It's
Criminal
By Scott Ritter
25 March, 2006
Alternet
Blogs
As
America reaches the third anniversary of President Bush's decision to
invade and occupy Iraq, there is for the first time the unsettling realization
brought about by the clarity of acts that emerges only after the passage
of time that something horrible has happened.
This awakening of collective
awareness on the part of the American people is reflected not only in
the numerous polls which show President Bush's popularity plummeting
to all-time lows, largely because of the war in Iraq, but also the collective
shrug of the shoulders on the part of the one-time cheerleaders for
the war in Iraq -- the mainstream American media -- when covering the
hollow rhetoric of the President as he tries to rally a nation around
a cause that has long since lost its allure.
No amount of flowery language
and repeated pulls at the patriotic heartstrings of America, no repeated
assault on the senses and sensibilities through repetitious referral
to the events of 9/11 can jump start a second phase of the kind of mindless
nationalistic fervor that greeted the erstwhile Cowboy President when
he first herded a compliant America down the path of war with Iraq three
years ago.
Looking back on the string
of unfulfilled objectives, broken promises, squandered dreams, shattered
bodies and eviscerated lives that was and is the war in Iraq, one thought
emerges plain and clear. This isn't simply a result of bad governance.
This is criminal.
Bad governance is telling
the American people that a war with Iraq would be concluded in a manner
of months, and would cost the American taxpayer less that $2 billion,
when in fact the war has gone on for three years now, with no end in
sight, and over a quarter-trillion dollars have been expended, with
untold billions more to be spent.
Criminal governance is the
fabrication of a justification for war (weapons of mass destruction),
hiding the President’s true intentions from the American people
and the Congress of the United States (Bush signed off on the Iraq war
plans in late August 2002, and yet continued to publicly state that
no decision for military action had been made), and shredding international
law by waging an aggressive war of pre-emption void of any United Nations
Security Council resolution authorizing such actions.
Bad governance is manipulating
war planning on the part of military professionals so that we enter
into a conflict with far too few troops for the task, with no plan for
how to proceed once the fighting ended and the reality of occupation
set in.
Criminal governance is violating
every principle of the laws of war in the conduct of the occupation
of Iraq, manipulating the economic and political direction of Iraq,
suppressing its population, and engaging in wanton acts of widespread
murder, torture and abuse of the Iraqi people.
The fact is the war in Iraq
has degenerated into one giant hate crime.
American soldiers and Marines
are being thrown into a cauldron of our own making, scalded by a conflict
with no purpose or direction, with the end result being that in order
to survive these fighting men and women have dehumanized the totality
of the Iraqi people.
The ancestors of ancient
Babylon have become nothing more than "sand niggers", "rag-heads",
"camel jockeys", "ninja women" or "haji"
in the hearts and minds of American fighting men who are now killing
Iraqis in ever increasing numbers. Gone is any talk of rebuilding Iraq.
We are there to destroy it. The criminal nature of the war in Iraq is
starting to become common knowledge among observers of the war.
It has long sense been common
knowledge on the part of those waging it. In Vietnam Americans were
shocked by the revelations of Mai Lai and the murder of innocent Vietnamese
civilians by American fighting men. But Mai Lai is repeated in bits
and pieces every day in Iraq, with the American military occupation
slaughtering family after family of Iraqis in the name of bringing peace
and security.
The realization that something
has gone horribly wrong in Iraq, however, has not translated into any
kind of discernable action on the part of the American people. While
pundit after pundit breaks ranks with the Bush administration on Iraq,
often repudiating their own pre-war chest beating and encouragement
of the war, the fact is that the manifesto which manifested itself in
the invasion of Iraq -- the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United
States -- continues to dictate the manner and nature of America's interfacing
with the rest of the world in unquestioned fashion.
Indeed, President Bush has,
on the eve of the third anniversary of the Iraqi war, promulgated a
new, improved version of this manifesto, the 2006 National Security
Strategy of the United States, which re-affirms America's commitment
to the principles of pre-emptive war. In short, the President has re-certified
America as the greatest threat to international peace and security in
modern times, especially when one considers that even as America is
engaged in the brutal rape and occupation of Iraq, President Bush has
his eyes firmly set on another war of aggression in Iran.
What are the American people
doing in response? There is a huge difference between becoming aware
and taking action. While poll numbers on Iraq reflect a growing unease
about the war, this unease has not manifested itself into any discernable
reaction of consequence. The Democratic Party has remained largely mute,
largely because of the culpability on the part of much of its membership
in facilitating and sustaining the Iraqi war and its underlining doctrine
of global domination by the United States.
But in the face of the near
total subservience on the part of the Republican Party in supporting
the policies of President Bush no matter how illegal and harmful they
are to America and the world, the Democratic Party must shake itself
free of the doldrums it currently finds itself stuck in. The time for
passive recognition that the war in Iraq has gone bad is long past.
The time for concrete political
action has arrived. The Democrats need to recognize that the political
struggle in America today is not a trivial extension of the partisan
Red State-Blue State nonsense the American media likes to bandy about,
but rather a far more serious struggle of national survival, if one
in fact defines the American nation as being reflective of the ideals
and values set forth by the Constitution of the United States.
The Iraq War, if anything,
is a reflection of the total abrogation of constitutional responsibility
and process by the Congress of the United States. As a result, the President
has led a nationdown the path of illegal war of aggression which has
damaged America's reputation abroad, and its very fabric here at home.
The Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stop this collective
march towards national self-destruction, rubber-stamping the president's
illegal actions with little regard to either the rule of law or Congress's
status as a second but equal branch of government.
This must end.
The fact is that America
today stands on the brink of having everything we stand for as a nation
being swept away by a power-crazed President and a compliant Congress,
both of whom are Republican. Whatever direction the Democratic Party
takes in the future, it must be with the recognition that the hopes
and dreams of saving the United States as a nation of laws founded in
the words and principles of the Constitution rest heavily on their shoulders.
The Democratic Party must become laser-like in its rejection of the
war in Iraq, resolute in condemning this war for what it is, an illegal
war of aggression,and determined in fighting for the concept of a nation
governed by the rule of law by holding President Bush accountable for
his illegal actions.
In short, the rallying cry
of the Democratic Party must become impeachment. Given the magnitude
of the crimes committed by the United States in Iraq under the direction
and leadership of President Bush and his administration, there is simply
no other recourse that can bring a halt to the madness in Iraq, and
the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.
The remedy is clear. The
question now is whether the Democratic Party is up to the task.
Scott Ritter served
as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 until his resignation
in 1998. He is the author of, most recently,
Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to
Undermine the U.N. and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Nation
Books, 2005).