Today I had the misfortune of hearing part of a speech by that indefatigable terror warrior, John McCain. Although, it’s not really significant that McCain, in particular, was doing the speaking. The tripe that was spewing forth from his mouth could have been, and has been uttered by numerous neoconservatives who are just as enthralled by the warfare state as Mr. McCain. The annihilation of a foreign enemy is number one on their priority lists. These are the people who were inspired and influenced by the recently departed William F. Buckley, the father of “modern conservatism.” Hear more about Buckley as antiwar.com’s Scott Horton interviews Lew Rockwell.
Now, as we all know, the neocon war propaganda mill has been working overtime since their beloved war to remake the Middle East hasn’t been going quite as swimmingly as they had hoped it would. We hear plenty of reasons why the U.S. simply cannot leave Iraq now. We are told that chaos would ensue. The terrorists will follow us home. We need to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. On and on it goes. But, in his speech McCain pulled out another one about which I had briefly forgotten. And here it is. We know that over 4,000 American troops have been killed in Iraq. If the U.S. leaves before achieving “victory” those deaths will be in vain. So we must stay until we have “won,” even though none of the neocons, including McCain explains how we will know what victory looks like.
So let’s see. We don’t want all of those deaths to be in vain. Well, tragically those fallen soldiers were fighting because of the disinformation provided by the State. We know that they were fighting for lies. How are those deaths not already in vain? And how do we improve the situation by committing even more troops to a protracted war in which victory can never be defined? As thousands more troops die people like McCain will just keep sending more troops into battle to make sure those deaths were not in vain. And when those troops are killed, the cycle repeats itself. This is not a strategy. This is madness!
But what about all of the Iraqis who have been killed? Estimates range from tens of thousands to around a million people. We can argue all we want about which data is correct. But just think about this for a moment. What difference does it make? If the war has killed ANY innocent Iraqis that is simply murder. To quibble over “thousands” of deaths should give any reasonable human being pause for thought. It’s never suggested that not a single innocent Iraqi has been killed in this war. Everyone knows some innocents have died. But, hey, as long as that number is relatively low, the war has been a roaring success, right? Once again this is madness! Talk about deaths being in vain! Can anyone honestly believe that any Iraqi who has lost friends and relatives because of the war will say it was worth it so they could be free from the rule of Hussein? Do we really expect them to say, “please America, don’t go before you achieve victory. For then the deaths of my loved ones will have been in vain?”
I say we tell it like it is. ALL deaths in this war are murder. However, in cases of murder by government, the murderers usually suffer no punishment for their crimes. It seems like this time it will be no different. But, if people like John McCain really want to stop people from dying in vain, there is only one morally permissible course of action to take: END THE WAR!
