|
Today, the Iraq war, conceived in lies and sold to the country as an act of vengeance and bloodlust, has created an even more ominous situation by distracting our country from the real threats and by playing into the hands of Osama bin Laden. The wrongness of this war has manifested itself in Abu Ghraib. Having nothing to do with 9/11 nor al Qaeda nor protecting the US from danger, the war has devolved into a brutal conflict where many of those who are fighting and dying for the US think that there should be neither limits nor rules to paying back the "evil ones" who "hate Americans because of our freedoms".
What to think when the leaders of this country and their lawyers who swore to uphold the constitution and the laws of this country could advocate the travesty of a civilized country throwing away the Geneva Conventions as well as our own Bill of Rights? Our soldiers face the stress of never knowing when they can go home, of not knowing whether they ever will get home, and of not knowing who exactly is their enemy. Furthermore they have been told that the battle in Iraq is to stop the scourge of terrorism - is it a surprise if some soldiers overreact or treat all Iraqis as terrorists? How can one expect the soldiers to hold to a higher standard than that set by their leaders? Even more critical: how do we learn the lesson we so desperately need which is not to go to war unless there are no other options left? And what will it take until we can bring our soldiers home and to end the debilitating war in Iraq?
[1] William F. Crandall, What Did America Learn from the Winter Soldier Investigation?, March 1994,
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Texts/Narrative/Crandell_Winter.html
[2] John Kerry, Testimony before Congress, April 22, 1971, http://www.vietnamwar.com/JohnKerryVietnamVeteransAgainsttheWar.htm
|
|
