City of Walls

Post-surge Iraq:  A nation on the pathway to peace or A nation divided, desolate?

The traditional media has declared McCain victor of the “surge” debate.  But no Western journalist has provided an honest portrait of what Iraq looks like today.  Take a look at this harrowing video from a young Iraqi journalist.  It’s important that we give a voice to those we supposedly tried to liberate, rather than only listen to  blow-hard Washington politicians, the very people that orchestrated this madness, the very people who are now trying to cover it up with cheap PR.

Iraqi Parliament Pushes for U.S. Withdrawal

We gave them their freedom. Now they want us to be clear about intentions of withdrawal. In a letter to Congress, a majority of Iraq’s parliament has expressed severe disapproval of any Iraq-U.S. security agreement if it does not contain a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. President Bush has cut down any talks of timetables, stating they would telegraph our moves to enemies and create arbitrary deadlines. President Bush has also refused to outline what a victory in Iraq would like. But as U.S. politicians continue to spar over our occupation, the administration has ignored the voices of the Iraqi people. The mainstream media has not covered this letter at all, which says:

Likewise, we wish to inform you that the majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq, in accordance with a declared timetable and without leaving behind any military bases, soldiers or hired fighters.

Here’s the big test. If you actually buy Bush and McCain’s pronouncements that this war is about freedom and liberty to Iraq, take them at their word. We gave Iraq democracy. Now it’s time to go. Iraqis say so. Not the Democratic party, which merely wants to return them their due sovereignty. And while Iraq is still torn by ethnic conflict, it is not our divine right to be there. Our occupation created the disaster, the cesspool of terror and violence that has left a million Iraqis dead, should we be so pompous to claim it our right to fix it? Withdrawal is not surrender; it is reconciliation for the crime of invasion itself; it is giving Iraqis what we promised them; it is returning our troops to the loving arms of their families. I support the Iraqi parliament. Do you? Does our government? Or is the Iraq occupation what I suspected all along — another strategic staging point for broad American empire?