War in Iraq

I truly believe the war in Iraq has made a huge negative impact on the economy and the people of the U.S..The war against Iraq did not start in March 2003. In fact the U.S. and Britain have been in a undeclared war against Iraq for twelve years, ever since the culmination of the Gulf Slaughter in 1991. The goal has been the destruction of the Iraqi society allowing the U.S. and Britain to siege control of Iraq’s huge oil reserves.  Within hours of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed over 3,000 people, the Bush administration was blaming Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda, and declared a war on terrorism. Immediately the Pentagon put into effect its plans for voluminous bombing raids against Afghanistan. 

“… about 50 per cent of the population now believes that Iraq was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. This has happened since September 2002. In fact, after the September 11 attack, the figure was about 3 per cent. Government-media propaganda has managed to raise that to about 50 per cent. Now if people genuinely believe that Iraq has carried out major terrorist attacks against the United States and is planning to do so again, well, in that case people will support the war. ” — Noam Chomsky 2001

As to what the war is about, greed is the most obvious motivating factor. Iraq sits on about 112 billion barrels of oil, the second largest reserve of oil in the world. U.S. oil companies have been cut from Iraqi oil since 1990. But there is much more to the war than the greed of oil companies. Government and business leaders have joined to make good jobs unavailable and get rid of social programs like housing and unemployment insurance. They have priced health care out of the reach of 42 million Americans. They have stolen retirement and left many people to work into old age. All while company presidents make off with hundreds of millions. War with Iraq is an enormous diversion from these problems.

“When I left Germany, I just thought, Gosh, I can’t stand being in the military. Blah blah blah. I remember older enlisted guys saying, ‘Son, when you get out, you’re going to miss it, miss it.’ I was like, ‘No way.’ But sure enough. I missed the responsibility. I want people to take responsibility for what they’ve done. In the civilian world, you don’t see that.” — Army Reserve Sgt. Michael Kelly