Pringle: Troops Continue to Die For Bush’s Lies

On May 1, 2003, in a spectacle televised worldwide, President George W Bush portrayed himself as a brave fighter pilot when he strutted across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to announce mission accomplished and an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Bush put on a flight suit, strapped himself into a jet, flew off for a 30-mile jaunt before making a dramatic landing on the aircraft carrier and a speech under a banner with the words mission accomplished superimposed across stars and stripes, which he claimed was made by the sailors on the ship.

Everything about that theatrical event was a lie. Bush was never a brave fighter pilot; he was an AWOL draft dodger during his term in the military. The mission in Iraq was nowhere near accomplished, and the sailors revealed that the banner was made in the White House.

The truth is the mission in Iraq, whatever that mission might be, is an utter failure. Its now four years since Bush televised his tax dollar funded infomercial to the world claiming a victory in Iraq, and more daily attacks on Americans occur today than in 2003.

In the year 2000, in attempt to convince Americans to vote for Bush as the next president, the Republican Party Platform specifically stated: "Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale."

"Even the highest morale," the Republicans stated, "is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness."

In regard to dealing with WMDs, in 2000, the Republicans said:

"A comprehensive strategy for combating the new dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction must include a variety of other measures to contain and prevent the spread of such weapons."

And they went on to say: "We need the cooperation of friends and allies," and the intelligence community should not "be made the scapegoat for political misjudgments."

The Halls of Congress now sound like an echo chamber with Democrats using the exact same phrases to describe the disaster in Iraq and the conduct of the Bush administration.

The claims of WMDs, mushroom clouds, linking Saddam to 9/11, and an alliance between Saddam and bin Laden, turned out to be lies, which were known to be false at the time they were uttered, but the Administration lies some more and blames the CIA for providing faulty intelligence.

The few allies that were conned into going to war with us are leaving Iraq. Saddam was put to death, but the Iraqis are worse off today then they were when he was in power. As the President asks for another $100 billion, our troops are getting sucked even deeper into a bloody quagmire, without even a hint of an exit strategy in sight.

The blame for the failures rests squarely on the White House doorstep. Bush insists that the problems will resolve if we "stay the course," in Iraq

But the question remains, how much longer should Americans agree to stay on a course that has already resulted in deaths and injuries to thousands of Americans and Iraqis with no benefits to anyone except the war profiteerers who are making billions as tax dollars roll off the backs of our dead soldiers?

Iraq has become the central breeding ground for terrorists who hate our President because he waged a war in Iraq based on lies, not to help the Iraqis but to gain more control over the world’s oil supply, and they are killing our soldiers to show the world that they will never allow Bush to gain a stronghold in the Middle East by taking control of Iraq‘s oil.

It should be obvious to all Americans by now that these people are not going to give up. They will continue to fight, they are not afraid of dying, and if more recruits are needed, many more will gladly travel to the Middle East and sacrifice their lives in Iraq to defeat Bush.

As Americans, the question we need to ask ourselves, is how long are we going to force our troops to pay for Bush‘s reckless conduct that put them in these killing fields to begin with?

How long are we going force these young men and women to fight an unwinnable war that Bush should never have started?

How long should families have to go to bed at night worrying about a loved one who may never come home or watch as they come home in body bags?

Why should one more drop of American blood be shed in Iraq? For what? Victory?
Victory in Iraq has never been defined. Its to the point that Bush cannot even explain what he hopes to achieve by staying in this war for another day or for 10 years.

However, what is clear, is that Bush plans to leave our troops dying in a war without end indefinitely, and therefore, its up to American citizens to rescue these young men and women in the only way possible, by insisting that Congress cut off funding for Iraq to force Bush to get them out of that hellhole.

And this year, May 1, should be designated as a day to not only honor the fallen soldiers, but also the widows, orphans and grieving family members in America and Iraq, who are paying the consequences for the reckless conduct of the President.

Evelyn Pringle
evelyn-pringle @ sbcglobal.net

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