This is a statement from the organization of anti-war veterans and active duty service members, March Forward! Click here to read more statements from March Forward!
On April 2, U.S. Army Staff Sergeants Quadi Hudgins and Christian
Garcia were killed by indirect fire while on their “non-combat” outpost
in Babil, Iraq.
This is what the “end” of the Iraq war looks like for troops on the ground.
Attacks
from rockets and mortars on bases housing U.S. soldiers are not out of
the ordinary—they are a regular occurrence. They have continued to kill
and maim U.S. troops since the “end of combat” was announced.
Less
than a week later, on April 8, Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited
Iraq. He said that those bases where U.S. troops are under constant
attack will likely remain for years, if not forever.
The
Washington Post reported that Gates indicated that the Pentagon was
considering options “from staying an extra couple of years to remaining
in Iraq as permanent partners.”
The war in Iraq has long been
exposed as an illegal war of aggression, based on blatant and willful
lies about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction.” The myth of the
Iraqi people wanting U.S. “liberation” was shattered when the masses of
Iraqi people in every town and from all walks of life rose up against
the occupation. The American people overwhelmingly turned against the
war too, demanding that it end, forcing the incoming Democratic Party to
promise a full withdrawal of all troops by the end of 2011.
But
despite what the vast majority of people in both the United States and
Iraq want, and what the politicians in Washington promised to do once
elected, the Pentagon has another plan. They want us, our friends and
our family, to continue to die in Iraq for a lie, for many more years,
possibly forever.
So much for the Democrats’ promises. So much for our “great democracy.”
The Iraqi people will resist
Gates went so far as to make the ridiculous assertion that he would base his decision on “what the Iraqis want.”
The
Iraqi people responded to Gates’ comments the very next day by taking
to the streets in the tens of thousands, burning effigies of U.S.
soldiers, chanting “Leave, leave, occupier,” and vowing to return back
to full-scale armed struggle if the withdrawal deadline is not honored.
The
“Iraqis” that Gates was referring to were not the Iraqi masses, but
wealthy Iraqi politicians. They are the ones who have been carrying out
extrajudicial killings, torture, restrictions on the press, corruption
and smashing of rival political groups—the same things that Saddam
Hussein was accused of doing.
The Iraqi people will never accept
foreign occupation—especially one that taken the lives of over one
million innocent people, made five million refugees, and reduced its
cities to rubble. That is why they are still fighting today, although
there has been a lull in violence. But that lull is not at all
permanent, and if the U.S. remains past its promised withdrawal
deadline, Iraq will once again become a bloodbath for U.S. troops.
The
Mahdi Army militia, which nearly defeated the U.S. military and only
stopped fighting because over 100,000 were put on the Pentagon’s
payroll, vowed to return to battle if troops remain in Iraq one day past
the withdrawal deadline. Other groups vowed to return or step-up
attacks as well. A return to heavy combat in Iraq is right around the
corner.
But that is of little concern to Gates and his team in
the Pentagon. They care nothing about our lives. They have already sent
5,000 service members to their deaths while they kick to the curb those
who come home. They only calculate what level of death and destruction
they can get away with to achieve their imperial aims.
CEOs giving us orders
When
Gates spoke to troops in Mosul about why they must keep fighting in
Iraq, he was speaking to a room of soldiers who have absolutely nothing
in common with him. He spoke to a room full of young people escaping
rampant unemployment, increasingly unaffordable college tuition and the
substantial cost of providing health care and a home for their families.
Gates,
on the other hand, has lived a life of luxury in Ivy League schools and
plush offices. The closest he has ever been to war is his long career
in the corporate boardrooms of the same defense contractors and oil
giants making a killing off of the occupations.
This millionaire
Boeing executive is telling us “Keep risking life and limb, keep
leaving your families behind, keep fighting this unpopular war for Shell
and Halliburton.”
If he said it this bluntly, none of us would
fight. Why would we endlessly risk our lives for the bonus check of some
Wall Street fat cat? So, they change the language, and say it is for
“democracy” and “helping the Iraqi people.”
If Gates and his
billionaire friends want to keep a foothold in Iraq to gobble up its
resources, then maybe they should put on uniforms and patrol its
streets. Maybe they should lose their legs, be maimed, be
psychologically traumatized, be carried home in coffins—instead of
luring us with a job and college money to do it for them.
That’s why we have the right to refuse to fight. This is their war, not ours.
Only the people can end the war
They
only promised to leave Iraq, they only began the drawdown because there
was such popular opposition to the war; protests shook the country and
soldiers began refusing their orders, speaking out about the criminality
of the war, and joining the ranks of the anti-war movement.
If left to its own devices, Washington will continue to send us to die in Iraq for “years” or even “permanently.”
The
politicians will only end the war when they are forced to do so. A
vibrant anti-war movement, in the streets and in the military, has the
power to do that. Join us in building that movement!
Click here to learn more about Defense Secretary Robert Gates
