· At least three times US troops have
fired live ammunition against angry crowds of "liberated"
Iraqis. Far from "dancing in the streets" over the American
presence, the people of Iraq have made it clear they want the US out
just days after the removal of Saddam Hussein, who most Iraqis
understand was put in power by the US in the first place.
· US troops have now killed at least
twenty Iraqis in demonstrations that appear to be nonviolent. Military
claims of self-defense are reminiscent of lies that Kent State students
fired weapons during the 1970 massacre there. Those four deaths put the
US in an uproar; in Iraq, 1/20 the size of the US, the equivalent of 20
dead would be 400.
· By independent count at least 3,000
Iraqi civilians were killed by the US in the removal of Saddam Hussein.
That would equate to 60,000 Americans if the attack had been by Iraq on
the US.
· Like Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein
is widely believed to be alive, but has yet to be found.
· The weapons of mass destruction used
as a pretext for the American attack have also yet to be found. None
were used in Iraq's defense.
· The pillaging of Iraq's most
treasured museums, for which the US is directly responsible, has been
widely ranked as one of the most barbaric and indefensible acts of
cultural desecration in world history.
· US corporate media coverage of the
Bush attack was so absurdly one-sided and nationalistic it drew
unprecedented contempt from critics worldwide.
· The "victory" which has so
enamored the US corporate media was an assault by a rich nation of 280
million people which spends more on its military than the rest of the
world combined, against an impoverished, disunited nation 20 times
smaller which has been ruled by a hated dictator installed by the US,
subjected to international sanctions for 12 years, continually bombed
through that time, and which was recently disarmed by United Nations
weapons inspectors. Far a military triumph, its military conduct drew
mocking derision from the major media outside the US.
· The first female US soldier killed
in Iraq was a divorced Hopi-Navajo mother of two small children who
joined the military to escape poverty. Her death, and the grim future
facing her children, received virtually no media attention, while the
dubious "rescue" of her white friend, Jessica Lynch, received
ecstatic---and wildly distorted---saturation hype.
· Defense Secretary Rumsfeld openly
and willfully violated explicit US law by failing to establish a
baseline health study of American troops entering combat, reinforcing
the failure to deal with Gulf War Syndrome from the previous attack on
Iraq.
· Though less than a thousand US
troops were killed or wounded in the 1991 Gulf War, 220,000 or more are
now disabled. Similar casualties are almost certain to surface in the
wake of the latest attack, though Rumsfeld's illegal refusal to lay the
statistical groundwork for a health study will again make these
casualties hard to trace.
· It is widely believed Bush launched
a lethal attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad with the express
intent of killing and intimidating foreign journalists.
· While profoundly disinterested in
protecting the region's cultural history, or its civil institutions, the
US military took great pains to guard Saddam's ministries of interior
and oil, where crucial information on Iraq's petroleum reserves are
stored.
· US military encampments during the
attack were named after major oil companies.
· No major nations of the world except
Great Britain joined the attack on Iraq, and none have come forward
since to endorse it, despite Bush's alleged "victory".
· Though leading Bush hawks have
raised the possibility of attacking Syria, Iran or North Korea, all
other major nations of the world---including Great Britain---have
denounced the possibility.
· Bush has scorned his previous
promise to Great Britain's Tony Blair, his one major ally, that the
rebuilding of Iraq would be largely done through the United Nations.
· Afghanistan, has sunk into tribal
warfare, complete with the rebirth of the "defeated" Taliban.
American soldiers are still fighting and dying there.
· Despite Bush's effusive pre-war
promises, there is virtually no money in the latest US budget for
rebuilding Aghanistan, or even for repairing the damage done by the US
attack.
· Drug production, particular opium
poppies, is back in full swing in Afghanistan after having been
successfully repressed by the Taliban.
· Bush's violent assault and
undiplomatic arrogance have infuriated much of the Muslim world and made
it highly likely fundamentalist Iran-style regimes will eventually sweep
over both Afghanistan and Iraq.
· That likelihood has been enhanced by
anti-Islam statements from close Bush cronies, including Rev. Franklin
Graham, who've confirmed Bush's initial proclamation of a
"crusade".
· While crowing over
"democracy" to Iraq, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says he will
not "allow" fundamentalists to take power in Iraq, but has not
explained how he would stop it within a democratic framework.
· By infuriating the Muslim world and
isolating the US, Bush's conquests of Iraq and Afghanistan will likely
guarantee a horrific increase in terrorist attacks against the US in
years to come. Polls show a large portion of the American population
fears precisely this outcome.
