I'm a little sick and tired of Bush and the wingers saying things like this from John Kyl
"I can’t think of another conflict in which a deadline was set in the middle of the war that one side would withdraw from the conflict," said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chairman of the Republican Conference. "It’s a heck of a way to fight a war."
We are NOT at WAR Senatory Kyl. We are conducting OCCUPATION
We cannot win or lose we can only WITHDRAW or ANNEX
This has been diaried here before, and I'm certainly not the first to talk about it. I'm writing this diary because I don't see anybody DOING anything about it.
The Rockridge Institute - no not that Rock Ridge or that Rock Ridge said this:
The war was over when Bush said "Mission Accomplished." A war has one army fighting another army over territory. U.S. fighting men and women defeated Saddam’s military machine three years ago. Then the occupation began. Our troops were trained to fight a war, not to occupy a country where they don't know the language and culture; where they lack enough troops, where they face an anti-occupation insurgency by the Iraqis themselves; where most of the population wants them out; where they are being shot at and killed by the very Iraqis they are training; and where the U.S. has given up on reconstruction and can't do much positive good there.
The Occupation Frame fits a politically inconvenient truth. Most people don’t want to think of our army as an occupation force, but it is. An occupying army can’t win anything. The occupation only helps Al Qaeda, which Iraqis don’t want in their country since Al Qaeda attracts foreigners who have been killing Iraqis.
When Democrats like Harry Reid say
"The United States Senate will ensure they have everything they need to continue this fight as we have done," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev
it makes it easy for Republicans like Mitch McConnell to say
"Democrats would have to redraft the bill without a surrender deadline"
and for the press to print things that make the GOP look like they are standing tough... like this:
Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has proposed striking the withdrawal provision, which GOP members say would broadcast the nation's war plans to the enemy and tie the hands of military commanders.
We know thats all BS, but we play into their hands by calling it a war.
So - Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and yeah even you Rahm Emmenuel stop calling it a war.
Of course they won't do it first, WE need to do it first.
Three formal things we can do:
- Our diaries need to stop using the word WAR and start using the word occupation.
- Our letters to the editor need to talk about the American Occupation of Iraq.
- When we call our congressmen we need to ask them about ending the occupation, not just withdrawing the troops.
Casually, every time someone mentions WAR we need to start saying things like.
Occupations can end only in WITHDRAWAL or in ANNEXATION; Wars can end only in DEFEAT or VICTORY.
or how about
We can no more "win" or "lose" in Iraq that the British could have "won" or "lost" in India, or the French could have "won" or "lost" in Algeria.
Are you with me ?!?!?!?!