I was proud to serve my country as a Paramedic in The United States Air Force during the first Gulf War.I am proud today of each and every service member serving in the United States Armed Forces.
As a civilian now, it is my duty to use my voice to speak out with other veterans against putting soldiers in harms way as a means to an unjust end.
America's sons and daughters as well as untold numbers of Iraqis have died and are dying right now as a direct result of our trusting an administration that has cleaned out the treasury and handed over the cash to their preferred corporate partners who then failed to deliver anything of substance to stabilize Iraq when the opportunity was there to do so.
I believe those who have given their lives for their country would expect us to honor them by exercising our duty as Americans to question the motives and the actions of the power that asked of them the ultimate sacrifice. These soldiers deserve to have those of us who are free to speak and act challenge the multitude of questionable actions undertaken by our government under the umbrella of fighting terrorism.
The dead and wounded deserve that we ensure their sacrifice is made in the service of the constitution and not wasted in the service of power, profit and empire.
The following is a great article I found at OP-ED News.
The Big Truth
The war on terror is a lie.
Outline of a speech to Democratic Clubs –
9/11/2006 Version
Part 1 - Past: Stopping Terror with Justice
Part 2 - Present: Intentional Dysfunction in the Occupation of
Part 3 - Future: "Just say No" to an attack on
Stopping Terror with Justice 08/01/2006 Version
The six points of the new "Democratic Vision" to be used by our precinct workers includes (1) Honest Leadership and (2) Real Security – "We will protect Americans at home and lead the world by telling the truth to our troops, our citizens, and our allies." I submit we shouldn't just promise to tell the truth. Win or lose, we should be telling the truth in all our campaigns for Congress. I submit the truth is Republicans don't have a national security policy; they have a national aggression policy. The "Big Truth" is that the war on terror is a lie; we are fighting for empire in a gross contravention of American ideals.
We don't need a war on terror. Justice in American foreign policy would eliminate 90% of the terror against us. The Danish cartoons were only minor provocations. Muslims dislike us for many substantive reasons:
• Our aid to
•
• We supported an arms embargo of
• We have helped pay for
• We committed unprovoked aggression against
Actions such as these have combined to create the hatred against us. But, we can eliminate this hatred and its resultant terror with justice. Where
Intentional Dysfunction in the Occupation of
• The Bush Administration is philosophically opposed to peacekeeping and nation-building.
• In 2002, Rumsfeld closed the Army's Peacekeeping Institute which trained officers in post-conflict issues.
• The Pentagon did not adequately plan for post-war operations and ignored extensive State Department studies on how to achieve stability after an invasion.
• There have never been enough American forces in
• Ammunition dumps all over
• After less than a month, General Garner was fired. He supported early elections, opposed privatization, allowed low level Baathists to keep their jobs, and planned to call up half the former Iraqi Army to provide security and aid with reconstruction.
• Mr. Bremer, who replaced Garner, under orders from the President, issued a de-Baathification decree that kept
• Mr. Bremer disbanded the Iraqi Army. Without more American troops, this army provided the only other means to provide peace and security to the people of
• On 6/13/2003 hundreds of American intelligence officers were transferred from
• Only 13 billion of 30 billion that Congress allocated for rebuilding
• The Administration has refused almost all international, non-military help rather than lose sole control of
• Iraqification has been a failure. After two and a half years, American training had created only one Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without US help.
This is not just historical information, most of these errors continue. Gross errors that continue without correction indicate intention. The Bush plan to "stay the course" is a plan for unending occupation and empire. An immediate withdrawal as an alternative is not supported by most Americans as they don't want our forces to have killed and died for an
We will only win this war with a combination of military and political action.
"Just say No" to an attack on
Unfortunately, instead of reversing our aggressions, the Administration is now considering new aggression in
One of their primary demands was that we not interfere in their internal affairs (as we did in 1953), and all hostages came home.
An attack on
Time is of the essence. An attack on
"The Bush administration is ruling out a guarantee not to attack
Demand the Bush Administration commit to non-aggression in return for no nuclear weapons in
In conclusion, we don't need to spend the additional hundreds of billions we have been spending since 9/11 on defense, security, and intelligence. We don't need to be occupiers and torturers. We don't need an empire to be secure – quite the opposite. We're creating more terrorists than we are eliminating. We don't need to give up our privacy and our freedom. Democrats don't need to prove ourselves strong on Defense. Rather, we need to prove ourselves strong in the defense of truth and justice.
Iraqi Sunnis, Iraqi Shiites, Iranians, and real Americans must unite to stop aggressor Americans, preferably non-violently.
See related articles at:
http://www.john-f-scanlon.dailykos.com/main/2
http://www.sdvfp.org/members-pages/JohnScanlon.html
I've been a Democrat since 1984 and have been politically active periodically since then from working against Contra Aid to working against the war in
I am also a contributing author at Op-Ed news and I encourage you to visit and support the work Rob is doing there.
Peace y'all
Kim Gongre
USAF Gulf War Veteran
