I think we have been a little too cautious in our way of speaking about Iraq. We have spoken in terms of success and failure, and of pulling troops out as though their well-being were the most significant thing in this matter.
It is important, but when we make these calls, we remain tethered to the possibility that well, maybe, just maybe, we can win. Removing troops for their own sake means America cannot handle its own mess, and brings up feelings of duty and honor in response.
So while it is important to consider the utter waste of American life that this absurd moment in history offers us, we should be more concerned with the actual problem of the occupation.
It is a fucking occupation.
The Iraqis do not want us there.
That's it. No other argument should be necessary if we actually believe in any of the principles we think we do. And I don't just mean Bush and Company, they're obviously just horse thieves with smart bombs, their motivation is utterly irrelevant. They only matter insomuch as they must be stopped, as common murderers must be stopped before they kill again.
If we accept that Iraqis don't want us there (as is shown by poll after poll after poll and has been shown for years now, and is displayed in the media, and even bursts through in the hand-picked parliament) then any further argument against ending the occupation is just empty rationalization. It doesn't matter what we think might be best for the people of Iraq- it's their country, it's their government, it's their land, it's their oil. We don't have a right to dictate ANYTHING that occurs there. A true liberator does not demand the right to control the lives of those he has freed. Bush may have had no intention to actually liberate that country, but the occupation has occurred, and as Americans we have the right and duty to force our government to end it. This is exactly what democracy means.
We also have aquired an unfortunate tendency to pretend that "democracy" is some sort of ethnic trait tied to American citizenship, that it is something to be conferred or denied by Americans. I imagine this comes from the rhetoric of the Cold War, for nothing else could have spawned such inane insanity. So let's be clear yet again: democracy is equivalent to the freedom of all people to create and control their government and the institutions that control their lives. It does not mean doing what we think best. It means people doing for themselves what they think best. There are problems inherent to this freedom, and I sympathize with among my fellow Americans who feel that the potential human cost is too high, that bloody racial turmoil will be too great and too many lives lost, that religious fundamentalism will rage and bring with it any variety of oppressions. I sympathize, but it is still a false perception, dependent upon the belief (implicit or explicit) that because we are superior and hence have the right to protect people from their own actions.
We are not superior and we do not have that right. No human on earth has that right, no king, no president, no army, no clergyman, no corporate shill. No human being on earth has the right to expect and force the obediance of another. No community on earth has the right to force people outside that community into certain actions and against others.
This is not liberation, this is not even protection. This is colonialism. This is true barbarism.
Let us make no mistake, the leaders of our society our not moved by this type of concern. They don't really care. They aren't in this to actually bring democracy to Iraq, not in any real sense. How do we know this? They clearly attack it at home with every opportunity at their disposal. They create ludicrous statutes abandoning the spirit and letter of the constitution. They usurp half of our income tax money to fund a war most of the country opposes. They hand out favors to every businessman that holds out his hand expecting gold, and let the actual people of America be washed out to sea by a hurricane while they quibble.
The people leading this war, the actual politicians and their appointees, are in this for oil and power, and they aim to keep it. And they will keep it, unless we are unflinching in our resolve to stop them. They have all the money and all the guns. We have only our souls and our hands and our heads, so when we let ourselves be distracted from the sheer simple truth of this, that we are paying for and allowing a military occupation of another people who clearly and demonstrably DO NOT WANT IT, our pseudo-kings can stymy our every effort, confuse and divide us, and keep us from forcing changes in policy and an end to the occupation.
The occupation must end. We must work to end it. We must end it for the simple reason that it is an occupation, and a real democracy does not occupy another people. This is the work of an Empire, and I'll be dead damned and buried before I accept this nation falling into the decadence of an Empire. No American should allow this to happen, no American should allow this to continue. Any leader who promotes is it no patriot, he is a traitor and should be called such. Any person who defends this occupation, however pure and honest his intent, is defending Empire.
Those who oppose this madness are the actual inheritors of whatever is virtuous in America, and we should be driven to unremitting action by that knowledge. Be certain of this if nothing else: an American fights against Empire, however strong, however corrupt, however persuasive. Reject Empire and fight for truth.
This must end, this must end, this must end! No bases, no oil theft, no occupation.