I remember the Iraq war

[Bgno64]

Smart Remarks:

I remember how ludicrous it all was. I remember the concerted effort made by Cheney, and others, to frighten Americans, as if Saddam Hussein and Iraq actually threatened the very existence of the United States.

Worse — I remember how my fellow citizens ate it up.

I remember the climate of intimidation — and stupidity — that prevailed. I remember "freedom fries." I remember the Dixie Chicks. I remember Bill O'Reilly telling people who opposed the war, like me, that if they couldn't support the invasion, they needed to "shut up."

I remember conservatives asking war opponents — in all seriousness — questions like, "Why do you hate freedom?" Or, "Why do you want the terrorists to win?"

How unpatriotic it was, not to go along for the ride. Foolish hippies, couldn't we see the ride was going to be simple and quick, as painless and virtuous as war could be? We were going to pick up a crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business — the exact words, by the way, of conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg.

It was to be our post-9/11 redemption; it was to be an unmitigated triumph for the forces of goodness and light and freedom!

Rock on, America!

And then — all this.

IEDs. No WMDs. Dozens, then hundreds, of Americans dead. Truck bombs, ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens killed, more displaced.

I remember the American mothers, red-faced and crying as they buried their soldiers, their sons and daughters. I remember the face of the little Iraqi girl, her parents gunned down by confused Americans at a checkpoint after they failed to stop, the hysterical girl's dress and face caked with the blood of mom and dad.

I remember.

You would do well to remember, too.

[Aristus]

1. I used to call The Iraq War a stain on our national honor, but...

I don't think we have much honor as a nation anymore...

Sad. I served in the Army when I was younger; including service in the Gulf; (and please don't thank me for my service, although I appreciate the thought...)

I used to think we were the good guys. Not anymore. With the advent of Bush's Iraq War, we became the Nazis.

And I'm Dietrich Bonhoffer around here...

[Carolina]

2. Well put, Aristus

I don't think we have much honor as a nation anymore

And so true!

[Aristus]

3. I think we've clawed our way back at least a little

by electing President Obama to two terms.

But we've a long way back.

The Berlin Airlift, the Salk Vaccine, and the Moon Program sometimes seem like the accomplishments of some other country, instead of our own.

And come what may, this evil, deplorable event in our history will forever be known in the textbooks as "Operation Iraqi Freedom". :

[kairos12]

4. None of the accomplishments you listed are possible in a red state tea bag world

[Aristus]

6. True, sadly...

n/t

[kairos12]

7. It is sad because the way it would go today..

Berlin Airlift--not possible, sequester.

Polio Vacine-available to one percenters and their kids

Moon Program-not viable because it requires the devils work called "Science."

Truly sad.

[kairos12]

5. Can't forget freedom fries or Chinese made ribbons on gas guzzling escalades

[Brother Buzz]

10. I got your magnetic ribbon right here

[lunatica]

8. I remember all that too

and more. Lots more.

[jimmy the one]

9. Dying Iraq Vet writes Bush/Cheney

I was anti war too, to no avail; I believed the govt when it said there were wmds - who was I to dispute it & claim otherwise just because inspectors couldn't find any? (really, not sarcasm). But I felt iraq was not the cause for 9/11 and iraq was contained & it was not kuwait again but a different scenario, and it would be an unprecedented move by USA to be aggressor against a sovereign nation. Wait until iraq actually manifested or used wmds in some fashion, & then you likely got a valid casus belli.

Days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Tomas Young, then a 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., made a decision repeated by many other Americans around the country: He was going to enlist in the military in hopes of getting even with the enemies who had helped coordinate the deaths of nearly 3,000 men, women and children.
Less than 3 years later, Young's Army service placed him not in Afghanistan -- where GWBush had told the nation the terrorist plot had originated -- but in Iraq. On April 4, 2004, just five days into his first tour, Young's convoy was attacked by insurgents. A bullet from an AK-47 severed his spine. Another struck his knee. Young would never walk again, and in fact, for the next nearly nine years, he would suffer a number of medical setbacks that allowed him to survive only with the help of extensive medical procedures and the care of his wife, Claudia.
The incident turned Young into one of the most vocal veteran critics of the Iraq War. He has, however, saved his most powerful criticism for what he claims will be his last. Young says he'll die soon, but not before writing a letter to Bush and former Vice President Cheney on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.
Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage." http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_la ... _20130318/

Tomas plans on ending his 33 year old life by disconnecting life support, in april 2013.
I think a Salute is due, to a better man than bush or cheney ever were or ever will be.

"My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness."