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109,738
Simon Peres said “America is unique. One nation in history laid down hundreds of thousands of lives and took no land — no land from Germany, no land from Korea, no land from Japan.” Colin Powell added, “The only land we took after the last great conflict was enough land to bury our dead.”Both Simon Peres and Colin Powell lied.
The US has taken large chunks of land for bases and left behind forever as many troops as we wanted in most every country where we have intervened/invaded (exception: Vietnam. Have a look at Blowback, Costs and Consequences of American Empire
to learn more about the dangers faced by our delightfully overextended empire).
And now like the world’s neediest date the weekend before prom, we are begging Iraq to “ask” us to man a few bases there post 12/31/2011. Why would the Iraqis not jump at the chance?
For an answer, I recommend Iraq Body Count, a website devoted solely counting how many Iraqi civilians have been killed. Because the reporting of deaths is inaccurate, the grand total is a range: from the start of the liberation until late last month, somewhere between 100,044 – 109,738 Iraqi civilians have been given the ultimate trip to democracy (killed).
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Benjamin said...
1You do have a point, one that is ignored by many. While we have gone overseas and left bases it is a matter of prepositioning. Back in 2000 I was in Germany as part of an exercise and at Hohenfels could see the difference between the 1980s when there were many troops and 2000 where the base looked like a ghost town. We are on our way out but I wonder if the people of the U.S. realize how many troops are in bases all over the world and for what as the cold war is long over.
In regard to Iraq I still have to hear a good explanation for why we invaded.
Before the war General Shinseki warned we would need more troops than was allocated for the occupation of Iraq. However “Generals” Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz said basically the General didn’t know what he was talking about. Well General Shinseki only had 33 years experience, I guess that didn’t mean nothing. Then there was the disbanding of the Iraqi Army by U.S. Administrator of Iraq Bremer (CPA Order 2). Just being a simple rifleman I could see the problem, too few troops on the ground leaves the door open to chaos and anarchy as well as a vacuum for hostile forces to take advantage of 250,000 unemployed TRAINED men.
Joint teams of Iraqis and Americans would have kept stability, after all it is not foreign occupiers ordering Iraqis around but their own boys of the IRAQI army. What is called a force multiplier, making it easier for a peaceful transition of power to a new government of Iraqis, by Iraqis and for Iraqis dedicated to peace.
Alas the arrogance of power combined with the power of ignorance.
Because we were unable to have Iraqis working side by side with us, the foreign insurgents were easily able to raise hell, unlike Americans an Iraqi can easily tell a non Iraqi by accent, dress etc.
I could go on but I am sure you can see my point, but what do I know? just a dumb rifleman one of many who pay the price in blood for the political mistakes of our leaders.
07/12/11 11:29 PM | Comment Link