"Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? "
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 19, 1776
My plea below...
To our Founding Fathers, offensive war was murder. The war in Iraq is also offensive war, and illegal war, and it is also murder. It is a war in violation of the U.S. Constitution that was not declared by Congress. It is a pre-emptive OFFENSIVE war that is in violation of International Law. It is a war that is in violation of the UN Charter. It is a war that is counter to all human decency by the standards this country has always followed (save the Vietnam War) in conducting war. There is then no way these cretins in our government can even think that those who founded this nation would condone their senseless slaughter based on lies for profit.
And as an American (not as a Democrat or Republican, but as an American) who has stood up against this war in Iraq since way before it was brought upon us, I feel the need to explain to any who may be reading this that this opinion does not mean that as an American, I am afraid to defend this country when she is under a credible imminent threat. That is surely a case for this country to defend herself. However, that was not the case regarding Iraq, and the evidence such as the Downing Street Memo and the exposure of all the lies behind this war proves it.
Even our Founding Fathers did not want to fight a defensive war against Great Britain. They tried peace process after peace process until it was obvious that their demands were not going to be met, and the usurpations enacted upon them and the people living here were going to continue. The American Revolution was a war of LAST RESORT. It was a war, however, that had I been living here at the time would have fought myself, for it was a truly noble cause for freedom (or what we now think is freedom.) The war in Iraq is not a noble cause for freedom, however, as those who brought it upon us used lies, deception, treachery, and greed to lead our children into harms way for a selfish economic and political agenda. And as we see unfolding, an Islamic government bent on subjugating the rights of the minority and women.
I know it is hard for many parents and others who suffered the loss of a loved one in Iraq or those who haven't but still support it to admit this, even though I am sure many of them know what it really is in their hearts. Yet they continue to say this is a noble cause because they believe that to say otherwise will taint the memory of their loved ones. I say to you, that I understand your pain, even though you may not have the same opinion about why we are in Iraq as I do. And I also support all troops who go over there because it was their duty to serve and they fufilled their obligation. However, I also must then ask you to look beyond your Party allegiance to look at the evidence, look at the facts, and then look at Iraq today as it really is, not as the sound bites of those who brought us there describe it. And I mean really look at it.
I then implore you to read the words of our Founding Fathers regarding such offensive wars of empire, and to realize that for many of us who were always against THIS war, it was because we knew in our hearts that it was a war that was not only going to take the soul of our nation from us, but the souls of our children whether they lived or died. I then ask anyone reading this who lost a loved one in Iraq who may still be for this war, to please tell me what we have gained from it. I want you to tell me what noble cause it stands for.
I want you to tell me how you can justify the killing of thousands of innocent civilians and children for an Islamic government at the expense of our own. I want you to tell me why it is our duty to spread "Democracy" at gunpoint in this world, and how that keeps us and our children safer. I want you to tell me that you don't know about all the billions embezzled from the Afghanistan war ( and our pockets) to pay for this war ( which has not gone to give our troops what they need) and the huge sums of money made by Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, and a host of other companies who have reaped the only benefits from a war that has given our children nothing but deficits, uncertainty, and a future of continuing terrorism.
I want you to tell me how wanting our troops to be told the truth, to have what they need, to have the veterans' benefits they deserve, and to do ALL in our power to keep them out of harms way is anti-American. I want you to tell me how a mother or father who loves their child and speaks out to protect them is anti-American. I want you to then tell me, why if this war is so noble to you that you are not calling for those who waged it to either fight it or support it monetarily.
You see, our Founding Fathers while not perfect, were men of profound vision and intelligence, and men with a true sense of the world, and what our actions reap upon it and our children:
"There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth can regain their
authority over the public mind."
James Madison.
~~~~~
"A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of devils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without
adequate inducement or justification.
It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the
concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld.
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the
interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation"
George Washington's "Farewell Address" - 1796
~~~~~~
"Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly and wickedness of the government may engage itself?
"Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest right of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? . . .
"A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that
ever entered into the heads of men."
Daniel Webster,
Speech in the
House of Representatives, January 14, 1814
~
Do those of you who then still support this war (or say you do), truly support the premise behind this war even knowing it was false? I respectfully suggest that before you deign to call the acts of Americans who stand up for what the Founding Fathers believed when it came to offensive war,
traitors, that you do a bit of soul searching and reflection into why you continue to support a war that reflects none of the beliefs that birthed this nation...a nation you claim to love.
Your children died doing something they believed was noble, and no one regardless of Party should try to demean that sacrifice. However, those of you so quick to dismiss the rest of this story out of partisanship do not really do the memories of your children justice. They say the first casualty of war is truth. Those questioning this war and speaking out against it based on the principles as outlined in our own Constitution are searching for that greatest casualty in all of this, that truth.
It matters not what Party precipitates horrors of this nature. It is then up to the American people to stand up for principle in matters such as these beyond Party affiliation for our country, and for our children. I suspect those in that "temperate and respectable body of citizens" Madison mentioned ( which I consider myself a part of) who are truly seeking truth and justice not just for Cindy Sheehan's son, but yours, and all of those who we do not want to see die, and those who knew of that all too well whose words I quoted in this diary above, would tell you the exact same thing.
And one last question:
Is your Party allegiance to ONE MAN over what is best for this country really worth all of this?
