We Should Listen to the Iraqi Parliament
By Ron Paul
March 06, 2018 "Information
Clearing House"
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This month marks the 15th anniversary of the
US war on Iraq. The “shock and awe” attack
was launched based on “stove-piped”
intelligence fed from the CIA and Pentagon
through an uncritical and compliant US
mainstream media. The US media was a willing
accomplice to this crime of aggression
committed by the George W. Bush
Administration.
Despite the lies we were constantly
bombarded with, Iraq never presented a
threat to the United States. Iraq never had
the weapons of mass destruction that the
neocons used to frighten Americans into
supporting the war. How many of them knew
all along that there were no WMDs? We’ll
never know. Attacking Iraq and overthrowing
its leader was long a plan in the neocon
playbook and they used the 9/11 attack on
the US as an excuse to pull the plan off the
shelf and put it into action.
The US “regime change” war on Iraq has
directly resulted in the death of at least a
quarter of a million civilians, and
indirectly perhaps a million Iraqis have
been killed. The Iraqi infrastructure was
destroyed and the country was set back many
decades in development. Far from the
democratization we were promised, Iraq has
been turned into a hell on earth. Due to the
US use of depleted uranium and other
chemical weapons like white phosphorus,
Iraqis will continue to suffer from birth
defects and other related illnesses for
generations.
How did we get there? War propaganda was
essential in paving the way for the Iraq
war. Americans are generally skeptical about
launching new wars, so it takes a steady
media bombardment about the alleged
depravities of any targeted regime before
public opinion begins to shift in favor of
war.
Because the neocons who helped launch the
war have never had to face the consequences
of their actions, they continue to promote
war with impunity. Just this past week, Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was pushing for a US
attack on North Korea in which millions may
be killed. He said this weekend, "All the
damage that would come from a war would be
worth it in terms of long-term stability and
national security.” That’s just what they
said before the US attacked Iraq, and how
did that turn out? I find it disgusting that
the media continues to give airtime almost
exclusively to those who promote more US
disasters like Iraq.
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The
Iraqi parliament did something extraordinary
last week. A majority of elected Iraqi
representatives voted to demand that their
prime minister draw up a timetable for the
withdrawal of US troops from the country.
President Obama had withdrawn US troops from
Iraq in 2011, after a status of forces
agreement could not be reached with the
Iraqi government, but he returned the US
military to Iraq under the auspices of
fighting ISIS.
We had no business going into Iraq in the
first place and we have no business
remaining in Iraq. Al-Qaeda and ISIS emerged
in Iraq because our attack and occupation of
the country 15 years ago created fertile
fields for extremism. Nothing will be
achieved if we remain. Let’s listen to the
Iraqis and just come home!
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Information Clearing House.
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