Conscience and the War by STEPHEN F. COHEN --The Nation

[Demeter]

This article can be found on the web at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070326/cohen


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Conscience and the War
by STEPHEN F. COHEN



Unless the United States withdraws its military forces from Iraq in the near future, a war that began as an unnecessary invasion based on deception and predictably grew into a disastrous occupation will go down in history as a terrible crime, if it hasn't already. For Americans of conscience, Iraq has therefore become the paramount moral issue of our time.

.......

Underlying these bipartisan excuses for staying in Iraq, indefinitely in effect, is the lingering illusion that some kind of American "victory" is still possible. Hence the self-serving assertions, particularly by the war's early and unrepentant supporters across the political spectrum, that it was a good cause "botched" by the Bush Administration's "shocking incompetence"; and hence their insistence that the occupation be given more time "to succeed" by providing the Washington-backed Iraqi regime with additional US troops and "benchmarks," training more Iraqi forces (though the 300,000 already equipped haven't helped), or by dividing the country into three parts, as though having failed to cope with one divided nation, the United States can do so with several antagonist ones.

Obscured by these rationalizations is the real lesson of the American-Iraqi tragedy: The United States does not have the right, wisdom or power to invade and occupy another country, still less an ancient civilization, with the ultimate purpose of redirecting that nation and its civilization. Such a mission will never result in any kind of victory, only the morally toxic political and humanitarian catastrophes we are witnessing and, if allowed to continue, crimes not soon forgotten or forgiven.

Principled opponents of the war must therefore be clear and unyielding on what an expeditious US withdrawal means, an essential issue also obscured by the Administration and its reticent critics. It means the removal from Iraq of all US troops and their equipment, as well as those Iraqi citizens who, fearing for their lives because they served the occupation, wish to leave. Once that decision is made, whether by the current Congress or an antiwar President, the US military will know how to implement it expeditiously, certainly within a few months. Meanwhile, all American troops in Iraq should be moved from offensive and other forward positions to strictly defensive ones in order to protect them and to reduce US complicity in the bloodletting. Here diplomats can help by negotiating with Iraq's insurgent leaders and neighboring governments for a safe US exit and havens for Iraqis who must flee.

That kind of determined and complete withdrawal is now a moral imperative--the only way to begin redeeming our nation for its role in the death and destruction in Iraq. The time for political evasions and ambiguities on the part of leaders in both parties, especially would-be Presidents, is long past. Every month this war continues, more than 3,000 Iraqis and 100 Americans are likely to die, each new death further darkening the stain on America's honor and on the conscience of its true patriots.

[IndyOp]

1. Over 15,000 a month. Over 500 per day.

Over 500 Iraqis are dying per day -- based on the 10/06 Lancet study figures, which are conservative and the rate has risen since that time.

As Congressmembers dilly and dally and hem and haw about what will give them their best chance for re-election, people are dying.