the occupation of Iraq as a recruiting tool, there is no functioning government, and most Iraqis say they were better off with Saddam Hussein in power. And this is all prior to the hell to come when the agreed upon complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of next year turns out to be a fraud. . . .

    I think it’s all too reminiscent of Bush’s speech re “Mission Accomplished” (although, much longer in being said).  

    With the multitudes remaining and being installed in Iraq, as expressed above, it’s clear that it’s all a facade, with different phrasing, and so-called re-missioning, but, probably, the same thing, as we continue to destroy Iraq.  Somewhere, a few days ago, I read that our soldiers were just killing people randomly (there is a link, but I’m too tired to look for it).  

    BTW, has the “hydrocarbon sharing agreement” or “oil revenue sharing law agreement” been signed yet?  I think not (one of the benchmarks that were to be met).  Yes, maintenance type contracts over the oil wells have been awarded, but we’ve not been satisfied with just those contracts, we want the real deal!  So, yeh, we’ll be there to stir things up when need be, you know, get a new storm going to pit Sunnis against Shias, against Kurds, ad infinitum.

  12. It just hasn’t.  And it takes a humbling, a kind of destruction and ruin, to take stock.

    We are an adolescent nation.  A nation that does not realize that it does not, cannot and will not, ALONE.

    I despise Republicans.  They will bring us to RUIN.  Absolute ruin.

    The irony is, I think this may be necessary.  Because ruin is coming ANYWAY, one way or another.

    If ruin were to come, it should come in a Republican wrapper, not in a nod to Republican “wisdom”.

  13. They used to say it wold set us free, but it turns out it puts you in prison, sometimes literally, but more often just the prison of your own mind in a society of denial, that chooses ignorance.  Because ignorance is bliss, it alows you to think whatever happy thoughts you want to believe, just make sure you don’t try to compare those happy thoughts with the way the world around you is working.  And that last part, that’s why we have all the distractions, they need to make it convenient for us not to notice how things really work.  Because that makes it convenient for the ones that are working us.

    • TomP on September 1, 2010 at 19:28
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  15. it is all lies that come out of his articulate mouth. This administration’s duplicity is way harder to take then the bushie regime as it’s just as evil but cloaks it in a velvet glove with the talented spokeperson who’s pitch served to get the rat bastard’s power. He’s a slippery one truth wise, but his dead eyes and jutting jaw give him away these days. He no longer is able to soar the rhetoric as high and as distracting  because his subject matter and intent is so low and so nasty. I smell sulfur.    

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