by James Glaser
July 21, 2003

The real Iraqi War started more than eight months before the American people were told. All of that talk of UN approval was a sham because we were already at War, only we were not telling the world.

Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times, writes that "Air war commanders were required to obtain the approval of Defense Secretary Donald L. Rumsfeld if any planned airstrike was thought to result in the deaths of more than 30 civilians. More than 50 such strikes were proposed, and all of them were approved."

The American people were told that these strikes were for violations of the "no fly zones" we installed in the north and south sections of Iraq. General T. Michael Moseley, the chief allied war commander said, "one reason it was possible for the allies to begin the ground campaign to topple Mr. Hussein without preceding it with an extensive array of airstrikes was that 606 bombs had been dropped on 391 carefully selected targets under the plan."

America started the War with Iraq in mid-2002. We were bombing civilian targets, at least 50 of them, with the approval of the Secretary of Defense. These attacks were done without any authorization of Congress or the American people.

Who do you think we are bombing tonight? How many women and children are we killing this evening. If we are only going to kill 25 kids do we have to ask anybody?

We wonder why terrorists want to kill innocent Americans, but we don't even know how many innocent people our military has killed for us in secret. I would have to think that our military is thought of as terrorists, by the parents of the children we kill in secret. Just because you don't hear it on the evening news, does not mean that it isn't happening.

This past week the big thing in the news, was about President Bush telling the American people about Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger, only to find out after the fact, the report was false. Now we hear from the White House that President Bush didn't read the whole report about intelligence on Iraq. Parts of the 90 page "pre war assessment of US intelligence on Iraq" said, that report was "highly dubious."

Over two hundred Americans have been killed in this war. Over one thousand have been wounded. Close to ten thousand innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed and many more wounded. Thousands of children have died from disease. Nobody knows how many Iraqi soldiers were killed.

All of this killing and President Bush didn't have the time or desire to read about the country he wanted to attack. George read what he wanted to read and cheery picked out the reports that fit his push for war and thousands died and they are still dying.

Tonight this President and his administration could very well be attacking another dirt poor third world country, killing untold numbers of innocent people that have had the misfortune to be born in a country whose leaders are not doing everything President Bush wants them to.

Tonight President Bush and his administration could be making a new generation of terrorists, as they kill young children's parents or siblings. We will never know, because America now has a corporate owned press and a government filled with secrets.

POST SCRIPT DEATHS:

A 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Marine died as a result of injuries received after falling 60 feet from the top of a building where he was standing guard duty, in Al Hillah, Iraq

A Navy sailor from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died from a non-hostile gunshot wound in Al Hamishiyah, Iraq.

Two Soldiers of 101st Airborne Division were killed and another wounded July 20th, in Tal Afar, Iraq

These four young Americans are a terrible loss for their families, but also for the Medic or Corpsman that tried to save their lives, the troops that had to put them into body bags, and for the men and women in Graves Registration that have to clean up the bodies before they are shipped home.

For those in our Military service, the deaths of any one from your unit is traumatic. It is worse when they are close to you or when you have to help with first aid. All of the people that have to deal with the death of a Soldier or Marine in combat, live with that day for the rest of their lives. President Bush and his administration have no idea of the trauma their war is inflicting on so many Americans.

That is the whole trouble with America today. So many people think you can win a war. Those that have fought one, know that no one wins, everybody loses.