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Let’s be blunt. It’s no longer the Sunni
insurgents, Shiite militias, or al Qaeda bombers who are killing our troops
in Iraq. Washington is killing them. George W. Bush and the congressional leaders of both
parties are the ones who have 150,000 American men and women trapped in
Iraq’s civil war. The troops are doing all they can, yet they have
been betrayed by a White House and Congress that has no strategy to make
“victory” possible and are unwilling either to provide the
massive troop strength it would take to secure that country or to bring our
troops home. So our men and women are locked in a gruesome
shooting gallery by U.S. politicians who apparently intend to keep them
there for the year and a half or so left in Bush’s term. Hundreds of
them will die, thousands will be horribly maimed, and all will suffer
trauma. They are victims not of the “enemy” but of
America’s own failed “leaders.” It is immoral to do this
to them, but there they are.
Meanwhile, Bush keeps saying that his war is essential
to America’s own security and is the “challenge of our
generation.” But he is obviously lying to us: If it were true, all
Americans would be enlisted in the cause. If it were true, we’d have
half-a-million troops in Iraq, or more. But that would mean that the families of the elites
would have to be called to duty — and this is politically
unacceptable to Washington. They are killing Americans in a war that they know
they can’t win — and a war that their families won’t
join. This is a dishonorable sham, and only We the People can stop it.
Protest more. Protest louder.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist, and author.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2007.
