In 2003 millions of us said no to the immoral and illegitimate Bush regime
invasion of Iraq. For almost 9 years we continued our opposition protesting the
Iraq war which was based on false pretenses, nonexistent weapons of mass
destruction and lies.
On Dec. 15, 2011, President Obama and the American military formally ended its
mission in Iraq. We leave behind thousands of Halliburton and Blackwater-Xe
mercenaries.
For most Americans the Iraq war is over. For the 4,486 US soldiers killed, the
32,226 wounded in action, the one million who served and their families, it is
an understatement to say their lives will never be the same. For many military
families the Iraq war will never be over.
For the Iraqi people the Bush "war against terror" has left the Iraq
infrastructure in ruins, contaminated the country with depleted Uranium bombs
and cost by some estimates one million Iraqi lives. An additional five million
Iraqi citizens are refugees.
Osama bin Laden is dead and Al-Qaeda no longer has a significant presence. It is
time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan as well as Iraq and focus on
rebuilding America. The drone attacks on Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia are
not the change so many of us labored with so much hope for.
We must fully support our returning troops who honored our nation by doing their
jobs with valor and dignity.
Never again should the United States give up too quickly on diplomatic methods
that seek nonviolent solutions and send our military into a preemptive war
based on false political rhetoric.