There will be an anti-war protest on the Drillfield tomorrow at 5 p.m. on the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Critics should ask why.
Let's examine the current state of the Iraq War. We must examine current conditions because the previous, necessary rationale that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was an imminent threat has been well documented as false.
We should look at the facts. The two most authoritative estimates of violent deaths because of the war are more than 600,000 through 2006 (according to the Lancet medical journal study) and more than one million through 2007 (Opinion Research Business survey). Out of a population of 27 million, two million more are now refugees, and five million more are orphans.
Although these numbers should preface any article on the war, they are virtually never reported. And with good reason - killing a million people is wrong, and the American people wouldn't stand for it. According to Reporters Without Borders, Iraq ranks 158th out of 173 countries in the Press Freedom Index.
What has changed since we magnanimously removed Saddam Hussein, who himself was a monstrous, genocidal dictator? Infant mortality rates, life expectancy, homelessness, ethnic violence and all social services (except for electrocution in a few areas of the country) are worse. Unemployment has stayed the same - at about 25 percent, or American Great Depression levels.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that some refugees have experienced state-sponsored rape. Seventy percent of Iraqi doctors have fled.
The Iraqi surplus rests in U.S. and European banks, the state oil and banking sectors partially sold to foreign investors. This is the extent of our magnificence: Iraq has been destroyed. Therefore, supporters of the Iraq War must look beyond facts to vacuous political slogans designed to quell dissent.
We can dismiss rhetoric about "freedom," "democracy" and so on. Iraq has become a classic American client democracy. The principal opposition, Hussein's Ba'ath Party, has been banned from running in elections.
Furthermore, the parties that win don't have autonomy. (To be fair, regional autonomy has increased in Iraqi Kurdistan. However, Kurds also don't get their top wish - independence.) Elections to choose between various factions of a regime that can't force out the brutal occupiers mean little.
The New York Times reported on Feb. 23 that five of six Iraqi widows don't receive the government widow stipend ($50 per month plus $12 per child). As a response to this inconvenience, the government is starting "a campaign to arrest beggars and the homeless, including war widows."
The phrase "support our troops" is usually used to do exactly the opposite. More than 4,000 American soldiers have died. The rate of soldier suicides is at the highest level ever recorded.
Ninety-five percent of veterans don't receive full benefits and other reliable job opportunities are dwindling. People who support our troops would undoubtedly want to do anything possible to end the war.
John McCain correctly criticized Barack Obama for failing to acknowledge "the surge worked." Obama, playing the anti-war candidate, couldn't acknowledge it because he didn't know what the surge was.
Everybody knows that the surge was an increase in troops. But it was primarily a shift in tactics: Petraeus ordered the troops to stop fighting as much. American troops stayed in their bases and newly-created outposts.
We also gave some Iraqis jobs (albeit as mercenaries). Any kindergartener knows that if you stop hurting people, they will probably stop hurting you. Petraeus deserves every credit for his ingenious subterfuge, which slightly improved a hideous situation.
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Wish I could be there. Unfortunately most students today seem more interested in their ipods and cell phones than feeling a sense of social responsibility and calling on the government to the end the crimes that it wages. I applaud these protesters.
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I too applaud the protesters. Both of them should have a great time.
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Have fun you protesters we were going to stay in Iraq for a hundred years but then the Government saw that scheduled a protest tomorrow and decided to call of the whole invasion and protect America using rainbow technology. I be on my cell phone and listening to my Ipod all day and guess what we'll make the same amount of difference. I swear the only thing funnier than a protest against a war that's ending is the fact you people think it will accomplish something.
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Dude, way to be right on time with this protest. The war is already winding down. Based on your writing skilz, it would appear you were in Middle School when the war started. What's wrong? Feeling sorry for yourself that you didn't get to participate in the protests back then?
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Thank you all for your comments. Please note the very unfortunate typo on page one - "electrification" has improved in some areas, not "electrocution." I apologize for this oversight. As to the critics, note that none of them argue against the facts.
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Haha both of them should have a good time. That was a good line. Obama is president now, the need for protesting is over or you'll make him look bad.
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Burke, what facts?
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Comparing current statistics (homelessness, etc.) to statistics from the past that very well could be massively biased by Saddam's people? Of course there are more homeless now, they aren't being killed by an evil dictator. So if I support the war in any minute way, I can't be at the same time supporting the troops? Don't preach patriotism when you go a protest the government. Protesting is a sissy action. Do something that helps, not something that just interrupts people on the way to class.
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This protest will be useless, mainly becuase folks like Mr. Thomas, who undoubtedly have the best of intentions, never seem to offer any realistic options. Does he truly think the UN could ever agree to put a peacekeeping force in Iraq, let alone come up with enough troops and equipment to source the operation.
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Obama reneged on his unrealistic campaign promise of a complete pull-out because (surprise!) it was totally unrealistic. Thankfully, unlike many of the left-wingers who voted for him, he seems a bit more nuanced and flexible than a simple slogan.
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I agree with Hokie_1997.
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Pssst. The troops are already leaving Iraq.
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"As to the critics, note that none of them argue against the facts." That's because postings are limited to 250 words.
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pssst... kids our age are dying for their country. you can be against the war but support the troops- it could be you over there
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Pssst... Guess what, I WAS over there. Five times. Mr. Thomas has no clue what he's talking about. I haven’t nearly the space to go point-by-point to refute this opinion piece, but there are more errors in it than in a high school freshman English composition. He has managed to collect six years of propaganda and cram it into a single column. I can’t figure out which is his go-to source for information: The Huffington Post, moveon.org or The Onion.
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Funny, it seems that there are still quite a few supporters of this war. But why argue that the author is late in protest when several on this bulletin are still so obviously in support of the war? Why call the author's work propaganda when he cites official and legitimate sources for his statistics and provides facts that aren't really disputed by anyone at this point? The war was a joke to begin with; you cannot establish democracy in countries that have no rule of law and no precedent for individual liberties; Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and, if this is purely about global security, we actually made the Middle East and the world less secure by taking out Sadaam and thus leaving the Iraqi people with an impossibly unstable environment that has no foreseeable end. Some say the conditions in Iraq have improved to some degree, and the Republicans recklessly used this notion during the 2008 campaigns to claim that we were close to victory. If you take the blinders off, you'll realize that after toppling Sadaam we have suffered six years of losing American lives and expending massive resources in occupation of this tiny country. There is no victory in that proposition, and thus, I applaud the author for protesting and I hope every measure is taken to insure that History remembers this war as a mistake, and that similar transgressions are not committed in the future.
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Obama is a joke, he played the anti-war card just enough to get elected and now he isn't doing anything different than Bush. Both the Iraq war and afghan wars are a complete waste. I support the troops, I think they should all be brought home where the can get real jobs, ones where they become a part of the private sector and produce capital rather than take away from it.
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Alum, get a real job? Most military members work a whole lot harder than most civilians. In Iraq I worked 12/7 for a year with no day off for a year. Using your logic, that serving in the military is an illegitimate job because it doesn't produce capital, we need to get rid of police and firefighters. College professors, too.
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Alum: By your rationale a standing military is a complete waste, whether it is deployed in Iraq or stateside. Do you think once the Iraq war ends we're suddenly going to beat all our swords into ploughshares? We tried that in 1919 and 1946 and it didn't turn out so well for us. The anti-Afghan war faction is way out on the left fringe, so much so that even Obama didn't cater to during the election. I can't imagine anyone would seriously consider withdrawing.
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Thank you for writing this column. As Americans, our greatest handicap is our overconfidence and nation-centrism. Save your "God Bless America" attitudes and consider that there are 194 other countries in the world. We need to work on rehabilitating our relationship with the rest of the world, starting with the termination of the Bush's unsupported war.
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Bush, Cheney, and appointees lied about WMD, aluminum tubes, and Niger Uranium to con Congress into approving an invasion of Iraq, a country that did not have anything to do with 9-11. In WW-II, in 4 years, FDR put 13,000,000 men in the fight, beat 3 dictatorships, their leaders dead at the end. After 7 years of War On Terror, neither Bush nor Cheney could find Osama Bin Laden, our US reputation is in the gutter, we're still at war, over 4,200 US Soldiers are dead, over 30,000 maimed for the Bush-Cheney arrogance and lies. They ordered Torture, a violation of Federal Law. If we as a people hope to force our public officials to obey our laws and our Constitution, the time is Now and the way to do it is to prosecute members of the Bush administration who violated Federal Laws, including the law against Torturing prisoners. The reason that we continue to have unnecessary wars of choice is that our Congress makes excuses for lawbreaking officials instead of impeaching or prosecuting them. Unless Obama's statement that “no one is above the law†is a lie, Obama must appoint a Special Prosecutor for Bush, Cheney and the appointee lawyers that advocated Torture, violated many Federal Laws, our Constitution & the Geneva Convention on Torture. Sign The Petition To Prosecute them http://ANGRYVoters.org Over 63,000 have signed Join Them! PLEASE, forward this to everyone you know .
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Suzanne America is the greatest nation in the world right now. The other 194 nations can go screw themselves. We're so awesome we don't have to worry about them because no country is close to equaling our greatness.
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