President
Bush will address the nation about Iraq tonight. This is the first time he
will be speaking to the country on the U.S. occupation of Iraq since the
Downing Street Memos have been released. As ten senators pointed out
in a letter on Friday, June 24: “at a time the White House was promising
Congress and the American people that war would be their last resort, they
believed military action against Iraq was ‘inevitable.’”
Thus,
the President was telling the public he was seeking a peaceful resolution
when in fact he was planning an invasion. He told Americans there were
unmanned Iraqi aircraft that could drop bombs over our cities. His own
intelligence agencies told him this was inaccurate. He tied Saddam to Al
Qaeda and Bin Laden -- there was no evidence of that. Indeed, the two --
one secular, one fundamentalist -- were mortal foes. He talked about
Saddam being able to launch a strike on the United States in 45 minutes --
there was no evidence Iraq was capable of such an attack. He talked about
the potential of a mushroom cloud over the United States -- a nuclear
attack by Saddam -- when there was no evidence that a weakened, surrounded
and embargoed Saddam had any nuclear capability. When he was going to the
U.N. it was not to seek peace but to try and make an illegal invasion
legal by tricking Saddam into a misstep. For month after month, it now
seems evident President Bush and his minions misled the nation, repeating
the fabrications and manipulations about weapons of mass destruction over
and over and over in a drum beat to war.
The
administration has claimed the insurgency's demise repeatedly for the last
two years -- when the Iraq Governing Council was created, when Saddam's
sons Uday and Qusai were killed, when the Coalition Provisional Authority
handed over powers to an Iraqi interim government, when Saddam Hussein was
captured and after the elections in January. Yet the most recent months
have been the most violent. It's time for the American public and media
covering Iraq to have some doubt about the president's sugarcoated
assurances.
When
the President speaks on tonight, viewers must take his words with caution
-- with doubt -- with an ear for the false statement, phony motivation and
exaggeration. Sadly, our Commander-in-Chief has made it
hard for the people to trust him on the Iraq situation as shown in
poll after poll. To assist viewers, we provide the following guide to the
realities of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
Making America Less Safe:
The New York Times
reported on Sunday, June 26, “A classified assessment by the Central
Intelligence Agency says Iraq may be an even more effective training
ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was for Al Qaeda in the
days of the struggle against Soviet occupation. Iraq, unlike Afghanistan,
is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.” This report
echoes testimony by CIA Director Porter Goss before the Senate in February
that Iraq was a training ground for terrorists. The leaked classified CIA
report “says the urban nature of the war in Iraq is helping combatants
learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other
kinds of attacks....”
Insurgency Getting Stronger and Could Last More than a Decade:
The Bush administration has been predicting the imminent defeat of the
insurgency. Most recently Vice President Cheney claimed on May 31 on
Larry King Live that the insurgency in Iraq is “in
their last throes,” and predicted that the fighting will end before
the Bush administration leaves office. These statements are inconsistent
with statements made by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, who
acknowledged on Sunday, June 26th that the insurgency could
last up to 12 years; and with his top U.S. Commander in the Middle East,
Gen. John Abizaid, who testified before the Senate last week that the
Iraqi insurgency is as active as it was six months ago and more foreign
fighters are flowing in all the time. More and more people on the ground
in Iraq are saying the fight against the insurgency is not winnable under
present troop force.
Death Rate in Iraq in Mounting:
In March, 35 American soldiers died in Iraq, 52 were killed in April, 80
died in May . . . those are more troops killed than when Saddam's poorly
equipped army responded to the U.S. invasion. Since the invasion of Iraq,
Johns Hopkins University estimates more than 100,000 Iraqis have been
killed while a total of 1,726 U.S. soldiers have died. The past four
months have been among the deadliest in Iraq -- an average of 21 Iraqis
were killed each day in May. Last month there were about 700 reported
attacks against U.S. forces using improvised explosive devices -- the
highest number since the war began.
Troops Continue to Be Poorly Armed and Severely Injured:
The amount of time we have spent in Iraq is longer than World War I and by
this time in World War II we were looking toward D-Day, yet in Iraq U.S.
troops are unable to adequately protect themselves. The lack of body armor
and armor for vehicles is still inadequate to protect U.S. troops even
after two years of soldiers’ complaints and media criticism. Will
President Bush admit at least this fatal “mistake” to the soldiers he is
addressing this evening? This incompetent management of the war and
occupation has led to thousands of wounded. The DoD reports 13,074, but
knowledgeable
estimates range from 15,000 to 38,000 according to UPI investigative
reporter, Mark Benjamin. The Pentagon does not provide publicly a
comprehensive accounting of the human toll of the war from the American
side, not to mention the larger toll on the Iraqi people. The
Administration only reports the strictly combat-related injuries. Neither
injuries incurred not in combat, nor disease-connected sicknesses, nor
severe mental traumas are reported. What other President has deliberately
undercounted American casualties? No wonder President Bush orders the
return of U.S. casualties at nighttime to Andrews Air Force base and bans
the press from the military airport at Dover, Delaware.
U.S. Respect in the World Diminishing:
The illegally fabricated Iraq War and occupation continue to isolate us
further from the people around the world. Last week an Italian court
issued a warrant for ten CIA agents involved in the rendition of a
kidnapped Islamic cleric. And, in Australia, some U.S.
students report such intense harassment for being Americans that they
are leaving school there and returning home. The continued use of
Guantánamo Bay to house uncharged “detainees” (a euphemism for prisoners),
the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, prison abuse reports in other parts of Iraq
and Afghanistan, and the rendition policy of seizing people and bringing
them to countries known for torture all add up to a downward spiral in
perception of the U.S. around the world. Our government can no longer
claim the mantel of human rights protector when human rights organizations
report that we are a human rights violator around the world.
The
truth many Americans want to hear from the President, but are very
unlikely to hear, is that the war and occupation of Iraq was not based on
available intelligence; that our continued presence in Iraq is
counterproductive to the safety of Iraqis and the United States; and that
a responsible withdrawal from Iraq -- of both U.S. military and corporate
interests -- with continued humanitarian and economic support is the most
likely way to bring stability and democracy to the country. (For a more
detailed withdrawal plan see
www.DemocracyRising.US.) But sadly, more war talk is likely from this
President and more deaths of Americans and Iraqis will be the inevitable
and tragic result. Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor to the
first President Bush along with prominent retired military, diplomatic and
intelligence leaders warned this President Bush against invading Iraq in
2002-2003. They must feel like prophets.
Ralph Nader
is a leading consumer advocate. Kevin Zeese
directs Democracy Rising. You can comment on this column by visiting their
blogspot at:
www.DemocracyRising.US.
Other Articles by Kevin
Zeese
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* The House
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* Inventing a
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* Is the US
Recruiting for the Insurgency?
* Abu
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* Interview
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* Abu Ghraib
One Year Later
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Carter Gets It -- But Will His Electoral Commission?
* Howard Dean
Becomes Leader of the Other Pro-War Party
* Does the US
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*
Another Whitehouse Whitewash
* The Battle
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* Progressives
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* Two-Year
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*
Mishandling Nader
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Another
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* Restarting
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* Open
Letter to President Bush Regarding the Full Casualty Toll in Iraq
* Open
Letter to President Bush: Regarding the Destruction of Fallujah Mosques
*
Open Letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe:
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* An Open
Letter to Some Former Naderites Running Scared in 2004
* Nader on Dem
Party Dirty Tricks to Keep Him Off the Ballot, & Sorry State of the Left
* Open
Letter to President Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
* End the
US Occupation of Iraq
* The
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* Surges in
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* The Ultimate
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* Pension
Rights
* Whither the
Nation?
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