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I’ve been against the war in Iraq from the start. After we went in, I thought we ought to stay in there and clean up our mess, that we couldn’t leave the country the way it was — in shambles. But now, things are so bad, for everyone around, that I have no clue what we or anyone can do to make it better. They’re only getting worse, by the day.

I’m not interested in what politicians and military leaders have to say. Politicians’ visits to Iraq are nothing but pre-arranged “shows” meant to portray them as courageous and caring to their constituencies. I’m so disappointed with everyone involved in this complete and utter mess. What we’ve done there is to create a breeding ground for terrorists, to alienate a very large portion of the population, to completely ruin the country’s infrastructure, and to instill irrational fear in the hearts and minds of everyone, most of all the children and youths.

And let’s not forget that we’ve also managed to waste countless billions of dollars, most of which went into the pockets of corrupt US businesses and Iraqi politicians, not where they were needed. The really sad part in all of this is that we, the US taxpayers and our children, will be left to foot the bill caused by our inept government and the idiotic think tanks that started the war. When we leave there, we’ll leave the country in shambles, and the Iraqi people will be left with a really, really bitter taste of American occupation. They will think that we’re bunglers, abusers, murderers, and all around bad guys.

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s have a look at a few articles that show the effect of this accursed war on our soldiers and on the people of Iraq. As you see them or read them, you’ll realize that no good can come of this situation. What we’ve done is to put corrupt people in power there, and other than pocketing foreign money and engaging in political posturing, they’re no good for anything else.

1. I was moved the most by this article and the accompanying videos. Hometown Baghdad is a video series that follows the lives of four Iraqi youths. The videos that accompany the article mentioned here are from this series. You’ll see how US troops killed a young man’s uncle for no reason at all, and you’ll how his thinking and his family’s thinking about Americans has changed. Now multiply this experience by a few hundred thousand, and you’ll start to get a sense of how the general Iraqi population feels about the US.
2. I don’t want you thinking only the Iraqis suffer from this. No, our own troops are coming home with serious problems. If they’re not blown up on the outside, they’re blown up on the inside. They’re coming home with PTSD and they aren’t getting the treatment they need. I tell you, we’re going to be paying in spades in the years to come, because we’ll have a lot of disabled troops on our hands that will need our care — and I sincerely hope we won’t mess up their treatment like we did with the troops coming back from Vietnam. As you can see with this article and the one above, the problem is one of serious disconnect between the American soldiers and the Iraqi people. The barriers of culture and language are huge, and from the looks of it, insurmountable.
3. Have we messed up the country’s infrastructure? Yes, we have. Are we really accomplishing anything in our efforts to fix it? No, we aren’t. Instead, the US forces and the Iraqi government are bickering over how many hours of electricity everyone’s getting, while the reality is that they’re getting much less than “advertised”.
4. Is Iraq a breeding ground for terrorists? Yes, and of the worst kind.
5. It’s not just our troops that are coming back messed up. It’s the interrogators, the very people that were accused of doing nasty things at Abu Ghraib and in other places, that are coming back mentally ruined.
6. After we tally up all of the money and time spent in Iraq, and the hundreds of thousands of troops deployed there for years in a row, is the Iraqi security better? No, it isn’t. And what’s worse, the military and the politicians want to send more troops there. Yes, that’s right, let’s destroy even more American and Iraqi families…

The last thing we need in Iraq is more soldiers. What we need is what I’ve said years ago: to root out the terrorists operating there, we need serious, embedded secret intelligence efforts coupled with surgical special forces attacks, not more troops. Parading our troops up and down the streets and stopping the general population from living their normal lives does nothing for security and only angers people. Things are only made worse when American soldiers abuse the civilians, or when they kill them, as we’ve seen above.

I hope and pray this entire madness ends soon, and that the Iraqi people can recover their dignity and economy somehow. And I also hope that fewer of our troops will have their lives and families destroyed by this colossal mess of a war. Before politicians and military leaders call for more war, they should do well to remember they’re not dealing with equipment — they’re dealing with human lives, and they’re short and fragile. We’re not destroying tanks and Humvees there, we’re destroying people and lives, on both sides.

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