Hell Yes We Should Pull Out Of Iraq Now – We Should Have Long Ago

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v3i12pullout.htm
The Real Reason We Are Still There Has Nothing To Do With Terrorism or Democracy

by Thomas J. Bico

NOVEMBER 22, 2005 ? Last week Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) raised a firestorm by
suggesting it was time to pack up and troops and come home from Iraq.

Contrary to the nonsensical distortions of Republicans in response, Murtha said
that he was not advocating anything resembling a surrender but rather
acknowledging that we obtained victory long ago and have no further reason to be
there.

This Wall Street Journal article gives a nice rundown on the fact that Murtha
did not just form this opinion from nowhere or suddenly ?flip-flop.? From the
beginning, he was saying, Bush is going about this the wrong way, and it can?t
be won as he wants to do it.

It gives links to this article from before the war in which Murtha laid out
that, ?''All of us want to get rid of Saddam,'' Murtha says. But he believes
that the younger Bush ''went about it the wrong way,'' and this article from May
of 2004 in which Murtha lays out that, ?We cannot prevail in this war as it is
going today? We either have to mobilize or we have to get out."

That was almost a year ago, and clearly we have not mobilized anymore since
then.

Murtha?s main argument now is that we went there for WMD?s and to get Saddam.
There are no WMD?s, we?ve gotten Saddam, so why are we still there?

Now the Republicans are fighting back with their holier-than-thou lies, giving
their disingenuous, FOX News-brand answer to why we are supposedly still there.
The ?terrorists,? they say, and ?democracy,? throwing strong-sounding but
inaccurate claims. And the Democrats don?t quite have the courage yet to really
lay out the simple reality: that not only shouldn?t we stay in Iraq now, that
we should have pulled out long ago ? and, that the reason we are still there has
nothing to do with terrorists or democracy.

As we wrote back on December 16, 2003:

?If the police broke into someone?s house and trashed the place entirely,
killed the pet dog and two of the kids, because they thought there were drugs in
the apartment, but it turned out, after they searched and searched and searched,
that they had been given a bad tip and there never were drugs to begin with ?
those police would have some answering to do and a price to pay."

The reality is that the law makes plain what should have been done in Iraq. For
those who supported the ?preemptive? war based on ?intelligence? about WMD?s,
once we found out there were none, we had no other choice but to leave and pay
the price for our misguided actions. It?s just that simple. Police who raid a
house on a bad tip (or because they made up supposed tips) must, upon finding
nothing, immediately leave. It is not an option ? to repeat, not an option ? to
remain and keep the place. Even if you think the guy is a drug kingpin, if you
show up and find nothing, you must go.

But we didn?t leave when we didn?t find WMD?s, and we didn?t leave when got
Saddam. And the reality is, as I pointed out Jay Diamond?s WRKO-Boston radio
show a while back, that we are never ? never ? going to leave Iraq. Ever. We
are not there because of ?terrorists,? we are not there because of democracy.

As we pointed out back in May 2003 in this article
http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i3inept.htm :

?All along it seemed that Bush was possibly inept diplomatically, and that's
why the multinational coalition didn't form and UN resolutions failed. The
reality is that President Bush never wanted the support of France, Germany,
Russia, and the UN. In fact, he wanted to avoid having it at all costs?

?Before even the first week of the war was over, Vice President ***
Cheney's old company, Haliburton, was given a $400+ million dollar contract -
they said it was for putting out the 7 oil fires that were burning. As we now
know, Haliburton has also been given control of pumping and distributing Iraq's
oil for the foreseeable future (see CNN story). All of this was given to ***
Cheney's old company during just the first week of the war, in, as is no secret,
a secret, closed "bidding" process (see CNN story)?

??when you start looking at the realities of Operation Iraqi Freedom, you
have to start questioning. The first U.S. Marine to die died securing an oil
field. The first task accomplished was securing oil fields. Even during
President Bush's address to the nation on the eve of war, when he said he had a
message for the Iraqi troops, before he said not to use chemical weapons, before
he said not to commit atrocities, the first thing he said to them, with all of
America and the world watching, was, "Do not destroy oil wells, a source of
wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people." Before saying don't use weapons of
mass destruction.

Can't imagine that is true? Here is the full quote (you can read the full
text of the speech on the government's own website):

"And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to
this warning. In any conflict, your fate will depend on your action. Do not
destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not
obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including
the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished.
And it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders.""

The reality is that ?terrorists,? which never existed in Iraq before we made
them through our actions, and ?democracy? have nothing to do with why we are
still in Iraq. In fact, many of the ?terrorists? who are there now popped up
because they saw what was happening: that we were never leaving, but instead
going to stay to ensure we had control of whatever government was there so? we
could have control of the oil.

Everyone seems to forget that we are building and have built massive new
?enduring? military bases in Iraq ? not exactly a sign of impending withdrawal.
As The Christian Science Monitor reported more than a year ago:

??a dozen is the number of so-called "enduring bases" located by John Pike,
director of GlobalSecurities.org. His military affairs website gives their
names. They include, for example, Camp Victory at the Baghdad airfield and Camp
Renegade in Kirkuk. The Chicago Tribune last March said US engineers are
constructing 14 "enduring bases," but Mr. Pike hasn't located two of them.

?Note the terminology "enduring" bases. That's Pentagon-speak for long-term
encampments - not necessarily permanent, but not just a tent on a wood platform
either. It all suggests a planned indefinite stay on Iraqi soil that will cost
US taxpayers for years to come.?

Get the idea yet? You may not have thought this a big deal, but you can bet the
people of Iraq got the idea. If you don?t think our continued presence there is
the reason for the violence, you are not paying attention. It is not terrorists
out to get America, it is Iraqis furious that their nation has been taken and
will never be given back, just as you would be if some foreign nation invaded
America and started building "enduring" bases here.

The simple reality is that of course we should leave Iraq now ? Murtha is
correct, our troops have accomplished all they were sent to do, and, as many
Democratic candidates and elected officials have said, all they do now is put a
bad, oppressive, occupational face on our nation, and remain as sitting ducks.

And the larger reality is that we should have left Iraq long ago. Once we knew
there were no WMD?s, it was time to get out.

But we didn?t leave, and the reality is we never ? never ? are going to, as long
as the Bush/Limbaugh Republicans are in charge. The only circumstances under
which our troops will leave will be if they can leave without leaving. In other
words, we will only leave troops if we have control of the oil through control
of whatever government ends up there. And if you question this, do a reality
check for yourself: do you believe for one second the Bush administration would
leave and allow for a new Iraqi government to decide to give oil and rebuilding
contracts to Russia or Germany instead of the US?

It is time, America, to start putting everything together.

Put this information about the ?enduring? bases together with this information
from our recent article Conservatism is the New Communism:

?Saudi Arabian billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said Tuesday
he now holds a 5.5% voting stake in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (the parent
company of FOX News) and is ready to raise his stake, especially if it is
necessary to shield Murdoch from any potential hostile takeover attempts by the
likes of John Malone's Liberty Media?

"In an interview on CNBC Tuesday, Alwaleed said he has communicated his
strategy to Murdoch and was "mobilized and ready" to further boost his voting
stake "if we feel that the strategy of Mr. Murdoch and his son and his family is
being threatened by any outsider." He added: "Clearly, this is something we will
not accept, because we are very happy as shareholders with what Mr. Murdoch is
doing."

"A News Corp. spokesman Tuesday declined to comment on the news, but company
sources said the Saudi prince has long been regarded by Murdoch as an ally in
his showdown with Malone.?

A billionaire Saudi Prince "will not accept" someone changing FOX News from the
conservative propaganda station that it is. He "has long been regarded by (FOX
News owner Rupert) Murdoch as an ally..." He ?clearly? will not let anyone
change FOX News? Bush/Limbaugh-conservative-propaganda format because he is
?very happy? with what Mr. Murdoch is doing.?

It?s time to start looking at the larger picture. There can be no useful debate
on Iraq until America boldly steps through the looking glass and gets the
courage to see the plain, obvious reality. Big-mouthed Republican bitches
mouthing the words of marines on the floor of Congress in defense of dishonest
and delusional policies is not courage. Murtha calling for the rapid
redeployment of our troops to actually defend our nation rather than secure
business deals for Halliburton and American oil companies is courageous.

But what would be really courageous is to call things as they are. The lines
about ?surrendering? to the ?terrorists? or giving up on democracy are nonsense.
Not only must we immediately leave Iraq, we should have done it long ago, as
soon as we found out there were no WMD?s. But more importantly, someone has got
to have the balls to call it like it is: the only reason we are still there ?
and likely the only reason we are there to begin with ? is for the oil, and for
the sake of further making America a Saudi-like nation ruled by a single family
which controls things with their massive oil wealth and through the use of
religion in an extreme form.

The truth is so simple it fits all in one sentence, while the liars need 24
hour-a-day propaganda to sell their lies. Look again at this statement again:

...for the sake of further making America a Saudi-like nation ruled by a
single family which controls things with their massive oil wealth and through
the use of religion in an extreme form.

It is not even an entire sentence, but it is a truth so plain it becomes obvious
with just a handful of words.

The Iraq war is not an attempt to free Iraq, it is an attempt to further enslave
America in servitude to the family of anarchists named Bush that has entirely
taken control of every branch of the government and seeks to dismantle our
democracy and replace it with a religious fascist state that exists to
perpetuate their own personal power and wealth. They like war because war is
anarchy - they can kill as they wish without trial or lawyers - make a deck of
cards and kill everyone whose face they decide to put on it without trial or
even clear charges; they can hand out and take our tax dollars as they wish,
without accounting or legislative approval for the particulars. That is what
the Bush vision of "freedom" is: anarchy, freedom to commit criminal acts
without the impediment of law.

America has a different definition of what freedom is, and it is the freedom to
pursue happiness in a nation where all men are equal, and where strong arm
bullies with no respect for the law are called criminals and locked up
accordingly.

It is time to get the courage ? people in both parties, as well as us Moderate
Independents ? to deal with this ugly, obvious truth and so to immediately end
this mess in Iraq. The war only exists to perpetuate the anarchistic state of
war and further the Bush family's designs on permanently controlling America,
turning it into a fascistic, religious state over which they preside, as the
Saudi rulers preside over their nation. The war must be ended immediately. We
must trust in God, that if we do the right thing, which is to end the war right
now and make true amends for the wrong we have done, that America will once
again live in God's good graces.

Or we can just ?stay the course? and keep losing five soldiers a day because we
are "cowards" who can?t handle the truth.

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v3i12pullout.htm



Alan

"Can't you see we're still here,
Can't you see we're still here,
Singing loud; Singing clear,
We shall not go under,
We're still here."

Nemesis Peace Centre

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