As we observe the ten year anniversary of the Iraq War we should not forget those who opposed this catastrophic and evil action. Not a single terrorist on 9-11 was Iraqi and it has become clear to all interested in truth that the Bush administration was seeking war all along, even as it lied to Americans and the world that it was pursuing peaceful options with regard to Iraq. Paul Krugman explains why this date does not get more attention: contemporary media writers now claiming everyone at the time thought the war was necessary are at best wrong, and more often dishonest. Jeremy Scahill did a good job pointing out the Neoconservatives’ criminal and corrupt motives in pushing for the war. Bush speech writer David Frum, once a enthusiastic hawk, writes of Vice President Cheney’s interest in obtaining Iraq’s oil. Bill Moyers had previously done his usual good job providing an in depth analysis of the American media’s complicity in these crimes. Of course Moyers has been largely ignored.
There were also world wide peace demonstrations by just plain folks. The largest in world history. I participated and spoke at some held in Walla Walla, Washington while I taught at Whitman College. These demonstrations are not mentioned today. That millions of ‘ordinary’ people were right and the media and political elite were wrong is too embarrassing for the leading members of the corporate media to acknowledge. Now they hide behind the claim “nobody knew” the case for war was rigged or mistaken, seeking to avoid their measure of responsibility for the death and destruction we rained down upon others.
Every anniversary of this war should be a national day of mourning where Americans study how politicians, the media, and those with a financial interest in Iraq’s oil, manipulated us into a crime against another nation, killing over 100,000 of them, leaving the country a shattered wreck, and sacrificing thousands of American and allied lives. These same people are responsible for our deficit and the more than two trillion dollars the war will eventually cost us, money that could have gone into education, health, homes, and a decent life for us all. We should also contemplate how those responsible for those crimes have continued to prosper here at home, honored by the dishonest and morally cowardly as the good Americans they never were.