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Are under the Pottery Barn delusion, ie, we broke it, we either own it or we must fix it. We must get out of this mindset. First of all, Iraq is still a soveign nation, we are just the illegal and immoral occupiers. We don't own it, we're just raping it.
Nor can we fix it. Much like in Vietnam, all our continued presence will do is bring more destruction and more death. Any government set up in Iraq under the auspices of the US is going to be considered illegal and illegit by the Iraqi people. It will only be kept in power so long as we are in country. As soon as we leave, no matter when that is, there will be a civil war in Iraq, and out of that will a true Iraqi government emerge.
Thus, it is only logical that US troops leave now. Our ongoing presence is simply prolonging the conflict. Yes, pay reparations for the destruction we've done, and to every family of every Iraqi that we have harmed. But leave, NOW.
Of course you aren't going to hear this kind of talk in the MSM or in the corridors of power. There are six media corporations that control 95% of our media, and four of them have a direct vested interest in keeping this war going. The other two have indirect ties to the military industrial complex, and thus have their own reasons for continuing the conflict. Our so-called leaders are only allowed as much freedom on this issue as what is allowed them by their corporate masters. And these corporations are making too much money off of this war to ever want it to stop.
Thus, the peace movement is given little if any MSM exposure, the realities of this war are not being given air time, and the whole mess has been given a sugar coating of bringing democracy to Iraq and "Support Our Troops", and its unspoken corallary, support this war. The death and destruction that we are inflicting, the soldiers that are being killed and wounded, the atrocities that being committed in our name, with our tax dollars are being kept off the news outlets, who instead devote their attention to such important issues as Jacko, Charles, Schiavo, the Pope, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
How do we overcome this media blackout, I don't know. Millions have protested against this war, yet it has scarcely been reported. It is this lack of public notice that has cast a pall over the peace movement. It is, ironically, a 180 degree twist on the old sixties adage "What if they gave a war and nobody came?". That has been twisted into "What if they marched against the war, and nobody knew about it?" We're seeing the effects of that now on the peace movement. People have become discouraged and disheartened, having rammed their heads into the wall of media silence too many times over the past two years. Thus, what started out as an unprecendented mobilization against the war two years ago is quickly falling apart due to lack of coverage and apathy.
Thus, with no visible public outcry against the war, our so-called leaders aren't being held to account. Thousands die, yet we are fixated on dying Popes and brain dead citizens. I fear that it is going to take an escalation into violence to grab the medias' attention. Much like the despair felt after the deaths of RFK and MLK, I forsee how the current lack of media coverage will lead peace activists into violent acts ala the Weathermen. This will get the medias' attention, but it will not be the attention that we want.
Like I said earlier, I don't have the answers to any of this. I simply go about my business of continuing to protest this illegal, immoral war. It's getting harder and harder to do, and I watch as my fellow activists fall one by one, due to other commitments, apathy and despair. But a solution is needed, and fairly quickly, otherwise there will be no peace movement left.
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