Ten Years After, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld
March 23, 2013 Martha Thomases 1 Comment
The war in Iraq started ten years ago this week. Since then, we’ve lost nearly 4,500 American soldiers, welcomed home nearly 35,000 with serious injuries, killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, and spent $2.2 trillion.
Happy anniversary.
According to this story in The New York Times, this is an occasion that no one in Washington wants to commemorate.
I guess this shouldn’t be surprising. The rush to war was extremely popular, especially among the Very Serious People (VSP) who moderate our debate in the media. Even Chris Matthews, who wants to be considered a progressive firebrand, called Bush a “hero“.
It is somewhat more surprising that Joe Scarborough, who considers himself a conservative, has an equally faulty memory.
What you might not remember, in the midst of this, is the fact that hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated against the war. I, myself, participated in two marches, even though they took place in the middle of winter and it was cold. I remember them vividly because it was at this time I solidified my distaste for Michael Bloomberg. Instead of allowing us to peaceably assemble, he assigned the police to place us in a variety of fenced-in areas within earshot of the rally’s speakers. It was unnecessary and claustrophobic. For someone like me, who likes to protest with her friends in the War Resisters League but hates listening to speakers (even those with whom I agree), it was especially horrible, because I like to show up, be counted, and leave before I get bored.
At least our demonstrations were sincere. The right-wing plutocrats who would earn billions in profits from the war, had to pay for theirs. I mean, I know there were people who sincerely supported the war. However, I think they were not only wrong, but manipulated.
Ten years later, we know they lied to us. They stole our money. They sent our troops to be maimed and killed. They should be brought before The Hague and prosecuted as war criminals.
And if that isn’t bad enough (and it is), they perverted our American sense of patriotism, equating support for a (misguided and/or evil) President with love of country. Funny how that changed when we got a Democrat in the White House, isn’t it?
They also claimed that one couldn’t support the troops unless one supported the war. And then, when it came time to put their money where their mouths are, they bailed. Here’s one example of how much support is given to those citizens who served.
Wouldn’t it be great to have that $2.2 trillion back? I bet we’d still have White House tours .
Happy Anniversary, America. Don’t get fooled again.
Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, has always had a soft spot in her heart for the New York City police, at least since she saw this.
Elizabeth
March 23, 2013 - 10:37 am
Bravo! With you all the way, Martha, and still angry, oo.
Howard Cruse
March 23, 2013 - 11:24 am
Eddie and I were at the largest of those No-War-In-Iraq marches, too, Martha. (As a matter of fact, we may have been with you.) It was the one that coincided with protest marches that were taking place all over the world that same day. And what continues to stick in my craw these many years later was George W. Bush’s comment about that worldwide cry of alarm over the war of aggression he was clearly determined to launch: “I don’t govern by focus group.”
Nan
March 23, 2013 - 11:36 am
Amen. Why are they not held responsible for their fake “weapons of mass destruction”.???????????????
Elizabeth
March 23, 2013 - 12:05 pm
And why do they ignore the fact that these wars contributed royally to our current debt?
Neil C.
March 23, 2013 - 1:32 pm
But….Benghazi! We must get to the bottom of that! And Freeeeeedom!
Amazing how the right wanted to hang the Dixie Chicks for saying they are ’embarrassed’ by Bush and not one of them says anything about crazy Ted Nugent.
tom brucker
March 23, 2013 - 7:49 pm
Since Vietnam, the US has callously sent its military to foreign lands to force a resolution to one problem or another. Any needed justification has repeatedly been ignored, violating our own laws, as wll as international law. Why do we allow our government to repeat the same actions in “our” name? “When will they ever learn? “
Mike Gold
March 24, 2013 - 7:50 am
Neil, there’s a major difference between the Dixie Chicks at the time of the Iraq war and Ted Nugent. The Dixie Chicks were shot down by the Republican Right at or near the top of their careers. Ted Nugent hasn’t had much of a career as a musician for about 35 years.
Republicans attract has-beens like flies to shit. Nugent, Dennis Miller, Victoria Jackson, Pat Boone, Ronald Reagan, Jon Voight, Jackie Mason, Sonny Bono — all of these (and many more saw their careers circling the drain before they took refuge in the cold embrace of the Republican Right.
Not unlike convicted murderers who get religion as they get closer to their parole hearing.
Whitney
March 24, 2013 - 9:16 pm
Lovely Martha –
I might be the last person who saw “Fahrenheit 9-11”. I saw it over the weekend.
The facts of affectionate financial entanglements between the Bush family, the Carlysle Group who went public shortly after the war, and the Bin Ladin family were sobering enough without Moore doing any hypothetical ‘what if?’ voiceover.
I was watching it and thinking that simply reading the financial statements of all parties without any adjectives or emotions was enough to rob me of breath.
I don’t expect that the problems created from this war will ever go away. Bush lit an unholy fire with this.
Rene
March 25, 2013 - 3:45 am
One thing that is not stressed enough is how the Democratic Party and the “mainstream liberal press” were all for the war, in the beginning. It’s like both wings of the American political establishment want to forget that little fact.
Russ Maheras keeps saying that Dems are as intransigent and stubborn as the GOP, in his quest to appear neutral, but that just isn’t so. The Dems are always so eager to collaborate. Too eager. There has never been a political opponent that the Dems haven’t been eager to collaborate with in the last 30 years or so.
Obama’s greatest dream was to be a true “uniter” President, like Clinton (before Clinton too was retconned into a hated radical liberal, and not the middle-of-the-road guy that was for free trade). Obama wanted to reach across he aisle, he wanted it so very fucking much. But the GOP wouldn’t let him collaborate, they had demonized him too much for that to work, they had counted too much on the support of the Tea Party.
And I’m not sure that is a bad thing or a good thing. They FORCED Obama to have a little more spine, by demonizing him and spitting on his offered hand again and again.
Rene
March 25, 2013 - 3:55 am
As for me. I have to be honest and admit that I was not anti-war in the very beginning. My attitude was more one of cynical neutrality. “Bush is probably a bastard. Saddam is a proven bastard. I will weep no tears for him.” Yes, probably that was a short-sighted view.
Ironically, I was in an anti-war protest. I was at college at the time here in Brazil. And all the class went outside and protested, but I just went along for a few laughs. I think my present company influenced me to feel more pro-Bush than I should. Because the crowd at college was packed full of Marxists and Leninist Youth creatures and all that.
I couldn’t quite stand their fanaticism. I think it pushed me a little to the right, just being near those folks. There was a lot of people here in Brazil too accomodating with Islam’s regressive ways also, and I wanted to not be counted among their number.
I think I am wiser now. Armed intervention by a foreign power is almost always a poor way to get societal reform. I may hate how a lot of Islamic societies treat women, but bombing them will not make it better.
Reg
March 25, 2013 - 12:49 pm
Whitney, another breath robbing doc that you should see (if you haven’t) is Inside Job. It’s a real life horror story.