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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Eight Logical Reasons to “Get Out Now”
Wednesday 07 February @ 15:14:38 |
 by SID PRANKE
Photos by Joe Cunningham
Anthony Arnove's "Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal" makes abundantly clear what should have been obvious to all except keyboard warriors and neocon chickenhawks: the Iraqi people have every right to say "NO" to foreign occupation of their land--and that does not make them terrorists. The U.S. is not now, nor have we ever been, in Iraq for altruistic reasons, and staying there only makes things much worse for the Iraqis, who have suffered enough.
 The debate for and against the war has thus far not been framed this way in the mainstream press. When press reports mention "insurgents," who exactly are they talking about? "We are targeting the Iraqi people," said Arnove by phone Tuesday. "We are not targeting the 'bad guys.'"
We already know Bush lied about the reasons for invading Iraq and are reasonably sure the Iraqis (and the rest of the world) don't hate us because "they hate our freedom," as W has told the country. What is not as well known is that Iraqis were torn by Western occupation in the mid-20th century, when the British moved in after WWII. The Iraqis didn't like it then, and they don't like it now. They resisted it then, and they resist it now.
As historian Howard Zinn, author of 1967's "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal," asks in the foreword to Arnove's "Iraq": "Have we learned nothing from the imperial occupations, all pretending to help the people being occupied?"
In Iraq, the U.S. motive has always been oil, and Arnove writes that the U.S. and its allies "have run up against the limits of empire," and urges all people and governments to force Washington to accept that realization "before the consequences become far worse."
We have observed that our President is a very dangerous joke that most Americans don't approve of and that it seems that he will stop at nothing before privatizing the Iraqi oil fields. But Arnove points out that the racist and violent ideology that drives U.S. foreign policy did not begin with Bush Jr. or Bush Sr.--using the U.S. occupation of Vietnam (in the 1960s) and the Philippines (in the early 20th century) as examples of what Arnove calls the "new white man's burden," a situation where the poor souls don't know what is good for them so the United States has to intervene for their own good. Rubbish.
Symptomatic of this ideology is an occupation "that constantly shows contempt for the people it claims to have liberated," Arnove writes, detailing examples of destruction, torture and killings in Iraq, many of which go unreported. Arnove quotes from an interview with an American soldier who applied for conscientious objector status, conducted by Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!" on March 15, 2005:
"When I first went to Iraq, I actually believed what the government was saying, that we were searching for weapons of mass destruction, we were making the country safe for democracy and things like that. But when we got there, I quickly found another story. I very quickly found that the Iraqis didn't want us there ... If soldiers had come into our country and had invaded us and had come into our homes, then I would have fought back, too."
Arnove's eight logical reasons calling for an "Out Now" policy in Iraq include:
 1. THE U.S. MILITARY HAS NO RIGHT TO BE IN IRAQ IN THE FIRST PLACE.
2. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT BRINGING DEMOCRACY TO IRAQ.
3. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT MAKING THE WORLD A SAFER PLACE BY OCCUPYING IRAQ.
4. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT PREVENTING CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ.
5. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT CONFRONTING TERRORISM BY STAYING IN IRAQ.
6. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT HONORING THOSE WHO DIED BY CONTINUING THE CONFLICT.
7. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT REBUILDING IRAQ.
8. THE UNITED STATES IS NOT FULFILLING ITS OBLIGATION TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE FOR THE HARM AND SUFFERING IT HAS CAUSED. ||
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