As we approach the fifth anniversary of our occupation of Iraq (March 19) and close to 4,000 US fatalities, there is an urgent need to beat the drums for an immediate withdrawal. The war has been an unrelenting nightmare for the US and Iraq. Renowned economists, Joseph Stieglitz and Linda Bilmes, have conservatively estimated the war costs to be in excess of three trillion dollars. It has drained our economy and caused a free fall of our currency. The politically well-connected war profiteers such as Halliburton, and Blackwater have enriched themselves at the expense of working class youth, many of whom volunteered to join the army out of economic necessity. Our president and many of our lawmakers have embraced the medieval practice of torture and totally abandoned the teachings of Jesus Christ whom they claim to revere. Our public discourse regarding abortion reeks of hypocrisy. Our oil intoxicated politicians have aborted the lives of thousands of US soldiers and millions of Iraqis and still cling to the grotesque notion of ‘victory’.
Over 1 million Iraqis have been killed and hundreds of thousands maimed. Sectarian fighting, absent prior to the occupation —makes daily life a living hell. Last week, former and current US soldiers bared their souls and provided testimony of war crimes they committed against innocent Iraqi civilians at the ‘Winter Soldier’ hearings. This important news was ignored by the US media but was widely reported in over 80 countries around the world.
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