What Is Happening In Iraq Is A Crime

by James Glaser
December 20, 2004

I don't know if I got them all, but here are some headlines off the internet from this past weekend.

  • Pasco (FL) Soldier Killed Days Before Expected Homecoming

  • GA Marine Could Have Returned Home After Prior Injuries

  • Baton Rouge (LA) Marine Killed in Iraq

  • WI Marine Killed in Explosion South of Baghdad

  • OK Marine Died of Injuries Suffered in Iraq

  • CT Guardsman Killed in Baghdad Bombing

  • Albuquerque (NM) Marine Killed in Western Iraq

  • Edgewater (FL) Soldier Killed in Ramadi Gun Battle

  • North Texas Soldier Killed by Baghdad Bomb

  • Salem (AR) Mourns Marine Killed in Fallujah

  • CA Marine Shot in Operations West of Baghdad

  • Tucson (AZ) Reservist Killed in Iraq Truck Crash

  • Ohio Soldier "Accidentally Shot" While in His Quarters

  • Columbine-Graduate Marine Killed in Iraq

  • SC Pilot Killed in Mosul Copter Collision

  • WA Soldier Who Died in Mosul Copter Crash Was "Exceptional"

Those are headlines I picked up this weekend on the internet, there were probably many more that I missed, but as you read the stories, you can start counting all the loved ones that George Bush's War has brought untold suffering to

Of course we have no names or home towns for the hundreds of Iraqis who are getting killed every day. Most are killed by other Iraqis, but still thousands are being killed by our troops and our munitions. Six weeks after we started this new battle for Fallujah, we are still dropping bombs on that city and even though Washington and the Pentagon claim that we have "taken" the city, Marines are still getting killed there. ABC News reports six killed on Friday

In war, everybody suffers. In a Reuters News report for ABC News dated Dec.18, 2004—"Twenty-one months after Washington launched its war with the promise of a brighter future, Iraq produces 4,100 megawatts of electricity, a little below prewar war levels and about half the country's surging domestic demand."

"Now there's no power for hours and hours every day. There's no fuel for the generators, no kerosene for the heaters. People are beyond complaining. Things are just getting worse," said Fadia Karim, 33 of Baghdad. "Saddam Hussein used to cut off the electricity for a couple of hours a day and we'd complain."

"WE are living by candlelight," said one young Iraqi. "It's been like this for three months. Before we used to watch television at night. Now, we go to bed or out into the street."

Americans seem to forget that Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were much like our own cities before the war, with every modern convenience that Americans have. What would it be like if Chicago or St. Louis lost their electricity and water and sewage treatment for almost two years?

Washington keeps telling us that things are getting better in Iraq, but can you even imagine having school age children over there? No way would you want to send them off to school and think about living like they are. Sure they don't have winters like we do, but it is down in the thirties at night and only in the fifties or low sixties in the day time. With no fuel for heaters, that means always washing up with cold water.

After 21 months and no progress or having things getting worse, it is pretty easy to see why the resistance is growing. Yes it is true that the insurgents are the ones keeping the electricity and fuel in short supply, but when your kids are cold and you can't send them to school and there is death in the streets every day, you think back to the time before the Americans came and things were much better.

We probably could correct all of Iraq's problems, but it would take over a hundred thousand more troops and we don't have any where near that many to send. In fact we are short of troops right now. In his book, General Tommy Franks said that he would need 250,000 troops to occupy the country and even with the new buildup we are having right now, we are 100,000 short of that number.

We went to war without a plan and we can now see that. The shame is that all of those headlines at the start of this column are going to be repeated over and over again, until Washington and George Bush realize what is going on and they either draft more troops and send them over, or they decide enough is enough and bring our troops home. Even though the Insurgents or Freedom Fighters in Iraq are taking heavy losses, they think they are winning. It is their country and they can't quit. We killed way more Vietnamese compared to the number of Americans killed, but we still lost that one, because the Vietnamese couldn't quit, because they were fighting for their homeland too.

People in Iraq have been living in a battle zone for almost two years now. Day after day there are people over there getting killed and maimed. Their war makes our September 11th terrorist attack look like a skirmish. I do believe America would turn into total chaos if we had to endure anything close to what the Iraqi people are going through. It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, what is happening to the innocent people in Iraq is a Crime and we are participating in that Crime.


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