A Nightmarish War

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Today is March 19, 2008. That means that today is the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. I am not one of those extremists, who can be both dangerous and wrong, who say that the U.S. is always wrong, that it is the "big bad guy."

But in this case, the U.S., a military giant, did attack pre-emptively, a third-world country. (Among its "soldiers" were twelve-year-olds.) The U.S., in other words, began this war. That in itself is indefensible.

During the war, its aftermath, and in conflicts, skirmishes, and other extenuating circumstances, it has been estimated that a full one million people-- many of them women and children-- have been murdered during the "shock and awe" of this nightmare. Also, four thousand American girls and boys (never to become women and men) have been slaughtered. These will, tragically, never again kiss their mothers or hold their babies.

They will never contribute a penny to the struggling American economy; they will never make important discoveries that could help the world.

They will never again do anything on earth. Each of these four thousand could have changed history for the better.

And, on top of those Americans murdered senselessly by this war, there are tens of thousands who have suffered permanent and irreversible injuries-- including many serious, incurable brain-injuries. These will live the rest of their lives in hell-- in institutions and/or in bodies with brains that no longer serve them.

And, speaking of the struggling economy, in which two million plus families are being thrown out on the street (73% are African or Hispanic American), this nasty, wasteful, destructive war has sucked a full one trillion dollars from the American economy! That is one thousand billion, or one million million, dollars! This is enough money that the government could afford to send you, me, and each and every other American man, woman, and child a check for over three thousand dollars!

It is also enough to rebuild most of our roads, bridges, schools, libraries, and other infrastructure within our country.

So, in terms of both human and financial resources, this war has been hideously expensive! Nothing can un-do the horrors created by it, or its irreversible effects on millions of lives.

As george bush's recent defense of torture proves, war is the opposite of Love. We need to embrace in Love our Middle Eastern sisters and brothers, not to label them "enemies," and then, slaughter them!

In the end, we must ask, Why was this war even begun?

A couple of viable and reasonable answers are suggested by the available
data:

The war did rid our planet of a cruel dictator. But why was this dictator selected from among the dozens of others that stain our world? Simple: He put out a contract on the life of george bush, sr. This is never mentioned, but it was a major reason, imperialism aside, for the war. The incompetent georgie wanted to make sure that his daddy was not in trouble.

Also, secondly, there was the weird fantasy that, if the U.S. could grab the land, its leaders would own the oil beneath it! So, they grabbed the land, expecting to get millions of barrels of free oil, which bush and his buddies could sell for a whopping, immense, gigantic profit! (They will not rest until we are all paying $10 for a gallon of gas.) It was as if the naive attackers/invaders actually believed that the whole population would welcome them with garlands of roses! It was as if they believed that there would be no resistance, no so-called "insurgents,"
which might be called "patriots" in Iraq. (If this country were invaded by a greedy foreign country, would not our "best patriots" resist with everything that they've got?)

It was because of these two, and other, sick fantasies that the American people were lied into this nefarious and greedbased war. And it was the "commander-in-thief" himself who lied us into it. For bush cares nothing for Americans generally; he cares,and has always cared, for only the very rich, and for corporations, as well as for his own bank-account. (He has become enormously, but secretly, very wealthy as president.)

So, the U.S. started a war; it did it for all the wrong reasons; and it ruined the economy in order to pay for it. Our children's children will look back on us, laughing and crying, and wonder what plague of insanity infected our brains that we could ever have stupidly followed a very stupid leader into an extremely stupid war.

Let us think, meditate, and pray seriously over this matter. For thousands of girls and boys have paid the ultimate price for the greed of a few old men. And that is so very sad that words cannot even express it.
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