Although the bullies of the Bush administration are out of office, according to Operation Safe Haven, the violence and the occupation in Iraq persist amidst fierce guerilla opposition and an economic recession.
As a President whose campaign promise was “change”, Barack Obama seeks to expand the empire to Afghanistan, despite the fact that the U.S. cannot afford it.
According to the organization Iraq Body Count, six years have passed since the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam’s merciless Ba’athist regime, and it is by now evident that in this war the U.S., Iraq, and coalition forces are suffering great losses.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Iraq’s infrastructure remains unstable. Furthermore, according to Iraq Veterans Against War, the occupying U.S. military forces active duty soldiers are serving continued and multiple deployments, often as many as 4 in a row.
The Iraq war has affected the domestic front as well. According to the American Psychological Association, there are now off the chart veteran suicide rates. There are over 23 million military veterans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a great number are suffering from psychological and physical problems including post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
George W. Bush inherited record budget surpluses when he entered the White House. Today, given the current economic recession, one cannot deny the fact that a major player in draining the country’s wealth was the war with Iraq, costing in at over $609 billion dollars “officially” (plus multi-billion dollar expenditures that were never accounted for officially on the books).
According to the National Priorities Project, California has spent $83.1 billion on the Iraq War, an amount that could have provided for 248,783 affordable housing units. The National Priorities Project reported in 2007 that 40 percent of tax dollars went to military spending.
Considering we are dealing with a sprawling tent city in our state’s capital, I could think of a hundred better things to do with that money.
It seems that Operation Iraqi Freedom has not been as liberating as made out to be. not by a long shot.
Despite Bush’s claims of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq war was mainly a war for oil. A U.S. backed Iraqi government granted the U.S. and England key oil contracts in 2008.
The Bush administrations plans to “liberate” and “democratize” Iraq were a farce, orchestrated to favor companies such as Halliburton (Cheney is current stockholder and former CEO), Washington Group International, and Perini Corp. (headed by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband), among many others. Many of these companies’ revenues have sky rocketed.
According to Women Against Rape, the invasion has created an increase in rape and violence towards Iraqi women, which has been mainly perpetrated by U.S. soldiers and Islamic extremists.
The civilian death toll is at 1 million, according to Iraq Body Count and the US soldier death is at approximately 4,200.
Amnesty International reports that over 500,000 of the civilian deaths have consisted of children, while living children and their families often suffer from untreated or inadequately treated infections, illnesses, malnutrition, and displacement.
The workplace in Iraq is no safer now than it was following the invasion. According to the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, Iraqis are still at risk of bombings, shootings, and kidnappings at work, while union leaders are victims of assassination and abduction.
Current workers rights are in tune with Saddam era anti-union labor laws. According to the Solidarity Center, workers cannot form independent unions, strike or collectively bargain.
Workers are denied a voice when it comes to the Iraq Oil Law (set to be implemented this year), which will privatize the Iraqi oil industry making new development projects available to foreign oil companies at up to 75 percent profit margins.
Operation Iraqi Freedom has the effect of furthering fragmentation of the Iraqi people, creating instability that promotes sectarian violence, and allowing Western petroleum multi-nationals to reap the oil drenched rewards.
Although Iraq Veterans Against War demands for the immediate withdrawal of all troops, two-thirds of troops in Iraq are to be pulled out by 2012.
Barack Obama has recently announced the deployment of 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in addition to the 17,000 deployed in the President’s first military move.
One of the Obama-Biden campaign pledges was that, after taking office, Obama would immediately withdraw the troops from Iraq in a “responsible and phased” manner.
If the occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq are going to persist, it would be a difficult mission-we really have to ask ourselves this question now: Could an exhausted U.S. military persevere among the pervasive presence of the Sunni and Shia guerillas?
In Iraq and Afghanistan, militant organizing rejecting U.S. imperialism continues strong, especially in Afghanistan, where the insurgency is said to be stronger than ever.
Additionally, the efforts of the U.S. and the U.S. backed Iraqi government have not been adequate enough to stabilize the lives of Iraqis. For Iraqi youth, the war is “psychologically and socially affecting their concentration at school, their ability to trust others and to develop effective conflict resolution skills,” stated a Unicef report. To me this issue has the label “militant recruits with a hatred for the U.S. wanted now” written all over it.
It’s time to get out your protesting kicks and expel the military recruiters from school and although during these times a wad of cash may be tempting enough to make you want to join the military.remember kids, when there are no soldiers to fight, there can be no war.