by James Glaser
March 24, 2003

DISCLAIMER: I love my country and want all of our troops to come home safe and sound. I do however feel that not only was this war with Iraq avoidable at little risk to America, I feel that this war will cause the deaths of many Americans in the years to come. I also feel that George Bush's threat of "you are either with us or you are with the terrorists," is something better suited to come from the mouth of a Cold War Communist Dictator, not the leader of a nation that believes in Liberty and Freedom. I am not with George Bush, but I do want the defeat of terrorism, I just don't think George Bush is going to do that with the tactics he is having America use now.

I am writing the following in hope of explaining many things that our President and his staff have either been afraid to tell the American People or they are so ill informed that these things have never crossed their minds.

Patriotism is not an American commodity. No matter how "evil" America thinks some leader is, the people of his nation love their country and feel patriotic about it. This is especially true if that country is under attack. People become even more patriotic and will do anything for their country if they are being attacked by a nation that has killed hundreds of thousands of that nations citizens in the past.

President Bush never has mentioned that our past war with Iraq and the twelve years of sanctions on that country, that we admit caused the deaths of over 500,000 children, might just make the defense of that country stronger.

Some in the Bush Administration have even used the phrase "cake walk" in describing how this war would go. Many talked about Iraqi people welcoming our troops as liberators. That has not happened and Americans should look at those words as propaganda in order to get their backing for George Bush's War.

No one in Washington wanted to talk about the Iran/Iraq war. In that war Iraq took on a nation (Iran) three times its size and fought it to a standstill for eight years. There is nothing wrong with the tenacity of the Iraqi Army and the American people should have been told that.

There are literally hundreds of retired military officers working for every television station, newspaper, and radio station. The ones from the last Gulf War have given the American people a false impression about Iraqi troops quitting in mass. In the last Gulf War the Iraqi troops were bombed without let up for fifty days out in the hot sands of the desert, before we sent in the ground troops.

In this new Gulf War the Bush Team decided not to go with our strength and that troops would attack with no bombing in advance.

This Sunday afternoon, President Bush was asked about the army personal that were captured by Iraqi forces. President Bush said he had no definite information on that. President Bush is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces and hours after the whole world had seen video of the dead and captured Americans, the President of the United States was still not informed.

Nicholas von Hoffman, in a column for the New York Observer wrote, "The American media have been laying down prefatory propaganda barrages for warmonger politicians for the last 100 years..... Doubt everything. Trust nothing. Believe nothing. Governments and the media messengers are lying now."

Everything is on the line with this war for George Bush. George will bluster warnings to Iraq about treating our prisoners humanely. However combat veterans from WW 2, Korea, and Vietnam as well as every other American war knows that America will kill prisoners of war if it is more convenient than keeping them. Sorry, but that is a fact. Also I am sorry to remind you that American Marines and Army troops will sometimes massacre women, children, the elderly. Hey it happens in every war. Remember, "what comes around, goes around" and what will we say if Iraq claims our troops are "enemy combatants" like we claimed the fighters in Afghanistan were to circumvent the Geneva Convention?

Because George Bush has no idea of what war was when he unleashed the "Dogs of War" he gave away all control of what would happen. War is horrible, terrible, and sick. Those that have never participated like President Bush, only have a "Hollywood" history of war to look at. War is nothing like the movies and President Bush is waiting for that patriotic music at the end of the movie so that he can campaign on this victory.

Right now we are asking Iraqi troops to give up as we bomb their wives and children in the cities. How many Iraqi troops lost loved ones to our troops in the last Gulf War.

Now like I said at the start of this column, I love America and I do hope and pray that all of our people will come home safe and sound. Unfortunately that can't happen as we have lost people already, but still I pray for those that are still fighting there.

I believe that President Bush has lied, cheated, and misinformed the American people so that he could get "George Bush's War" going. I don't think the media nor the Administration has told the citizens of our country just how much this war could cost us, both in numbers of troops lost and new numbers of people hating America.

If you have read any of my past columns you know how much of a crime I think it is to kill and maim children in any war. George Bush has become a War Criminal in this one as it has been reported that children have been killed already. The only footage on that I have seen was of a five year old Iraqi girl that will never walk again due to our bombing of Baghdad. I am sorry, but that is a crime and we did it.

America has a real problem in the fact that most Americans have no idea of what happens in war. The media will not show any dead Americans nor any of the real horrors suffered by those we are attacking. Someday, because we protect our citizens from having any understanding of just how evil and sick war really is, Americans will get to see it right here at home.

You kill any persons children and they will hate you for life.