President Obama, tell us the truth about the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. You promised "transparency," a promise you're not honoring.
For example, tell us about a day in the life of an Iraqi. Do they have jobs? Are they safe? Do their children have schools? Is there medical care? Clean drinking water? Garbage pickup and sewage treatment?
Where are the pictures of everyday life in Baghdad so we can see it for ourselves? Where are the pictures of their neighborhoods? Where are the stories of children and their families? Under President Bush these things were censored. Now that you're in office, where are those pictures? Where are those stories?
As a candidate, you promised we'd be out of Iraq in 16 months. As President, you instead took over the Bush plan in its entirety, making Iraq your war. You retained his military personnel including his Defense Secretary. And you've continued hiring a vast number of Blackwater style mercenaries. Why did you do these things?
Under you, is the U.S. still seizing and holding people indefinitely without charges as President Bush did? Are you running torture chambers?
After all the blood that has been spilled and all the dollars spent aren't we entitled to know these things?
And now you're rapidly expanding the Afghanistan-Pakistan war. Why? What do hope to accomplish? At what cost and when?
Are you trying to keep us informed but the news media is not doing its job? If so tell us so we can pressure them to honor their obligations under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.
Vast numbers of Americans voted for you because they believed in your promises of "change" and "transparency." Where is the change? Where is the transparency? As we confront extremely difficult issues like the wars and the economy, we need you to level with us, so that together we can solve them.
Dick Kazan
Friday, July 10, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
The Illusion Of Iraq Independence
"It looks like they're pulling the troops out of Iraq," said a woman pleased with the belief the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq. This is a common misunderstanding.
"Actually," I replied, "They're just pulling them out of the major cities. Think of it as if Iraq occupied the U.S. and pulled their soldiers from Los Angeles. But instead of leaving, they put those soldiers in the San Fernando Valley, the South Bay and in Orange County, surrounding Los Angeles."
The U.S. still has 130,000 soldiers and 132,000 mercenaries in Iraq, which is over a quarter of a million people. But to create the illusion of a troop withdrawal, it is starting to redefine many of them as "trainers" and "advisers." Meanwhile U.S. air power remains free to rain hell down from the skies as it always has.
The U.S. military claims it handed over 142 bases to the Iraqis, but with no fanfare it continues to occupy 320 more. It also will continue to occupy the Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad.
Why would the U.S. government mislead the American public? Because after all of the killing and massive sums of money spent it wants to show progress in Iraq, even if progress is actually just less death and destruction as the Iraqi people live in a U.S. military lock down.
Yet under President Obama, the U.S. creates the illusion of Iraq as an independent nation. But Iraq is no more independent than the U.S. would be if Great Britain's military still occupied it. The Iraqi Constitution is no more Iraqi than the U.S.'s would be if Great Britain helped to write it.
What is the answer? Mr. Obama could call for a cease fire and invite all of the major parties in to negotiate a peace agreement. And when that agreement is signed, the U.S. would leave. For its invasion has brought hell on earth to the Iraqi people who in the end must be free to determine their own destiny.
As for you and me, we must never forget they are our brethren. Their children are our children and what the U.S. has done to them is unconscionable. They have no voice in America but you and I do and in the name of humanity, we must raise it to rescue them.
Dick
"Actually," I replied, "They're just pulling them out of the major cities. Think of it as if Iraq occupied the U.S. and pulled their soldiers from Los Angeles. But instead of leaving, they put those soldiers in the San Fernando Valley, the South Bay and in Orange County, surrounding Los Angeles."
The U.S. still has 130,000 soldiers and 132,000 mercenaries in Iraq, which is over a quarter of a million people. But to create the illusion of a troop withdrawal, it is starting to redefine many of them as "trainers" and "advisers." Meanwhile U.S. air power remains free to rain hell down from the skies as it always has.
The U.S. military claims it handed over 142 bases to the Iraqis, but with no fanfare it continues to occupy 320 more. It also will continue to occupy the Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad.
Why would the U.S. government mislead the American public? Because after all of the killing and massive sums of money spent it wants to show progress in Iraq, even if progress is actually just less death and destruction as the Iraqi people live in a U.S. military lock down.
Yet under President Obama, the U.S. creates the illusion of Iraq as an independent nation. But Iraq is no more independent than the U.S. would be if Great Britain's military still occupied it. The Iraqi Constitution is no more Iraqi than the U.S.'s would be if Great Britain helped to write it.
What is the answer? Mr. Obama could call for a cease fire and invite all of the major parties in to negotiate a peace agreement. And when that agreement is signed, the U.S. would leave. For its invasion has brought hell on earth to the Iraqi people who in the end must be free to determine their own destiny.
As for you and me, we must never forget they are our brethren. Their children are our children and what the U.S. has done to them is unconscionable. They have no voice in America but you and I do and in the name of humanity, we must raise it to rescue them.
Dick
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