The Post Persepective carried an article by Mark Udall (CO-1 and Democrat who voted against the Iraq war but not the Afghanistan invasion) in which he puts forward his views about Iraq. His main points seem to be: regardless of how we think about the legitimacy of the "war in Iraq" we are thankful and support the sacrifices of the troops and their effectiveness. The surge (which he opposed but funded) appears to be "working" in so far as it has apparently "increased security in neighborhoods"where our troops are present, but we need to plan "a way forward" to get our troops out of harm's way (the current euphanism for deploying professional soldiers to do what they were hired to do--follow orders in dangerous situations to carry out policies determined by the nation). The way to do this according to Udall is to end Iraqi Government dependence upon our troops so they can rule in their own right, increase international economic development aid and increase diplomatic efforts but in reverse order-- the troops come out last --even though they must come out first to accomplish the Iraqi's rulin in their own right. (Mark, if I have mis-represented your views please feel free to respond)
This article is a perfect example of the positioning in which the Democrats have been engaged, not only before their 2006 victory but afterwards. It seeks desparately to justify the American military deaths and permanent maimings as sacrifice in a good cause and, at the same time, that they should come home as as soon as possible when the job is done. It refuses to face the fact that so long as we refuse to face up to the terribly wrong policy choices we have made in the name of defending America's "interests" the "job" will never be done. We have made the choice to act unilateraly against international law and with great disregard to the impact of our actions on civilians almost anywhere-- including our own civil rights.
One example of this in the article is Udall's acceptance of the surge results as positive. In fact, Bagdad is a walled, segregated into ethnically "cleansed" neighborhoods city, while millions are displaced outside their own neighborhoods and indeed outside the country. This was necesssary to "reduce the violence" reported in daily deaths. Anyone who knew anything about Iraq except those who hoped US intervention would benefit their personal position knew that our explosion of the social and political systems in that country would lead to chaos.
The only way forward is to repudiate this imperial, messiah complex from which we have operated since Columbus and certainly in our interventions in the 20th Century. (I offer the water torture our troops were using in defeating the Philippine freedom fighters in 1905 to which the the anti-Imperialist league led by Samuel Clemens briefly called to our attention.) We continue on a path of destruction, of other people's cultures, of other people's economies and the only way to stop is to impeach its leaders so that all Americans can come to the realization that this cancer is destroying all that is good in our heritage. It is these leaders who have not supported the troops because they deployed them on a fool's errand. When are the Colorado Democrats going to join their one true son in the Congress Dennis Kucinich and begin those impeachment hearings. They only party that has consistently called attention to this underlying cancerous imperialism --and long before 9/11--has been the Green Party. Why not join it?
