Ignoring Iraq for Moratorium Day

If I thought people would get my point, I would, in protest, not write anything on Iraq today. I would ignore it.

That seems to be the approach of our politicians and media, and since I love irony, it would be an appropriate response. Since the “Surge is working” (Bald Faced Lie) the Republicans can now completely ignore the complete horror that we have wrought on these innocent people comfortably. Problem solved.

And since the only issue on Iraq that the Democratic nominees will address  is their variation of plans to get our troops out, they can talk about that and ignore everything else….on the RARE occasion that they are asked about it.

And of course we know that the Democratically controlled Congress HAS to ignore Iraq, lest their complicity in continuing an illegal and immoral war is brought up and discussed.

So today on Iraq Moratorium Day Five, let’s all emulate our leaders….and just ignore the shit out of it, let’s all put on our denial and rationalization caps and pretend, just like the rest of America, that Iraq is just “an issue” that we have to deal with and do our best to forget all of the inconvenient and messy facts….and ramifications, of George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure.

Here is a quick rundown of things to ignore, so that you can play along.

Thanks to the pragmatic pre-planning that the Pentagon and George and Dick did on the propaganda front, we can ignore how many people have died. They may not have planned anything else, but they did a bang-up job on this part, the propaganda and lies have been top quality. The greatest achievement? (Other than successfully lying us into war in the first place of course…) Learning the lesson of the media coverage of Vietnam and stopping…..just plain refusing to….report just how many Iraqis the illegal invasion has killed.

Growing up during Vietnam one of my most poignant memories was the Daily Body Count. Walter Cronkite giving a running tabulation of just how many lives….how many actual human beings…perished, never to return to their homes and families again. On both sides. The daily reminder of the human cost of the war was a type of societal wake up call to the horror of our useless and manufactured Imperial incursion of the 60’s and seventies. Today, in it’s place, we have reports on what Britney did today.

So, today on Moratorium day….make sure to ignore the 3926 American soldiers (easier to ignore than saying NEARLY FOUR THOUSAND young men and women) who have died for George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure. Oh and don’t forget to ignore the 28870 wounded too!

Ignore the estimates (since that is all we have, thanks to the brilliant pre-planning) of Iraqi deaths due to our previously incomprehensible pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign nation.

One Million, One Hundred and Sixty Eight Thousand and Fifty Eight….is the current estimate

But Hey! Look on the bright side, that is just an estimate, since no one is taking responsibility actually counting. It COULD be significantly lower! Maybe …..only a Million….who Knows???

And while we are on the subject…let’s ignore PTSD, future damage to the Iraqi population from depleted uranium, the fact that we are creating a metric fuckton of potential future “terrorists” that despise America….  and all the other long term ramifications as well.

Oh AND the 4 million refugees and who knows how many Iraqi wounded.

The Next Thing to Ignore: The Cost of the War and Occupation.

The direct cost:, not counting interest, not counting future expenditures that we are basically committed to until we leave….not costing the cost of actually leaving (if we ever do)

$275 million per day $4,100 per household, 487 BILLION dollars….so far.

Estimates of the eventual cost range from 1 to 2 TRILLION dollars. Here is a good recent article from the NYT business section. A pertinent section…

For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign – a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place – better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation – could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.

And finally (though there ARE many other things you can ignore as well of course, the list is nearly endless! But this next bit is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL to ignore. If we didn’t ignore this next bit…well we might have to actually….DO something about it, like, oh, I don’t know….hold George and Dick responsible for it through some sort of Constitutional process.)

The Next Thing to Ignore: This is an illegal, and thus completely immoral war. A war with no valid reason for being. A war that was trumped up out of thin air …and lies….and greed by those who started it and are profiting immensely by it… and forged evidence….and bankrupt ideological bullshit …and the just plain definitional evil of those who would kill a million other human beings to pursue their own horrific ambitions and delusions of grandeur and competence.

Let us make SURE to ignore that after World War 2 the world came together at Nuremberg, in the aftermath of unprecedented planet-wide horror…including the use of two nuclear weapons and over 50 million dead….to outlaw, condemn and make perfectly clear that their is NO clearer and no more just plain WRONG action that a nation can take than waging aggressive war.

Which is what George and Dick…and through them America….has done. Violated the basic standard of civilized and responsible behavior by pre-emptively invading another sovereign nation, for No. Reason. At. All.

The very definition of a War Crime.

Let’s ALL (especially the candidates on both sides) remember to ignore the fact that we are in the middle of an ongoing War Crime, on this the fifth day of observation of the Iraq Moratorium.

Thanks for playing.