Tell Us Why We're At War in Iraq Again, Mr. President
Published on
Friday, October 30, 2015
We Meant Well
Tell Us Why We're At War in Iraq Again, Mr. President
by
Peter Van Buren
We want to believe, Mr. President. We want to know it is not a lie. (Photo:
AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
When I was a kid, three presidents told us we had to fight in Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos, because if we didn't fight them over there, we'd have to
fight them on the beaches of California. We believed. It was a lie.
I was a teenager during the Cold War, and several presidents told us we
needed to create massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, garrison the world,
invade Cuba, fight in odd little places and use the CIA to overthrow
democratically elected governments and replace them with dictators, or the
Russians would destroy us. We believed. It was a lie.
When I was in college our president told us that we needed to fight in El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua or the Sandinistas would come to
the United States. He told us Managua was closer to Washington DC than LA
was. He told us we needed to fight in Lebanon, Grenada and Libya to protect
ourselves. We believed. It was a lie.
When I was a little older our president told us how evil Saddam Hussein was,
how his soldiers bayoneted babies in Kuwait. He told us Saddam was a threat
to America. He told us we needed to invade Panama to oust a dictator to
protect America. We believed. It was a lie.
The next president told us we had to fight terrorists in Somalia, as well as
bomb Iraq, to protect ourselves. We believed. It was a lie.
The one after him told us that because a group of Saudis from a group
loosely tied to Afghanistan attacked us on 9/11, we needed to occupy that
country and destroy the Taliban, who had not attacked us, for our own
safety. The Taliban are still there. But we believed. It was a lie.
After that we were told that Saddam Hussein threatened every one of us with
weapons of mass destruction, that the smoking gun would be a mushroom cloud,
that Saddam was in league with al Qaeda. We believed. It was a lie.
In 2011 the president and his secretary of state told us we needed regime
change in Libya, to protect us from an evil dictator. We believed. It was a
lie.
In August 2014 the same president told us we needed to intervene again in
Iraq, on a humanitarian mission to save the Yazidis. No boots on the ground,
a simple act of humanness that only the United States could conduct, and
then leave. We believed. It was a lie.
Now we are told by that same president that Americans will again fight on
the ground in Iraq, and Syria, and that Americans have and will die. He says
that this is necessary to protect us, because if we do not defeat Islamic
State over there, they will come here, to what we now call without shame or
irony The Homeland.
We want to believe, Mr. President. We want to know it is not a lie.
So please address us, explain why what you are doing in Iraq is different
than everything listed above. Tell us why we should believe you - this time
- because history says you lie.
Copyright 2015 Peter Van Buren
Peter Van Buren
Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service
Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams
(PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his
blog, We Meant Well. His new book is We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the
Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (The American Empire
Project, Metropolitan Books).
Tell Us Why We're At War in Iraq Again, Mr. President
Published on
Friday, October 30, 2015
by We Meant Well
Tell Us Why We're At War in Iraq Again, Mr. President
by
Peter Van Buren
. 7 Comments
.
. We want to believe, Mr. President. We want to know it is not a lie.
(Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
. When I was a kid, three presidents told us we had to fight in
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, because if we didn't fight them over there, we'd
have to fight them on the beaches of California. We believed. It was a lie.
. I was a teenager during the Cold War, and several presidents told us
we needed to create massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, garrison the
world, invade Cuba, fight in odd little places and use the CIA to overthrow
democratically elected governments and replace them with dictators, or the
Russians would destroy us. We believed. It was a lie.
. When I was in college our president told us that we needed to fight
in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua or the Sandinistas would
come to the United States. He told us Managua was closer to Washington DC
than LA was. He told us we needed to fight in Lebanon, Grenada and Libya to
protect ourselves. We believed. It was a lie.
. http://www.commondreams.org/donate
http://www.commondreams.org/donate
When I was a little older our president told us how evil Saddam Hussein was,
how his soldiers bayoneted babies in Kuwait. He told us Saddam was a threat
to America. He told us we needed to invade Panama to oust a dictator to
protect America. We believed. It was a lie.
The next president told us we had to fight terrorists in Somalia, as well as
bomb Iraq, to protect ourselves. We believed. It was a lie.
The one after him told us that because a group of Saudis from a group
loosely tied to Afghanistan attacked us on 9/11, we needed to occupy that
country and destroy the Taliban, who had not attacked us, for our own
safety. The Taliban are still there. But we believed. It was a lie.
After that we were told that Saddam Hussein threatened every one of us with
weapons of mass destruction, that the smoking gun would be a mushroom cloud,
that Saddam was in league with al Qaeda. We believed. It was a lie.
In 2011 the president and his secretary of state told us we needed regime
change in Libya, to protect us from an evil dictator. We believed. It was a
lie.
In August 2014 the same president told us we needed to intervene again in
Iraq, on a humanitarian mission to save the Yazidis. No boots on the ground,
a simple act of humanness that only the United States could conduct, and
then leave. We believed. It was a lie.
Now we are told by that same president that Americans will again fight on
the ground in Iraq, and Syria, and that Americans have and will die. He says
that this is necessary to protect us, because if we do not defeat Islamic
State over there, they will come here, to what we now call without shame or
irony The Homeland.
We want to believe, Mr. President. We want to know it is not a lie.
So please address us, explain why what you are doing in Iraq is different
than everything listed above. Tell us why we should believe you - this time
- because history says you lie.
Copyright 2015 Peter Van Buren
/author/peter-van-buren
/author/peter-van-buren /author/peter-van-buren
Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service
Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams
(PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his
blog, We Meant Well. His new book is We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the
Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (The American Empire
Project, Metropolitan Books).
