End the Illegal War in Iraq

Let's look at the facts:

• We have been at war, in one way or another, with Iraq continually since George I ordered the first attacks on that country in 1991. Bill Clinton's part of the war killed Iraqis not with bombs, bullets, and missiles, but with embargoes and no-fly zones. Mr. Clinton's embargo against Iraq killed 5,000 children per month - a record even George II would be hard-pressed to emulate.
  
  
• Our invasion of Iraq in 2003 was illegal, by international law and by treaty. And, since it's illegal by treaty, then according to the Constitution, it's illegal by US law. It is exactly the kind of illegal, immoral action that the Nuremberg treaties after World War II were intended to prevent.
  
  
• Our illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 had nothing to do with the 9/11 disasters; in fact, the attack plan had been in preparation since before Bush II was elected in 2000.
  
  
• None of the pretexts given to us by the Bush administration had anything to do with the real reasons for the invasion. Every excuse given to us by that gang was a lie; they lied to the American people, they lied to Congress, and they lied to the United Nations about the reasons for their illegal invasion.
  
  
• The real reasons for the war are economic:
  • Sadam Hussein was about to start selling his oil in Euros, and the financial interests who control the Bush administration knew if that weren't stopped, the dollar could collapse.
  • The big defense contractors owned and managed by Cheney, the Bush family, and the major contributors to the Bush campaign needed some return on their investment, and there's nothing like a war to crank out the profit.
  
  
• The war is widely considered to be a failure. It's true that it isn't accomplishing its publicly stated objectives; but it's succeeding at its real objectives magnificently - to generate a continuous stream of profit for the "defense" contracting corporations from Halliburton and the Carlyle Group to Blackwater and Wackenhut.
  
  
• This is the first war in history where an army has used nuclear weapons against its own troops. As a former Army officer, this angers me more than I can say. Depleted uranium dust is impossible to contain - once a DU munition has killed (horribly) the people it was aimed at, the dust permeates the air, surrounding our own forces and the civilians in the area where it was used, causing painful and deadly illnesses among the adults and children exposed to it, and genetic deformities among those people's children - including the children of our own soldiers.
  
  
• The Democrats in Congress have been chewed out by everyone from Jim Hightower to Common Dreams.org for their spinelessness at not stopping the "Republican war." In fact, though, the Democrats are not spineless; they're doing exactly what they're being paid to to: act like an opposition, but do nothing to bring the war to an end.
  
  
• The war has cost nearly 4,000 dead American soldiers, over 20,000 wounded American soldiers, and over 80,000 dead Iraqi civilians (and that's only since the 2003 invasion). It costs us $720 million per day in direct costs, and even more millions per day in indirect costs (like hospital "care" for wounded soldiers).
  
  
• Worse, we're borrowing over 70% of the money we're spending on that war - mainly from Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China. We are putting ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren in hock to the Arabians, the Japanese, and the Chinese to give Bush's investors some ROI.

That's not all; that's not nearly all. But after just that, do you wonder why the illegal Iraq war is at the top of the list off issues I consider most important?

The war in Iraq must be stopped; and the dream of empire by the administration must be be brought to a screaming halt. I pledge to do all I can to end this national nightmare, beginning with the removal of all US troops, contractors, corporations, and other war profiteers from Iraq as soon as possible, so that the nation and people of Iraq can decide what they want to do.