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Speech at Rally marking the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War |
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Page submitted by Laura Tillem on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 3:30pm |
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Let's talk about why getting out soon is better for the Iraqis.
Let's be clear: what the US as represented by the Bush administration
does in Iraq has not been and will not be concerned with the interests
of Iraqi people. They are interested in having a power base in Iraq
with which to exercise power over the entire Middle East. Refusing to
leave now that we have sowed destruction has nothing to do with
stopping a civil war (in fact we are arming the Sunnis so when we do
have to leave the civil war will be more deadly). Instead it is
because they do not want to give up the idea of a pliant government
there and they do not want to admit what the whole world knows: the US
cannot just impose its will on another people.
But let's talk about this idea that staying can help fix Iraq. That
is, fix what we have broken. As though it was not us that destroyed
the institutions that ran Iraq and replaced them with nothing but
Halliburton boondoggles.
Staying in Iraq means, at best, the level of violence in spring 2005.
This means that in a nation that used to have the highest educational
levels in the Middle East, it is now and will be mostly impossible to
send your kids to school.
Staying in Iraq means forcing more Iraqis to be branded collaborators
if they oppose militias. Forget secular and feminist organizing - the
US has taken up all the space for those ideas.
We should focus instead on what is not there because we are there. For
example, no other country will come to help the Iraqi people while we
are there. Recently a group of Iragis called for UN to replace US for
security. This cannot happen while the US is there.
So think about that. By staying there we doom them to have the most
incompetent and illegitimate force possible, the US, trying to fix
things. Not that the soldiers are incompetent but they are led by
nincompoops and nuts like Bush and McCain.
Another bad result of our staying there is that it makes it impossible
for the different factions to come to terms with each other. We prop
up a government that has so little legitimacy it cannot stand without
us. Maybe if we get out, then the Sadr movement will find an
accommodation with the Sunnis. Maybe not, but it sure won't happen
while we are there.
Put it this way. We know what will happen if we stay: the same thing
that has been going on for 5 years. We don't know exactly what will
happen when we leave, but it cannot get better while we are there. |
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Iraq
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