We Fucked Up

I really need to hear the words, from anyone in the corridors of national power. I do. Three single-syllable words: We fucked up.

The Iraq debacle, from beginning to quagmire, was not an “oops…who saw this coming!?!” for anyone paying attention. There were a few brave senators, like my own Patty Murray, who smelled the bullshit from the beginning and said so.

But now, as candidates for the two-year campaign to become the next idiot-in-chief posture and pose, it’s all about supporting troops, and making the Iraqis “stand up.”

Do we forget that we started it? Do we forget that this was all completely unnecessary? Do we forget that it was all predicated on lies? That “terrorists” (TM Bushco) only exist in Iraq because we are there? That oil deals are the focus of the governance and lawmaking in that sorry country?

Do we forget that we have killed over 3.000 Americans and untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for the profit of a very few?

And that none of this, none of this, was even slightly necessary!

Don’t we owe the world a “sorry?”

I do not want to hear another American office-holder in the federal government say another word about Iraq that is not predicated with an apology to the world, and a pledge to extract US troops as soon as possible. To fail to do so is to assert the following:

1. You think that Americans are so stupid that we don’t realize that this war was, and is, completely unnecessary for our security or our national interest.
2. You think that we don’t realize by now that the “War on Terror” is like a “War on the Color Blue”, utterly absurd and impossible to wage or win. (I forget where I first heard this analogy, from someone much smarter than me!)
3. You think that we don’t realize that private corporations are getting rich while people die in Iraq for no other purpose than to make them rich.
4. You think we forget that we have tortured people. And wiped our asses with the Geneva Convention.
5. You think we don’t realize that the justifications for this war were lies.
6. You think we don’t realize that crimes have been committed against the Iraqi people, and the American people in the prosecution of this military conquest of Iraq.
7. You just think that we are really, really stupid, and completely malleable.

God help us if you are right.

For those of us who are smug in our opposition to the war, ask what you did to stop it. Did you protest? (I didn’t) Did you write your reps? (I did) Did you shout and scream and yell “bullshit!” No Republicans did, and too few Democrats did. They should all be ashamed, and not be allowed start any public utterance on the topic of Iraq with anything but an apology. They should certainly not be able to run for president on opposition to the war, like Hillary is now, until they offer up a mea culpa.

And if we really aren’t as stupid as they think, we shouldn’t let them.