Still A Fucking War!

Well, we are approaching the 5 year birthday of certain death for millions of people. Of course I mean the war of occupation on Iraq. At this point, we have been in Iraq longer than WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War combined. Let us not forget that we were there during Bush I in the Gulf War, a war which has had a surmounting level of casualties still today, considering the amount of chemical warfare used by and against our own troops by the U.S. Government. It is not known the level of devistation caused by that war, and following that, the hardship was continued by U.S. backed economic sanctions since 1990 whose limitations were strengthened by the left's favorite dope smoking president, Bill Clinton. Here is a little article I found that describes in a very short manner, the economic war on the civilians of Iraq.

Sanctions Against Iraq

The UN Security Council imposed comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq on August 6, 1990, just after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. When the coalition war had ousted Iraq from Kuwait the following year, the Council did not lift the sanctions, keeping them in place as leverage to press for Iraqi disarmament and other goals. The sanctions remained in place thereafter, despite a harsh impact on innocent Iraqi civilians and an evident lack of pressure on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. A UN "Oil-for-Food Programme," started in late 1997, offered some relief to Iraqis, but the humanitarian crisis continued. The US and UK governments always made it clear that they would block any lifting or serious reforming of sanctions as long as Hussein remained in power. After more than twelve years of sanctions had passed, the US and the UK made war on Iraq again in March, 2003, sweeping away Hussein's government. Soon after, Washington called for and obtained the lifting of sanctions, a step that gave the US occupation authority full control over Iraq's oil sales and oil industry.

Now keep mind that, much like the U.S., Iraq's tyrant, Sadam, was extremely wealthy, there-by going largely unaffected by economic strangulation of the country by the Oil loving world. The ones to suffer from these sanctions, of course, was the middle and lower class citizens of Iraq. It is estimated that 1 million Iraqi's died due directly to sanctions, the largest part of them being children. This is a slow genocide on the people of Iraq, being acted out on future generations. The number of children poisoned by chemical food and water is unknown, not because it is not happening, but because the numbers are so high, no one specific group has been able to calculate the numbers across the board, and rapidly they are moving from the injured list to the dead list.

I want you to take notice of what happened after the fall of the Iraqi government in this most recent war. All sanctions were lifted and the U.S. is now in control over the rights of the economic trade in Iraq. This is nearly the definition of Imperialism, to overthrow one's existing government by outside military force, installing one's own control structure, and seizing the assets and resources of a land for personal profit, this is an empire at work.

The reason for this short post on a much larger subject to raise awareness that on March 16th, there will be many peace marches all over the world to voice our disgust with this oil war. The last war protest in the US of any substantial support, was on the eve of the invasion in 2003. It seems now, five years later, that people have forgotten what is means to be in a democracy. We place bumper stickers on our car and profess our love of certain candidates, but have stopped voicing our defiance against the largest moneymaker in US history...murder.

This March, join together with neighbors and friends, loved ones and political enemies to stand side by side in defiance of the war machine. The war in Vietnam played out the opposite of this war, in that it started with a large amount of support of the citizens of the US, and ended due in part to those citizens turning the coin to see how un-shiney war really is, and taking to the streets against it. This war had a large population of detractors in the days leading up to it, followed by an eerie silence in the years since. This election year, let's remind them who is working for who and take it out of the voting polls and coffee shops to the streets in glorious dissent. Contact me for information on marches in your area, or google peace movement and get involved, if there is not currently a march in your area, plan one. This war must end somehow, and who better than us to stop it, and what better time than today?