The Charnel House of Baghdad By Mike Whitney

[Demeter]

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_061029_the_charnel_house_of.htm


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October 29, 2006

The Charnel House of Baghdad

By Mike Whitney

There are three things wrong with the current policy in Iraq.

Occupation, occupation and occupation.

Foreign occupation is the reason why over 90% of Iraqis want the Americans to leave their country. It is the reason why nearly 50% of Iraqis believe that it is justifiable to shoot American troops and why nearly 70% of attacks are on occupation forces. Representative John Murtha was correct when he said, "We are inciting the problem;" our presence is a lightening rod for violence.

Bush's promise to establish security in Baghdad is foolish and doomed to failure. Security cannot be achieved under occupation because the foreign troops are perceived as the enemy. This is not hard to grasp. We need only to imagine how we would react if Iraqi soldiers were maintaining checkpoints or arresting our people on the streets of America.

There's no point in recriminations. There will be plenty of time to examine what went wrong after American forces are withdrawn from the theater. But certainly there have been events which galvanized Iraqis against the occupation; the destruction of Falluja and the abuses at Abu Ghraib are perhaps on top on the list.

....

We've turned Iraq into a charnel house; unleashing the full-force of the world's most powerful military on a small country that never posed a threat to our national security. That's enough. It's time to end the occupation and bring the troops home.



Authors Bio: Mike is a freelance writer living in Washington state.

[Jcrowley]

1. Yep

K&R