[Mb-civic] Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq? + Peace March

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Following this overview of what Bush has accomplished in Iraq is a brief 
announcement of a march to stand against the war on its 3rd anniversary this 
Saturday...followed by an important online alert you can participate in to tell 
AOL not to implement internet censorship...


http://counterpunch.org/roberts03112006.html

Weekend Edition
March 11 / 12, 2006

Every Reason Put Forward Has Been Proven False

Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq?

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

March 20 is the third anniversary of the Bush regime's invasion of Iraq.
US military casualties to date are approximately 20,000 killed, wounded,
maimed, and disabled. Iraqi civilian casualties number in the tens of
thousands. Iraq's infrastructure is in ruins. Tens of thousands of homes
have been destroyed. Fallujah, a city of 300,000 people had 36,000 of its
50,000 homes destroyed by the US military. Half of the city's former
population are displaced persons living in tents.

Thousands of Iraqis have been detained in prisons and hundreds have been
brutally tortured. America's reputation in the Muslim world is ruined.

The Bush regime expected a short "cakewalk" war to be followed by the
imposition of a puppet government and permanent US military bases.
Instead, US military forces are confronted with an insurgency that has
denied control over Iraq to the US military. Chaos rules, and civil war
may be coming on top of the insurgency.

On March 9, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the man who has been
totally wrong about Iraq, told Congress that if the unprecedented violence
in Iraq breaks out in civil war, the US will rely primarily on Iraq's
security forces to put down civil war.

What Iraqi security forces? Iraq does not have a security force.
The Shia have a security force. The Sunnis have a security force, and the
Kurds have a security force. The sectarian militias control the streets,
towns and cities. If civil war breaks out, the "Iraqi security force" will
dissolve into the sectarian militias, leaving the US military in the
middle of the melee.

Is this what "support the troops" means?

President Bush's determination to remain in Iraq despite the obvious
failure of the attempted occupation puts Bush at odds with the American
public and with our troops. Polls show that a majority of Americans
believe that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake and that our troops should
be withdrawn. An even larger majority of the troops themselves believe
they should be withdrawn.

Yet Bush, who is incapable of admitting a mistake, persists in a strategic
blunder that is turning into catastrophe.

Bush's support has fallen to 34 percent.

The war's out of pocket cost to date is approximately $300 billion--every
dollar borrowed from foreigners. Economic and budgetary experts have
calculated that the ultimate cost of Bush's Iraq war in terms of long-term
care for veterans, interest on borrowed money, and resources diverted from
productive uses will be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion.

What is being achieved for this enormous sacrifice?

No one knows.

Every reason we have been given for the Iraqi invasion has proved to be
false. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. Reports from UN
weapons inspectors, top level US intelligence officials, Secretary of the
Treasury Paul O'Neill, and leaked top secret documents from the British
Cabinet all make it unequivocally clear that the Bush regime first decided
to invade Iraq and then looked around for a reason.

Saddam Hussein had no terrorist connection to Osama bin Laden and no role
in the 9/11 attack. Hussein was a secular ruler totally at odds with bin
Laden's Islamist aims. Every informed person in the world knew this.

When the original justifications for the US invasion collapsed, Bush said
that the reason for the invasion was to rid Iraq of a dictator and to put
a democracy in its place. Despite all the hoopla about democracy and
elections, no Iraqi government has been able to form, and the country is
on the brink of civil war. Some Middle East experts believe that violence
will spread throughout the region.

The brutal truth is that America's responsibility is extreme. We have
destroyed a country and created political chaos for no reason whatsoever.

Seldom in history has a government miscalculated as badly as Bush has in
Iraq. More disturbingly, Bush shows no ability to recover from his
mistake. All we get from our leader is pig-headed promises of victory that
none of our military commanders believe.

Our entire government is lost in confusion. One day Vice President Cheney
and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld tell us that we are having great success in
training an Iraqi military and will be able to begin withdrawing our
troops in a year. The next day they tell us that we will be fighting the
war for decades.

Bush's invasion of Iraq was a mistake. Bush's attempt to cover up his
mistake with patriotism will ultimately discredit patriotism.

America has to be big enough to admit a mistake and to bring it to an end.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor
of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts at yahoo.com

--------


March 18 Mass March & Rally in Los Angeles
Stop the War! Bring the Troops Home Now!

Saturday, March 18, 12 noon
Gather Hollywood and Vine
March to Hollywood and Highland

For more info call 323-464-1636 or e-mail answerla at answerla.org.

On Saturday, March 18 at 12 noon, thousands of people will gather at the
corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles for a mass march and rally
against the war on Iraq. This protest will commemorate the third
anniversary of the criminal U.S. "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq, in
which more than 100,000 Iraqis and 2,200 U.S. troops have died.

Now is the time to speak out loudly against imperialist war and
repressive, racist policies at home. Popular opinion in the U.S. has
turned dramatically against the war. Let's channel the popular outrage
against Bush and the war into a powerful people's movement for peace and
social justice. Get involved today!

Initiated by A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition-LA: Alliance for Just and Lasting
Peace in the Philippines, Free Palestine Alliance, Palestinian American
Women's Association, Haiti Support Network, Party for Socialism and
Liberation, GABRIELA Network, Latino Movement USA and 
MINDULLAE.

Media sponsors: Air America Radio, Progressive Talk 1150 AM;
Minjok-Tongshin Korean Online Daily

Co-sponsors and endorsers include

Coalition for World Peace, Global Resistance Network, Global Women's
Strike, International Socialist Organization, Iraq Veterans Against War,
KMB Pro-People Youth, Korean Americans for Peace, National Council of 
Arab
Americans, U.S. Labor Against War, Veterans for Peace, Youth & Student
ANSWER, Office of the Americas, Out Against War, MSA-West, Riverside 
Area
Peace and Justice Action; Paul Haggis, Academy Award winning
writer/director ("Crash"); Gloria Romero, California Senate Majority
Leader; Ron Kovic, Vietnam War veteran; Harry Belafonte, Singer and Film
star; Martin Sheen, Film and TV star ("The West Wing"); Dolores Huerta,
Co-founder United Farm Workers; Laura Dern, Film star ("Jurassic Park");
Maria Bello, Golden Globe nominated actress ("A History of Violence"); Mia
St. John, IFBA Lightweight Boxing Champion; Ed Begley Jr., Film and TV
star ("Six Feet Under"); Amy Brenneman, Film and TV star ("Judging Amy");
Fernando Suarez del Solar, Guerrero Azteca; Pablo Paredes, war resister;
Tom Ortenborg, President of Lion's Gate Films Releasing; Shiva Rose, Film
star ("David & Layla"); Travis Wilkerson, Award winning director ("An
Injury to One"); Peter Horton, TV star and producer ("Grey's Anatomy");
Jeffrey Tambor, Film and TV star ("Arrested Development") and more.

Youth & Student Anti-War Calendar
March 18 Protest & March 20 Day of Resistance to Imperialism
Organize to Stop the War & Military Recruiters!

Join the Youth & Student Contingent at March 18
Saturday, March 18, gather at 11:30 am

NW corner of Hollywood & Argyle (look for the Youth Anti-War banner)


***


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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

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