Op-Ed Piece

Submitted to Asheville Citizen Times in October 2006 - I called several times to try to get it published, and they have not published it. Dave Russell of the Asheville Citizen Times said he would get back to me two weeks ago - he never did. Very rude behavior, but to be expected from the corporate media. The Asheville Citizen Times did very little coverage of the anti-war voices prior to the war, and once the war started, very little coverage of the get-out- of- Iraq voices and now they will not talk about the genocide the US is committing in Iraq. It is totally sickening that they act this way, but it is par for the course for them. They did not publish an op-ed I wrote against torture in January 2005 and the only op-eds of mine that they have published are nice little pieces about pacifism and peace..... no calling the American people KILLERS is allowed, no matter how true it is..... after all, the Asheville Citizen Times is also helping the US government to KILL people and blame everyone else besides themselves.

My Op-Ed Piece:

I think of it as “George’s Genocide” but in actually, all taxpayers in America are complicit in this crime. Of course, our former and current Congress Without a Conscious has even more responsibility than the rest of us. Yes, that recent report on excessive deaths in Iraq has clearly pointed out that our invasion and occupation of that country has resulted in genocide. The number of 600,00+ is certainly sobering, but it was not surprising to me. I have been following the news of Iraq for four years now, and I knew the death toll of Iraqi civilians and combatants had to be well over 250,000. I knew there are many more incidents of violence that never made it into the corporate media reports. I have read the Iraqis’ blogs written about the deaths of their friends and family members, often times at the hands of US troops. I know the water is not safe to drink, that overall electrical supply is lower now than four years ago, and that the simple act of going to the neighborhood store is fraught with danger. Their health care system is in total shambles; and I know all these factors lead to more and more death.

I knew full well that no nuclear WMDs would be found in that country, just as there are no nuclear WMDs in Iran today. For anyone who believed the WMDs were there, you were sold a pack of lies. And you can count on the fact that they have not stopped lying, even to this day. It is clear to me that vast segments of our population are willfully ignorant of the above facts and willfully apathetic to the suffering of the Iraqi people. It was always clear to me that the US administration’s policies were designed to ferment chaos and strife and sectarian differences in Iraq. The common term would be “divide and rule” for what the Bush administration has done and continues to do. And even today, this Bush administration is discussing what they should do with Iraq – as if the country were their own property, instead of belonging to the Iraqis! Any month now, I expect the Bush administration will kick the leader of Iraq out of office and put someone else in place. And I guess Mr. Bush will tell those Iraqi people that they can take their purple fingers and stick them where the sun doesn’t shine.

It is clear to me that Americans are the ones responsible for allowing this situation to develop. It is also clear to me that it is beyond our ability to “fix” – if such a thing was even on the agenda of those who say “stuff happens” while society is breaking down, or “bring em on” when their own troops are in harm’s way or “we don’t do body counts” in the face of massive death of innocents. This war has spawned massive lies, deception, graft, corruption, theft, rape, torture, murder, illnesses, PTSD, and God only knows what other evil – and for what?

Back in the 1950’s, there were bombings of black churches in Birmingham. It was pretty clear it was racially motivated, and that some white folks were behind it. Now, imagine if the people of those churches (that were bombed) had decided to get revenge and bring the evil ones to justice by bombing every single white church in the city the following Sunday morning – massive bombs that killed everyone inside. There is a chance that they would have killed the evil ones and their supporters – but of course, they would have also killed a lot of innocents in the process. And, I expect, there would have been even more violence in response to that violence! This is essentially what we have done in the Middle East – we sent our bombers and troops over there to kill off the evil ones who planned and supported an attack on us. For the most part, we did not get them. Instead, we started a genocide that we are willfully ignoring. And the killing is far, far from over.

Every American needs to work to stop this war and stop this genocide. Call Senator Dole (202-224-3154) and Senator Burr (202-224-3154) and tell them to get our troops out of Iraq now. Call them everyday! And in January 2007, go to DC and join the protest there. Then stay a week and visit members of our congress and tell their staff what you think. And if you see any members of congress walking the halls (and you will), stop them and tell them directly what you think. We are the only ones who can stop this genocide being done in our names. And never forget we are the ones paying for it.