Operation Iraqi Liberation Ten Years Later

After reading enough nauseating pseudo-apologies from liberal hawks like Ezra Klein, I thought I'd offer my own reflections as one of the many millions who got it right. Despite what the hawks may say, there wasn't any difficulty seeing through the lies and manipulation of an operation deemed Operation Iraqi Liberation or OIL by an administration filled with people from the energy industry. And while many millions of us were not fooled, our voices were silenced and marginilized as defense contractors and ex generals made the rounds on the various talk shows to explain why we just had to invade Iraq.

In the days leading up to the invasion it was a euphoric time. By some estimates up to 30,000,000 people in over 60 countries protested the war prior to the invasion. Nothing like it had ever happened in history. The great anti-war protests of Vietnam didn't come until the war had been going on for ten years or more. Here we had millions of people from across the planet holding hands and saying no to a war that hadn't even started yet.

Seeing how the anti-war movement petered out as Barrack Obama put a friendlier, perhaps more eloquent face on our imperialist ambitions, it became clear that many people were more anti-Bush than they were anti-war. It's been a bitter pill to swallow to watch as many of those who opposed the invasion of Iraq stand by quietly as the new president continues and expands our wars of aggression around the globe.

I'm sorry we didn't do more. I'm sorry just doesn't seem to cut it, though, when we're talking about the murder of over a million Iraqis, the destruction of their infrastructure, the looting of their cultural treasures, and the displacement of millions more. Birth defects and cancers are at all-time highs in the country devestated by American weapons of mass destruction like white phospherous and depleted uranium. Somehow sorry doesn't seem quite adequate.

But the fight isn't over. And movements like Occupy Wall Street and others have shown that we've learned a lot over the past ten years. The anti-war movement was mostly symbolic protest, people gathering on the weekends, marching for a few hours and then going back to their daily lives. But we've seen that change tremendously in the past few years with more and more direct action aimed at banks, agribusiness and the big oil and gas giants. Instead of a stagnated anti-war movement we have a multi-faceted group of autonomous movements seeking justice at every turn.

Another world is possible.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy