Home > We’ll bring our troops home, whether Bush likes it or not

We’ll bring our troops home, whether Bush likes it or not

by Open-Publishing - Monday 4 July 2005
15 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts International USA

Bush and Rumsfeld reject the idea of a timeline to withdraw from Iraq. Bush says we need to "stay the course." Rumsfeld says we’ll be there another 10 years. I wonder if these men would be willing to go through what our soldiers do: Occupying a country that is increasingly hostile to U.S. presence, where more and more we look like a foreign occupying power than a liberating army.

I am sickened every time I hear about another soldier killed in their Humvee, or scores of Iraqi kids blown up by a car bomb. Bush’s hasty plans to liberate Iraq from Saddam have left it in ruins, with a whole population of jobless, hungry, and angry people. If someone told me to "Stay the course" by hanging around a hornet’s nest after it was knocked down, I’d think they were crazy.

Whats any different about Iraq? Iraq is no closer to stability than it was a year ago. Things keep getting worse every week. More than 1,700 Americans have been killed and 12,000 or more wounded. We need to honor their sacrifices by ensuring that no more die in a war that is not necessary.

The rebuilding of Iraq look more like an auction of Iraq’s resources and public assets to U.S. Corporations who are their to make a quick buck. If Bush was really committed to reconstruction, he would secure the funds for the Iraqi people to decide how to do it themselves.

It’s time to start responsibly coming home from Iraq. We need a real exit plan with a real timeline and real accountability. We need to turn control of training Iraqi forces and rebuilding Iraq to the international community. And we must renounce permanent military bases in Iraq.

Bush can stay his course all he wants, but the American people are moving forward with or without him. We’ll bring our troops home with or without him!

Andrew Pearson
– http://www.hendersondispatch.com/ar...

Hold Bush accountable; bring our troops home

In President Bush’s Tuesday evening speech on Iraq, he offered no new strategy for victory over the insurgents. Bush continues to repeat the line that the American military must remain on its current course.

Iraq is no more stable than it was one year ago and our current course is not bringing us any closer to victory in that nation.

With more than 1,700 dead and 12,000 wounded Americans, it’s time to demand accountability from this administration.

The insurgency in Iraq is still strong, fueled by the support of average people who know the American presence there is based on lies.

It’s time for America to turn over control of training Iraqi forces and rebuilding Iraq to the international community. The administration must formulate a responsible exit plan with a real timetable to get Americans out of Iraq.

We will not win against this insurgency without international assistance and we must show Iraq our commitment to their sovereignty. It’s time to bring our troops home.

Matt Bear-Fowler
– http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.c...

PLEASE call or write your representative and lend your voice in support of the ’Homeward Bound’ resolution

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Forum posts

  • U.S. soldiers do killer work, therefore the can’t be good!

  • From the above two comments it would seem that Americans are still not really comprehending what Bush was up to.

    There was no mistaking it. He was after Iraq’s resources and planned to establish permanent military bases.

    It was the desperate actions of a leader of a country facing bankrupcy from profligate spending for years.

    Look to your lifestyle if you want to save the world.

    Greencrow

    http://greencrow.iuplog.com/default.asp

  • The author is so sickened that the author is willing to let the Iraqis to the mercy of terrorists. What a dhimmi.

    • Funny, there were no terrorists in Iraq before the USA imported terrorism in the form of 150,000 soldiers and "Shock & Awe"!

    • What kind of person believes that by killing and bombing a nation they are bringing peace???

      The american military is a tool of the oil companies and weapons manufacturers, those who sign up and get killed are reaping what they sow.

      When the iraqui people drive out these arseholes then the world will be better.

      Bugger boeing, fuck ford, and above all, death to the dumb asshats who invade other countries.

      A pox upon their mothers, a pestilence upon their children, may their crops wither and their blood boil with famine and disease.

    • Their have always been feudal warlords in the region, but definitely there was no Taliban in charge of neighboring Afghanistan until the U.S. and CIA wanted an ultra conservative and oppresive ruling class to protect the giant UNOCAL trans-gulf oil pipeline. And there was no organized Al Quada until the U.S. and CIA trained its leaders—most famously, Bin Laden himself—in terrorist and commando techniques during the Afghan-Soviet War.

      During the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. and CIA backed Saddam and helped him solidify the brutality and ultra conservative dictatorship that eventually tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Saddam’s real or imagined enemies (many of the imagined enemies were targeted by their ethnic/tribal affiliations). The U.S. also gets major blame for the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq that were hastened by sanctions on food and other supplies. in concert with the billions of dollars that supposedly went into human relief efforts, but were stolen or diverted by corporate interests.

      It’s all about oil. The hell with the people. In Bush’s administration, that starts with easy targets like gays and blacks and arabs and impoverished, and anyone accused of hating god and country.

    • So some of you are surprised that some of these soldiers want to come home? Do you think war is fun? Both of my sons have been in and out of Iraq. One is there now. I hear a lot less complaining out of them than I do the likes of you. They unlike you know why we’re there. The son that is there now has been approached by the media several times and he has told them to shove off. They know they are the enemy in spite of what you leftwingers think.

    • You don’t have any kids in Iraq, but let’s pretend you do. Tell us why they are there, oh wise one.

    • Because Iraq was the epicenter of terrorist funding through the food for oil program. They were paying the Palestinians when they got their kids to ’martyr’ themselves. Al-Qaeda was in Iraq for quite a while because they weren’t really welcome anywhere but Afghanistan and Iraq. There was only one terrorist training facility in the world regarding how to take over a plane with unconventional weapons. ie knives etc. That facility was at Salmen Pak. In case you failed geography too that facility was located in Iraq. The Dufour report so often spoken of by you leftists mentions the ties to Al Qaeda and Iraq. Now one last parting shot. My reality is much more real than your fantasy world. I have one in Iraq and one going back as soon as he returns. You go ahead and play like they aren’t really there if it makes you feel more like a man.
      R A Hawkins entropical-paradise.com

  • You aint seen nothing yet there’s more wars planned for the middle east because there’s lots of money to be made, for every tank that’s blown up it needs replacing for every bullet fired and bomb dropped it needs replacing for every soldier killed it needs replacing and the soldier needs to be fed and clothed and of course there’s trillions to be made in stealing the oil...A never ending war with never ending profit YEAH DAMNED RIGHT they are going to stay the course JUST THINK OF THE MONEY.

    • Dear EDITORIAL:
      I liked your comments, especially, "there’s money to be made...." You are dead on target. Remember that sociopaths have no conscience. It is useless to try logic and reason. They have contaminated the minds of usually reasonable men and women, especially Republicans, given the priciples of group contagion. Now if money and power (see rule the world) are the ends, and Macchiavelli is the coach, the only way to stop this insanity is to cut off the source of the money and power.

      Therefore, methinks there are two ways to slay the dragon:

      1. Global boycott of oil. An organized, coordinated, concerted effort, with millions of individuals
      AND reasonable, wealthy corporate ceo’s in enlightened companies who can take a stand and
      who can have a direct and immediate economic impact on this world menace.

      2. Immediate, massive increases in federal funding for expansion of, and development of new,
      renewable energy resources.

      If a boycott is to be successful (see Rosa Parks), there will have to be sacrifices made on our parts. But I would willing to leave my house earlier in order to use public transportation to get to and from work. Or carpool. Or work at home, you get my drift.

      Once the economic impact is felt, then the chances of developing/expanding renewable resources would be better. If this doesn’t work, then we should not pay our taxes come next April 15th. What would they do? Arrest 10 million people?

      Thanks for letting me vent. Feels better.
      jkmkay

    • This article and the comments above are such clear expression of what many of us are and have been thinking, therefore, I am e-mailing these to everyone on my e-mail list, and I think others should also pass these thoughts along. Mahalo

    • Dear Mahalo:

      Thank you for your comments, and your pledge to spread the word. It looks to me that this "administration" is consolidating power around the world. The murdering, sociopathic fascists are acting out their twisted childhood fantasies in the most horrifying ways. Since they are quintessential neo-con artists, they appeal to the masses’ fears and greed. Who knows how much money they have spread to the U.S. Senate/House Republicans, promising wealth, fame and increased status. They are fomenting civil war in Iraq. They want chaos. They want the U.S. to become fragmented, and marginalize true voices of reason while implementing a police state.

      It may already be too late, but I’m not giving up yet. You can’t reason with megalomaniacs. The time for action is now. John Conyers for President.

      jkmkay

    • Some of us see clearly the connection between the phony war on terror and the mega bucks to be made by promoting it.

    • What a bunch of candy-assed whining little liberals! So it’s all about gas now huh? Where is all of the "oil" that we are stealing, with gas at a all time high? Please put on that tin-foil hat and tell me oh wise one.

      You people have NO idea about what is going on over there, I do. I have already served one tour in Iraq and will be going back again soon. I am a US Marine Infantryman, not some rear-echelon pouge sitting back in camp getting fat on Subway sandwitches and bitching about how bad it is. I get to see "how bad it is" in person; I get shot at and I shoot back.

      I VOLUNTEERED for the Marines, and I knew exactly what in the hell I was getting into; how could one not? All of these pussies who enlisted for college money and now are crying about having to go to war make me sick; their first clue should have been in basic training where you train to KILL other people!

      War is hell, it sucks and I hate it much more than any of you will EVER know, but I believe in the mission. I saw the towers burn and I enlisted after 9/11 for the sole purpose of fighting EVIL COWARDS who bomb innocent office workers. If you had been there that day and had seen the people jumping to their death you might feel differently. I have seen a lot in Iraq, more than I ever wanted to see, but NONE of it was more horriable than seeing those people jump from 100 floors up; their only crime was showing up for work to support their faimlies.

      Despite what you may think, we are fighting and killing AQ in Iraq, not some innocent Iraqi "freedom fighters" just trying to protect their home for the Ameircan Invaders. Most of them want us there and are very grateful for what we did.

      The Media and Liberal Americans are our worst enemy; I just cannot believe the crap you write about and talk about as if you were there; its not true. Did you know that there are many safe areas of Iraq, areas where TOURIST have returned to? Much progress has been made over there despite what you are told about in the Media; its all CRAP!