22,000 Injured, 3,014 Dead: Isn't That Proof Enough That We Must Leave Iraq? 
"How can anyone be considering sending more troops into Iraq? To me it has turned into a bottomless death pit for our troops, to say nothing of the Iraqis being slaughtered. Surely someone should be able to come up with a plan that allows the U.S. to get out of a combat situation and into a totally supervisory position."
It is somewhat confusing to objectively analyze U.S. foreign policy. What was the outcome of Vietnam and why were we fighting there? The much-heralded reason was that if we didn't stop Communism in Vietnam, the Asian nations would fall one by one to Communism in a Domino Effect.
This ploy worked in that it kept us in Vietnam. We were fed fear on the nightly news. The media kept the focus on our horrific battles and hope was offered with the hopeful slogan that the end of the Vietnam War was nearing as the foreign policy "experts" could see "the light at the end of the tunnel."
We did finally leave. Returning service personnel gave what seemed like a well-rehearsed speech as they exited planes, using the mantra repeated redundantly by President Richard Nixon, Administration figures, along with supporters of "Peace with honor."
What do we have to show for this venture? Yes, we had powerful demonstrations of brave soldiers doing what they were told to do. Also, there were some unfortunate cases of tragic killing sprees inflicted on Vietnam's civilian population.
There is now a memorial wall in Washington to appropriately honor those who sacrificed their lives heroically and all those who bravely served.
The end result was not what we had been told. The Domino Effect, the claim that if Vietnam fell the whole continent of Asia stood at risk of being lost to Communism, proved to be a cruel hoax.
When Richard Milhous Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia he provided grounds for impeachment. Instead Nixon was conveniently and hastily cited only of domestic-related offenses snowballing after Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate break-in story and followed it to its conclusion, including its various ramifications.
The alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors" with which Nixon was officially charged pales in comparison to the bombing of Cambodia, showing the moral judgment of so many of Nixon's critics to be morally deficient.
We apparently learned nothing from the Vietnam debacle. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, so he claimed, to heal the nation. Heal? Are you kidding?
Nixon's reign of error remains a festering sore denoting a rabid Republican Administration run wild, never to be forgotten by any objective, fair-minded person.
As the saying goes, "Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them." Do we have another Republican Administration repeating even worse mistakes in Iraq?
How many must die in Iraq? Aren't 3,014 deaths enough? How about 22,000 injured?
It is glaringly apparent that George Bush and this Republican Administration acted illegally in barging into Iraq without proof that its dictator Saddam Hussein possessed those weapons of mass destruction that were alleged to be under his control.
The media blitz orchestrated via the Bush Administration's propaganda network, also known as Fox News, did its best to terrify Americans into believing that the "giant mushroom cloud" alluded to by Condoleezza Rice was promptly awaiting us if we did not speedily launch an attack.
After invading on false information in clear violation of international law an interim government was established in Iraq. The potentially grave threat envisioned by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell and other Administration figures never existed.
The leaders we hand picked later fled the chaos of Iraq. In Parade Magazine on January 7, 2007 it is revealed that they fled to London. According to the Parade article, "An Iraqi judge estimates that up to $2.3 billion was stolen." Parade also revealed, "At least 1.5 million (people) already have left, and about 3,000 more leave daily."
Now Bush and his handpicked cronies want to plunge 21,500 more U.S. service personnel into the midst of this Iraq civil war that the U.S. invasion has generated.
In the 2006 election the voters emphatically denounced George Bush's Iraq War as a mistake. However, those die-hard Republicans try to salvage their Iraq War agenda by always deferentially referring to George Bush as commander in chief.
They love to rant, "We're at war!" They think that this declaration empowers the White House resident to do as he pleases. Democracy be damned!
Estimates of the Iraq War dead have climbed to 650,000. Does anyone live in the delusional fantasy that such a horrifying killing spree will have no consequences?
Who is so determined to keep this Iraq War going now that it is finally being called "The Iraq Civil War"?
The answer is simple. The greedy motivation of the war profiteers is the glaringly obvious reason.
KEYWORDS: George W. Bush, Iraq War, Bush Defying Democracy, Vietnam War, Parallels Between Vietnam and Iraq Conflicts
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