Operation Iraqi "Freedom" (???)
`"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just"
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Thomas Jefferson
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Before I get down to business, look at the little girl in the photo at the top of this posting. Look into her eyes. Do you see the terror? Do you see the grief? Please focus on it - I'm begging you, folks - let it enfold you! Let it consume you! If ever there was a time for empathy, this is it, people. Imagine that she is your daughter...or grand daughter...or sister...or niece. Imagine that the lifeless body she is weeping over is that of someone you love...or yours.... Imagine all the people living life in peace.
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I'd like to submit for your consideration the following list:
1. The Revolutionary War
2. The War of 1812
3. The Mexican/American War
4. The Civil War
5. The Spanish/American War
6. World War I
7. World War II
8. The Korean War
9. The Viet Nam War
10. Desert Storm
11. Operation Iraqi Freedom
Question: What's wrong with this picture?
Ah! You see where I'm going with this, don't you? I knew you would! Labeling the obscenity that you and I, as taxpayers, are now funding against the men, women and little children of Iraq as "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is about as ludicrous as Margaret Mitchell scrapping the title of her famous Civil War novel and opting instead to call it, The 1939 New Jersey Industrial Directory - I mean, it makes no sense whatsoever!
As bad a name as Operation Iraqi Freedom looks to the discerning eye at this point in time, can you even imagine how utterly stupid it's going to appear with the benefit of ten or twenty years historical hindsight? How dumb are we as a nation going to look after we leave behind a failed state theocracy that will inevitably come into being and we're still calling this fiasco "Operation Iraqi Freedom"? And consider this: it's already obvious that "bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people" was never the real motive behind the Bush Mob's illegal invasion of that country. When the dust settles and the papers of this disgusting administration are finally uncovered by the special prosecutors, the criminal intent of these hideous bastards will be so blatantly obvious that even the dumbest amongst us (Attention: viewers of FOX and Friends) will have no trouble putting the pieces together. No ifs, ands or buts about it, kids, we're eventually gonna have to give this sucker a new name.
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You say it isn't quite sporting to re-name a conflict after the fact? Actually, there is a precedent for doing so. For over twenty years, World War One was simply referred to as "The Great War" or the "War To End All Wars". In 1917, no one would even have dared to call it the first world war for by doing so, one would be implying that a second world wide conflict was forthcoming. At that point in time, no one in his or her right mind wanted to even consider that possibility! December 7, 1941 changed that mindset forever. Since the day the Japanese surrendered in August of 1945, the dread specter of a World War III has been hovering over the human psyche - a real and frightening prospect. And now, thanks to the village idiot from Crawford, Texas - our very own home-grown Hitler - we're closer to that dreaded prospect than we've ever been in our history.
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So let all of us here do a service for humanity in general and our once-great nation in particular: let's all try to come up with another name for this stupid, fucking war. Here are just three of my candidates:
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THE BUSH/CHENEY WAR
What do you think? Short and to the point, I say! Sure, the whole scheme was originally cooked up by the authors of the Project For A New American Century but there can be no denying that this is George W. Bush's and Richard B. Cheney's war. From the day the oaf of office took the oath of office, they we're determined to "do something about Saddam" come hell or highwater - the historical record makes that perfectly clear. (For more on that subject, please read Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke). Maybe they never got to their highwater mark but of this you can be sure: These assholes opened up the gates of hell when they made the worst military blunder in American history by invading Iraq.
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THE ILLEGAL WAR
Oh, that has alot of merit to it, don'cha think? There can be no denying that our government was in flagrant violation of international law (not to mention opinion) when they brought about this catastrophe in March of 2003. If there is any justice in this world, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Powell will be handed over to the Hague for crimes against humanity when this is all over.
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THE NEO-CONFLICT
Get it??? Neo? Conflict? Pretty clever, huh? Yeah, I thought so myself! Good goin', Degan! There is no doubt in my mind that, within time, the term "neo-con" will have as negative a connotation as "nazi party" does today. You can take that to the bank, pardner!
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Make no mistake about it: the war that almost thirty-two hundred American kids have given their lives for - the war that possibly over half a million Iraqi people have been slaughtered for - is not, to be sure, "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Come to think of it, let's just call the damned thing, Gone With The Wind.
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Pray for peace.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
`
THE BUSH/CHENEY WAR
What do you think? Short and to the point, I say! Sure, the whole scheme was originally cooked up by the authors of the Project For A New American Century but there can be no denying that this is George W. Bush's and Richard B. Cheney's war. From the day the oaf of office took the oath of office, they we're determined to "do something about Saddam" come hell or highwater - the historical record makes that perfectly clear. (For more on that subject, please read Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke). Maybe they never got to their highwater mark but of this you can be sure: These assholes opened up the gates of hell when they made the worst military blunder in American history by invading Iraq.
.
THE ILLEGAL WAR
Oh, that has alot of merit to it, don'cha think? There can be no denying that our government was in flagrant violation of international law (not to mention opinion) when they brought about this catastrophe in March of 2003. If there is any justice in this world, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Powell will be handed over to the Hague for crimes against humanity when this is all over.
.
THE NEO-CONFLICT
Get it??? Neo? Conflict? Pretty clever, huh? Yeah, I thought so myself! Good goin', Degan! There is no doubt in my mind that, within time, the term "neo-con" will have as negative a connotation as "nazi party" does today. You can take that to the bank, pardner!
.
Make no mistake about it: the war that almost thirty-two hundred American kids have given their lives for - the war that possibly over half a million Iraqi people have been slaughtered for - is not, to be sure, "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Come to think of it, let's just call the damned thing, Gone With The Wind.
.
Pray for peace.
.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
posted by Tom Degan @ 1:06 PM
15 comments
15 Comments:
Dear Tom,How about christening this crime against humanity "The First Fool's Folly".
The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sure as shootin' attack on Iran is certainly folly and no question that Bush is a fool.
Only time will tell if we will actually invade Iran, the nukes will certainly fly for openers in Bush's shock and awe.
We don't have to wait for 10 to 20 years hindsight to recognize this as you so accurately call it the biggest blunder since Hitler invaded Russia.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is already dead as a moniker for this human atrocity, it had been quite a while since I have heard Iraq and freedom in the same sentence except for the word freedom being mentioned
Operation Iraqui Liquidation.
O-I-L
This obscenity really was once called OPERATION IRAQUI LIBERATION, but someone noted the acronym.
And by any name, it is still obscene.
Oh the new Amerenglish Tom, it makes my brain bleed.
Iraqi freedom
Friendly fire.
Collateral damage.
For us or against us
Nukular
Freedoms - plural, what are these precisely? Could someone list them apart from the only one on the Idiot's list - shopping.
Alkaeeda
Fighting them first over there so we don't have to fight them here (WTF?)
WMDs - the only ones that ever were produced were the invaders.
Shock'n'awe - Part 2 is coming soon to a theatre near you.
I'm tired, I can't go on. This whole business is exhausting....
Dear Tom,
I think you should fax this post with the photo to all our legislators, likewise the one a few posts back with the dead/dying Iraqi child being carried away. I don't have television in my home, but I'm willing to bet these images are not being shown on TV. One can't look at these without weeping. This was such an insightful post and should make anyone who reads it more introspective about our involvement in Iraq.
A war that inflicts death and suffering on innocent civilians is in no way justifiable or honorable. To continue to think so in the light of what is going in over there is the height of stupidity and arrogance, especially if anyone claims this is supported by God's will. We can see in the Bible what God has done throughout history to stupid arrogant violent people, especially when they were His own people. We should be more afraid of God than the terrorists, and then maybe we'll begin to claim back our heritage of goodness.
We are paying about 41% of our taxes for defense right now.
I've been suggesting to people who oppose this war to write on their checks to the IRS or their W-2 forms: PAID UNDER PROTEST AGAINST FUNDING ILLEGAL WARS and they are doing it! To make an even greater impact make a copy and fax it to your legislators.
I'm really beginning to think people like us can actually start to change things!
Hey Tom,
Just a quick comment about the photo. Besides fear and grief, I see ANGER in that child's eyes. Now multiply that by the number of Iraqis who have lost a loved one. Within the history of the Iraqi people, we read about tribal grudges and vows of revenge that pre-date our own country's founding. We have a whole lot of payback coming our way.
These are a patient people. Our children and grandchildren will be paying for this F/U for generations, both in the debt to China for financing this debacle, and their loss of loved ones to retaliation. What have we done?!
Peace to us all,
Jo
"Bush's War". It's short, concise and easily rolls off the tongue in casual conversation.
And make no mistake, it was Bush who WANTED war for his own political gain as much as Cheney wanted war for his own monetary gain.
david v you are right, Bush did want and need war for political gain but his own off shore account is fattening right along with Cheney's.
Bush came crawling back to Midland in an old junker of a Pontiac after blowing his trust fund and his later ventures into the oil bidness to quote the late great Molly Ivins were a spectacular unsucess so Bush was desperate for a dollar.
His stint with the Texas Rangers was a success because of Georgie's keepers, not Bush's financial acumen.
How about, "The Clusterfuck"? Seriously though, where did you get that picture of the girl? It's a very powerful image, one that more people need to see...much like that b&w picture from Vietnam of the soldier holding a gun to the man's head.
Dear David,
I obtained the photo by doing a google image search of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and that was one of the images that came up. It it a powerful image, isn't it? The poor little thing, I hope she's in safe hands.
Peace.
Tom Degan
I am sure that the person who took the picture got THAT child to safety.
Shed a tear for the hundreds of thousands who are still in harms way.
I did
Good post Tom...sorry I've been gone but I'll be back...where has the time gone?
As always this an eloquent piece of reporting and so are all those who have written comments about this piece. I never know how to reply sometimes, even though I read each of your pieces. I feel over whelmed by shear poetry of what you write and its emotional depth. Keep up the good work, for those of us with master's degrees and cannot express our thoughts and feelings so clearly. Thanks
Rather than worry about re-naming this un-warranted, unjust war, currently I am concerned that the hubris of Bush-Cheney will manage to get the USA into a position prior to the next election in which the Village Idiot will declare military law!!!!
Lets just start the draft again with a couple of changes from the earlier version. No exemptions, and have people from the richest families be drafted first, since they have the most to lose, and people from the poorest families last, since they have nothing to lose. Simple. No more wars.
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