This is the
most difficult article that I have ever had to write, but I have
to write it anyway, unfortunately.
I, and just
about anyone and everyone who criticizes George Bush and this
war are accused of "not supporting the troops." Since my son,
Casey, was killed in Iraq because of lies and to actually make
that country safe for our corporate interests, I have been saying
the only way we can support our troops at this point is to get
them the hell out of this illegal and immoral war.
The massacre
in Haditha on November, 19, 2005, is just another way to underscore
the fact that our troops are being turned into war criminals in
what one article called: "The Worst War Crime of the Iraq War."
(Sydney Morning Herald; May 28 , 2006). In a stunning display
of shameless hypocrisy George Bush said of the (not uncommon)
butchering of innocent civilians in Haditha: "Our
troops have been trained on core values throughout their training,
but obviously there was an incident that took place in Iraq."
Bush also
said this following a meeting of his cabinet: the world will see
a "full and complete" investigation.
Another false
piece of propaganda that we are fed is that we need to support
the president, especially when we are "at war." I say, "No, way!"
Our kids know the difference between right and wrong before they
are sucked into a military system that dehumanizes our soldiers
and forces them to dehumanize the "enemy" to the point where it
is apparently acceptable behavior to kill children and to cover
up the murders. Can we all assume that little Georgie was never
told that cold-blooded murder is wrong seeing that his family
has supported wars and their inherent crimes for at least three
generations?
The double
standard that our leaders have set for themselves and the troops
is amoral and corrupt. I have not seen anywhere in the discussion
of this topic that, not only is Haditha not the worse war crime
committed by American or coalition troops, but the entire war
is a war crime. The Pentagon needs to be dismantled, cleansed
with holy water and purified by incense and left to lie fallow
for generations in atonement for all of the crimes that have been
planned and committed within its walls.
The following
list of illegal, immoral, and atrocious behavior is obvious and
not all inclusive by any means:
* 12 years
of devastating sanctions that were responsible for killing over
500,000 Iraqi children.
* Destroying
antiquities and culture is a war crime and prohibited under Geneva
Conventions.
*The invasion
of Iraq is a preventive war of aggression against a country that
was no threat to the USA or the world and was expressly prohibited
by the Geneva Conventions.
*The invasion
was not sanctioned or approved of by the United Nations.
*"Shock and
awe" targeted civilian centers and killed many innocent people.
*Abu Ghraib.
*Guantanamo.
*"Extreme
rendition."
*Use of chemical
weapons, especially white phosphorous enhanced with napalm, particularly
in the second siege of Fallujah.
*Targeting
hospitals, clinics, and threatening Medical Doctors with execution
if one treats "insurgents" (which can apparently include babies
and pregnant women).
*Using highly
compensated mercenaries to carry out executions and torture.
*Forcing
a style of government on the citizens and manipulating the outcome
of the elections.
*Dishonoring
the Constitution of the United States by invading Iraq without
a declaration of war by Congress and by breaking our treaties
with the United Nations and the ratified Geneva Conventions.
George Bush
is correct. A "full and complete" investigation needs to be made
into the crimes against humanity in Iraq, and if justice prevails,
this would in turn lead to the trial and conviction of George
and the rest of the neocon purveyors of torture and murder, for
which the maximum penalties should be applied.
The level
of accountability needs to rise higher than Specialist or Private
and should reach up down the very blackest bowels of an administration
that lied through its teeth to get our country into a war of aggression
and occupation. The commander in chief needs to be prosecuted:
NOW!
The most
difficult part of this writing is in trying to reconcile the fact
that our soldiers, for one example, in Haditha, could not show
conscience and restraint, qualities which may have prevented a
murderous rampage. When one sees the pictures of bodies burned
beyond human recognition; hears of two-year-old children being
killed out of revenge; women being shot for failing to stop at
a checkpoint that is in the middle of THEIR country; prisoners
being tortured in despicably inhumane ways; ad immoral infinitum:
one should be appalled and ashamed to call oneself an American.
That some of our soldiers would stoop to the level of their leaders
to commit such atrocities is unspeakable. Bush says our troops
have been trained in "core values" when he as a so-called born
again Christian can claim that God told him to invade Iraq and
it's okay to spy on American citizens like he is some kind of
sick voyeur with a penchant for death and destruction.
War, under
any circumstance, is not a "core value" of humanity; in fact,
it is the ultimate failure of humanity. War turns our mostly normal
American youth into wanton murderers who have lost their own humanity
and love of others. Haditha in this war and My Lai in another
disgusting war were unfortunately not aberrations. War is the
abominable aberration.
Under the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, our troops are forbidden from
obeying unlawful orders and Iraq was unlawful before it ever began.
Our soldiers need to start disobeying the unlawful order to even
be deployed to Iraq and not raise their weapons in appeasement
to the Bush Regime and say: "This war is the criminal, I am not.
Threaten me if you will, but I am not going to be an accomplice
in your crimes against humanity."
We as people
working for peace have long held that the people of Iraq did not
deserve the treatment that they are getting from BushCo, but it
is our troops who are pulling the triggers and pushing the buttons
or flushing the Koran or sexually abusing prisoners, and we know
about it, so that makes us accessories to the crimes, unless we
are actively trying to end the severe breach of compassion and
mercy that is being carried out in the Middle East.
Yes, we have
to work to end the war and to hold everyone who commits atrocities
accountable, from private to president, but we also have to support
our soldiers that do not want to kill. It is a tragic dichotomy
in this society that one can be executed for killing someone,
but also be executed or imprisoned for disobeying an order to
go and take the life of another human being in war.
There are
several ways that our young men and women can be supported in
resisting the evil of BushCo and Iraq. The GI Rights Hotline is
there to help soldiers get out of going to an illegal and immoral
war and the War Resister's League in Canada needs support to help
our soldiers find sanctuary and safety. Counter-recruitment is
also a powerful tool to use to prevent our children from being
sucked into the evil war machine and being used as cannon fodder/weapons
of mass destruction for profit.
Where can
the people of Iraq go to find sanctuary and safety? They have
no place to run to and they have no voice to end this war of terror
that is being waged on them by the USA.
It is up
to us to be the voice of the babies of Iraq and of the other people
whose only crime was to be born in the wrong place at the wrong
time with the additional bad luck of living on top of rich oil
reserves.
Support the
troops? I support only those who are NOT supporting the exploitation
of the Iraqi people, and those who do not allow the war profiteers
to carry on with their death and destruction all for the sake
of an opulent lifestyle. I do not support those who are supporting
a criminally insane and treacherous foreign policy. However I,
as the mother of a slain soldier, will do anything I can to support
all of them by working to shorten their stay in an unwelcoming
country, and bring them home from the quagmire that their so-called
commander in chief forced them into.
Also, when
our troops do come home from the war, they need all of the counseling,
job training and help they require to transition back to a life
where most people don't even recognize that there is a war being
waged.
BushCo and
the war machine killed my baby. They have killed tens of thousands
more.
BushCo need
to be prosecuted and punished like the common criminals that they
are.
We owe this
to the people of Iraq, the world, and our own soldiers.
We owe it
to ourselves.
Learn more about Cindy at http://www.meetwithCindy.com
or about Gold Star Families for Peace at http://www.gsfp.org.
Click here for other Cindy Sheehan articles:
My First Time
Wake Up: Cindy Sheehan At The White House Gates
What Noble Cause?
Hypocrites And Liars, by Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan In Dallas
Casey's Story, by Cindy Sheehan
