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President Bush, the Iraqi people are not collateral damage they are victims

by Open-Publishing - Friday 16 March 2007
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Wars and conflicts International USA Mary MacElveen

President Bush, the Iraqi people are not collateral damage they are victims
By Mary MacElveen
March 16, 2007

The other night I started to write an editorial asking what did the Iraqis do to the United States of America to deserve their fate and put it aside to finish up at a later time. In preparing to finish it up tonight, I logged onto the CrooksAndLiars.com web site only to see a heart breaking Sixty Minutes story which aired this past Sunday called Will They Ever Trust Us Again? It is heart breaking to hear Scott Pelly report of the Iraqi refugees we have created through this illegal war in which millions have been displaced through the region. Those that would wish to come to the United States are basically told by the Bush administration that they are not welcomed into this country after helping us as we invaded their country. I strongly urge all who read this piece to sit down and listen to this piece.

Many of these Iraqis have become targets whose families are now in danger and here we are turning our back on them. As the Chairman of the Joint Chief of State, General Pace called homosexuality “immoral” what I do find immoral is that we are tossing these people aside. Retired General Paul Eaton stated in this interview, "Anybody who threw their lot in with the Americans deserves an opportunity for a future. And the loyalty has got to be in both directions. If we do not take care of these people, then the signal to anybody else in the future is a bad signal. And if you throw your lot with the United States, they’ll use you for a while and then they will – they’ll just cut you off," He then added when it comes to helping these Iraqi people, "I believe this is a matter of morality."

I will now continue to my thoughts on the Iraqi people whom I have never met. I feel I owe them something since what has been done to them and will continue to be done to them will be in my name. All thanks to the United States government.

As the Iraq War debate rages on within our government, there is something being left out of this debate and that is; what have the Iraqi people done to the citizens of this country to deserve their fate? I really want all who read this piece to think about that.

Iraqi families just like our families wish to raise their children in safe environments and in loving homes. Yet when President Bush launched his ‘Shock and Awe’ campaign those living within those homes felt the roofs of them cave in crushing those living within. Think of their terror as children saw their parents killed in front of them and as it continues to this day. Think of the parents seeing their little babies killed by true weapons of mass destruction and ones that did not come from Saddam Hussein but by defense contractors such as Raytheon and the countless other defense contractors that make up the military industrial complex.

On a daily basis we hear of roadside bombs being set off and caught within the cross hairs are innocent Iraqi people. I want to know how congress feels knowing that they have the power to stop this carnage yet do nothing. That goes to both the Democratic and Republican members of congress.

When President Bush entered the House chambers to give his State of the Union Address and all clapped for him and gave him some form of reverence; just how could they do that knowing how many innocent Iraqis have died because of him?

On September 11th, 2001 America was attacked, but it was not at the hands of the Iraqi people and I do suspect that many Iraqi families commiserated with our families who lost loved ones in that attack. President Bush said after those 9/11 attacks, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon," President Bush, the truth is that the Iraqi people did not knock down those buildings.

I often lay awake and think that yes our congress does know it was deceived or a better word for it was lied to by the Bush administration and yet they continue to debate how long we will be there? Are they all failing to miss the bigger picture that Iraqi families have been slaughtered at our hands?

I am sick of the term collateral damage when it comes to their lives being taken and when it pertains to Americans who are killed through acts of terror and hate, we label them victims. That should enrage everyone. The Iraqi people are not collateral damage but victims of these neo-cons who launched their own brand of 9/11 on these innocent people. What we felt on one bright summer’s day, the Iraqi people have been living a 9/11 event on a daily basis for over four years now.

It should sicken everyone to even think we have the right to do to Iraq what we please. Iraq does not belong to us and never has. It is sheer hubris of the American people that still back this war to think we can go into any country albeit illegally and do with it what we will. Would you want someone doing the same to you? No, you would fight back. We are shocked as neighborhoods are turned into killing fields as we turned that country into proving ground for civil war. Caught in the cross hairs are innocent men, women and children. As you read this piece, listen for their cries, their screams and their last breaths here on Earth.

If you are part of the pro-life movement who tends to back the Bush administration, exactly where is your voice as innocent Iraqi babies have been killed in this war? Well, where is it?! If you back this illegal invasion into Iraq and claim yourselves as pro-life, kindly do us all a favor and be honest with us. You are only pro-life when it comes to the right to choose issue. If you do support this war, then you are pro-murder.

Former Senator Zell Miller recently blasted the abortion issue and stated in part, "If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country,” My guess is that he only wanted them to be brought into this world to come home later on in body bags if this war on terror will take decades as some have stated. It should offend everyone’s senses that he can think of future children as chattel to be used by the military.

Speaking of unborn children, many Iraqi mothers have lived in fear of giving birth and do you want to know why? It is because of our use of depleted uranium which has a half life of 4.5 billion years that causes birth defects. As moms to be in this country often looking forward to baby showers to bestow gifts upon their children, that is not the case for these Iraqi moms. What did those moms do to you to deserve having a child born so deformed? In most likely it will die in a short amount of time. But, in some cases, they do live on. Some deformed children have even been born to members of the armed services. These are the neo-cons gifts to these children.

In a previous article on this subject, I wrote, “Dr. Rosalie Bertell who is an award winning scientist “found that DU damages DNA and causes cell mutations which lead to cancer. Moreover, these particles are absorbed by body fluids and travel through the body damaging more than one organ. Also, she found that this particular type of radiation can cause the body’s communication systems to break down, leading to malfunctions in many vital organs of the body.” This is what we are leaving the Iraqi people and any other nation that we choose to go in and invade in which we will use this deadly agent.” Body armor cannot stop this deadly agent from being absorbed into the body. It is a dust that gets inhaled, contaminates food as well as drinking water.

In this article written in December of 2006 by James Denver in which he speaks of the horrors when depleted uranium is used, he writes, “’Depleted’ uranium is in many ways a misnomer. For ’depleted’ sounds weak. The only weak thing about depleted uranium is its price. It is dirt cheap, toxic, waste from nuclear power plants and bomb production. However, uranium is one of earth’s heaviest elements and DU packs a Tyson’s punch, smashing through tanks, buildings and bunkers with equal ease, spontaneously catching fire as it does so, and burning people alive. ’Crispy critters’ is what US servicemen call those unfortunate enough to be close. And, when John Pilger encountered children killed at a greater distance he wrote: "The children’s skin had folded back, like parchment, revealing veins and burnt flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared straight ahead. I vomited." (Daily Mirror)”

He then goes onto write, “The millions of radioactive uranium oxide particles released when it burns can kill just as surely, but far more terribly. They can even be so tiny they pass through a gas mask, making protection against them impossible. Yet, small is not beautiful. For these invisible killers indiscriminately attack men, women, children and even babies in the womb-and do the gravest harm of all to children and unborn babies.” I truly hope that the latter part of what he wrote finds its way into the hands of the Moral Majority and various pro-life groups. I want them to be sickened and horrified. This is what their president did to innocent babies. Yet, no one gives a damn as this war rages on for the foreseeable future.

Just the other day, our congress dropped the approval language from the military supplemental bill in which President Bush would have to come to congress to gain any authority to either attack or in the worse case scenario invade Iran. As I asked in another piece; did they just give President Bush carte blanche to do with Iran as he did with Iraq?

As the Bush administration chooses to saber-rattle with Iran, will we infect them with the many diseases caused by depleted uranium? If we do launch a full scale invasion at some point, will they see an increase in cancers as well as birth defects? President Bush keeps harping on their nuclear enrichment program, but according to Congressman Ron Paul as one views this feed, you will hear him explicitly state that Iran is ten years out from even producing an atomic weapon. Why the rush to war, President Bush? Why the rush to war?

When I hear of some acting like ‘Chicken Little’ as it relates to Iran even remotely having the power to threaten their neighbors, I truly wish they would research the facts.

In researching the facts, I came upon this article speaks of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, "the 2005 NIE concluded that Iran would not be able to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon until “early to mid-next decade,” with general consensus that 2015 would probably be the earliest. Interestingly, since 1995, U.S. intelligence officials continually estimated Iran to be “within five years” of the capability to make nuclear weapons.” So, how can Iran threaten anyone let alone Israel?

In previous pieces that I have written recently, I have concentrated on our brave and valiant soldiers who have died, but thought a piece had to be written on behalf of the Iraqi people since no one in Washington, D.C. cares. As innocent Iraqis are dying and have died, those that are using Iraq as part of their presidential campaigns for the 2008 race must care for these people. That is directed towards both the Democratic candidates as well as the Republican candidates. Their plight is not the material for stump speeches but where each must step up to the plate and rescue these victims of war.

Someone must care for these Iraqi people and for the Iranian people that President Bush just may have his sights set on.

Author’s note: Should you wish to email me and while I invite you to do so using this address, xmjmac@optonline.net I would rather you email your member of congress to shut down this war by going to this site.

I invite all to watch this feed produced by my fifteen year old son: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mCkggeurMwg

To view all hyperlinks within my piece please go to this link:
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2007/3/14/2803322.html

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