Iraq's Profound Lack Of Gratitude After All The U.S. Has Done For Them

On Thursday (5/26), in Baghdad 100,000 Iraqi people peacefully protested the U.S. occupation of their nation. Thousands more peacefully demonstrated in other Iraq cities. What profound ingratitude for all the U.S. has done for them.

The U.S. under its "War on Terror" brought them "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at a cost in lives of over a million Iraqi men, women and children, hundreds of thousands more who have been severely injured and a million more Iraqi children orphaned. The Pentagon calls this "ancillary damage." Two million Iraqis have fled their nation, including many doctors, nurses, professors, teachers, scholars, businesspeople, lawyers and others who form the foundation of any progressive society. Once again it is, "ancillary damage."

The U.S. and its allies have also paid a price. Not counting the deaths and injuries to allied soldiers and U.S. military contractors, the U.S. so far has had 4,457 soldiers killed and another 30,000 plus severely injured. It has spent over a trillion dollars in this war, much of it borrowed.

But it is worth it. What the Iraqi people call "the U.S.'s Green Zone government," (it only operates from the Green Zone and is kept in power by the U.S.) generously provides electricity 3 to 4 hours a day, which limits use of such non-essentials as computers, television, air conditioning, lighting and appliances. In fact, the Green Zone government runs so efficiently, it does not waste money on clean drinking water, on sewage treatment, garbage pickup, street maintenance or even on a health care system, nor on a safe and reliable police force.

And "Operation Iraq Freedom" has done wonders for employment. Sure, picky people will point out that Iraq's unemployment rate is at least 40%, far higher than that of The Great Depression of the 1930's. But that doesn't count a thriving underground economy of buying and selling food, medicines, weapons and ammunition, gas, car parts and other basics. And kidnappings and ransom paying are prospering businesses.

No matter how one looks at it, what the Iraqi people are expressing is profound ingratitude after all the U.S. has done for them.

Dick