Blowin in the Wind

“How many deaths will it take ‘til they know that too many people have died?”

”Blowin in the Wind” – Bob Dylan

And so as we pass the 5th anniversary of our invasion and occupation of Iraq; and we mark the somber occasion of the 4000th American troop death in that country, George Bush - and his would be successor John McSame - repeat that we cannot end that travesty until we can declare “victory.” Still, they cannot define with any specificity what “victory” might look like. One thing we should know is that “victory” will not look like an Iraq with a stable democratic government where terrorism does not exist. Nor will “victory” resemble an America safe from terrorism’s reach. No, the policies of George Bush and John McSame have ensured a fertile breeding ground for terrorism for at least a generation; perhaps beyond. For countless young Iraqi’s who never before held ill thoughts for Americans, the deaths of their mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers have burned an image of Americans as lethal intruders in their homeland into their impressionable minds. For millions of Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homeland (something that years of brutal repression under Saddam never caused) Americans will be seen as the cause of their homelessness. This is the policy of George W. Bush and John McSame. What then will be “victory?”

I would suggest that, so long as the American people (via their Congress) do not force a withdrawal from Iraq, Bush and McSame have already achieved their victory. So long as Americans are not willing to stand up and accept that there can be no military victory for a mission that was never based on any sound policy objective with any benchmark for success, Bush and McSame will be able to keep American troops in harm’s way (and dying) for what McSame has suggested might be 100 years.

With the majority of Americans now saying that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has not been “worth it” in the amount of blood and treasure sacrificed, perhaps we already know the answer to Bob Dylan’s question.

[UPDATE: 4:00pm 04/07/08]

Iraqi Widows, Orphans Left Stranded
By Kim Gamel and Bushra Juhi
The Associated Press

"... A family health survey provided by lawmaker Samira al-Moussawi, who champions the widows, counted 738,240 widows ranging in age from 15 to 80 as of January 2007, and dating back to the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The figure included those whose husbands died of natural causes and a further breakdown was not available.

Othman estimated the number at closer to 1.3 million.

The problem also threatens the next generation..."

Read the whole story here

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue