With the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq upon us, and as President Bush praises Iraqis for fighting Al-Qaida, the lives of Iraqis continue to get worse. According to polls cited on Democracy Now, 2/3 of Iraqis want us to withdraw immediately. However, in a recent interview with Dick Cheney on a morning talk show, he made it clear that public opinion is of little importance. Well sure, why would it be, the Iraqi government hasn’t privatized the oil yet. Over the weekend, the Winter Soldier Investigations were held at the Labor College in Maryland, Receiving practically no corporate media coverage. Again, www.democracynow.org was there, and the stories of the soldiers are worth listening to.
To watch the testimony see www.ivaw.org
On March 19th 2003 I was living in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. I went grocery shopping that day and bought a news paper with large letters and images of the invasion. I was so sad, yet all around me the Mormon missionaries I served with were proud and pleased (the white ones that is).
On March 19th 2008, I attended a small candle light vigil in Provo Utah, organized by a high school senior named Alex. He and his guests felt good about what they were doing, and told the newspaper reported that they believed they were making a difference. I felt saddened that they actually believed that this small rally would sway the opinion of the man whose office we stood in front of: Orrin Hatch, or anyone else for that matter. I have been to rallies against the war every year since 2005, and it would seem that each year they become less relevant to the determination of the architects of this new foreign policy.
We are in an election year. If Barrack Obama gets elected will he withdraw the troops? I doubt it. He may withdraw the troops and then invade Pakistan.
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