by James Glaser
April 8, 2004

Can you even imagine what it is like to be raising young children in Iraq today? Washington claims fighting is going on in six places in Iraq, while on the News Hour, it is reported that fighting is going on in fourteen towns and cities.

The whole country of Iraq has to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The entire population has been witnessing violence for at least the last 30 years, with the most intense violence coming in the last year.

The White House and almost every politician will tell you that most of the Iraqi people are happy that we are there. Think about that. Think about having foreign troops on every corner of your town, armed troops who can't even speak our language. These troops are killing some of your neighbors every week or taking them off to prison.

A person would have to be a fool to believe that the Iraqi people want us in there country. I guess that explains why politicians believe it. Oh, I am sure that the Iraqi people we hire and the people we appoint to positions of power want us to stay, because they know they are dead when we leave. These are the people that visiting American Politicians get to meet when they tour the country.

Here is what our American Czar in Iraq, Paul Bremer has to say about what is going on in Iraq right now, "There is no question we have control over the country, I know if you just report on those places (where the fighting is taking place), it does look Chaotic. But if you travel around the country, what you find is a bustling economy, people opening businesses right and left, unemployment has dropped."

Paul Bremer is surrounded by security guards that we now know are paid $1000.00 a day. There is little if any chance that Paul Bremer ever gets to talk to an average Iraqi and if he does the number of armed guards around him would intimidate anyone that he did speak with.

We know that in Sadr City, a section of Baghdad with a population of over a million, unemployment is all the way down to 80%.

Every day and each night the parents of Iraq can hear explosions and small arms fire. The country is small and you would have to believe that every family has lost somebody to death or maiming. How do you explain this constant violence to your children?

Sure there are people opening businesses in Iraq. That happens in every war zone. Even in a war zone life goes on and people need food, clothing, and shelter. There are also people that take advantage of the war to commit crimes. What better cover for your wrong doing can you find?

Right now American troops are fighting both the Sunni and Shia, while the Kurds are still doing as we tell them. So we do have 20% of the Iraqi people being good. Washington and the Military claim we are now going to get tough. How much tougher can we get? We have already killed tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens.

These people are tough themselves and now they are fighting for their country. George Bush has got us into a real mess in Iraq and he has no plan to get us out.

In a couple of months we are supposed to be turning the country over to the Iraqi people. This last week has shown us that Iraq has no government we can give the country to. For months now we have been touting the Iraqis we have been training to take over from our troops. This week we watched those that we trained to protect the country, either fade away from the Shia insurgency or as many did, join it. This week we have learned that many coalition members who have token forces in Iraq, want out. They came as Peace Keepers, not to fight a war.

The Iraqi people love their country like we love ours. The Iraqi people do not like to have occupation troops controlling every facet of their lives. Iraqi parents, like all parents want their children to have a sense of safety.

I believe that the Iraqi people are going to continue to kill and maim our troops until we leave. That is the same thing you or I would do if a foreign power was trying to occupy the United States.

I have no idea of why George Bush and his administration can't see this, other than the fact that almost none of them have ever been in a war, so they cannot comprehend what is going on over there. The politicians in the House and Senate go along; because they voted for this war and are afraid to admit they made a mistake.

Besides that, nobody in Washington has a son or daughter fighting over there. People that work in Washington are in a totally different class of citizenship than you or me. They are insulated from any of the real pain and suffering the troops and their families have, plus, being government workers, they are insulated from any of the pain and suffering any down turn in the economy can bring.

Just like Lyndon Johnson, George Bush will not be able to stop his war because he is afraid that it will hurt him politically. I am sure he is sorry for the troops killed or wounded, but that is the price they will have to pay so that he can stay in power.

POST SCRIPT

The thousand dollars a day guards for Paul Bremer are just part of the estimated 15,000 guards you and I pay for in Iraq. Imagine if you are an Iraqi citizen and Bremer's motorcade stops at your shop and you are surround by six to ten sinister looking Americans in dark glasses carrying automatic weapons and then Paul walks up with his interpreter and asks you some questions. Would you be honest and tell him to get the hell out of your country or would you say whatever you thought might be what he wants to hear?