Liberators Or Invaders

The
People's Coalition For Justice
&
Humanity

Are We Liberators Or Invaders

By Hadiyah In'am Faizah Hajj
( PCJH Correspondent)

Sunday, March 30, 2003

PHILADELPHIA, Pa--As I sat in front of my TV on Sunday morning enjoying a cup of tea, my attention was gripped by statements made by the former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. Edward Peck. Peck called the War on Iraq an outright "mistake" pointing to the fact that the people of the country are obviously not convinced that we are there the liberate them. He pointed to the fact that there has been strong resistance as opposed to "open arms" from the people of Iraq. He said that Iraq is far more "unified" in this "invasion" than we once though.

Mr. Peck also pointed to the historic and social phenomena that always favors the underdog, which he said Iraq is this confrontation. After all, we have more powerful, more sophisticated killing power, yet we have not been able to just sweep the country as the President and the government told us we would be able to do. Iraq is a very small country that is fighting and resisting a coalition of 42 nations. Although it is being played down in the American media recent report indicate that the war may last into the summer.

"We didn't just march in and have the country to embrace us. They are resisting," Mr. Peck said.

U.S. General, Tommy Franks, commander of the war on Iraq, today denied that he asked the Pentagon for more troops, but he did not deny that he suspected that the war would last into the summer.
"One never knows how long a war will take," Franks was reported by news sources as saying.

He went on to say that due to the level of the kill power that they are using against Iraq that the military is losing capabilities every day. This is a problem that some of the people in America had a problem with from the beginning. Just how long will this war take. The people were promised that it would be short and intense "shock and awe." Yet, what the country seems met is a stronger resistance than it anticipated. Calling the resistance near Baghdad an "occupational pause" General Franks said that he was impressed with the progress of the war.

He would not give a number of casualties among the Iraqi people or military, but said that the attack was "precise" in nature. He did say that "at least 120 militants" were killed from Ansar al-Islam. Ansar al-Islam has been named an "extremist" group with ties to al-Quaida

Meanwhile, the killing goes on and as an American I begin to ask myself some questions. Should I be afraid when my elected officials have no voice or power when it comes to deciding whether my children be sent off to war to kill and/or die. This is a very real question to me because I lost a brother in the war in Vietnam. Actually, it was never really called a war, but a conflict. Diluting the title does nothing to lessen the horror of of the mass murder that went on there. Again we were in a questionable situation. I'm still trying to figure out how we jumped from Asama Bin-Laden to Sadam Hussein. As I remember those two hated each other and we once supported and provided weapons and training for the Iraqis against Iran i around 1979.

I am far from a supporter of Sadam Hussein whom I consider a horrible dictator and I feel that perhaps he should be overthrown, but by his own people and they are the ones who should be allowed to reshape their country without our influence or having to depend upon us to do that. We have successfully destroyed the infrastructure of the country so that the people will be dependent on the western world to rebuild.

I heard a member of our military say that he felt that we needed to penetrate the country in such a fierce force of military power, killing everything that moved and then they would surrender. Since we are knee deep in this obscene killing spree we have to support our military because they are there and they are not the enemy. War is the enemy. Resolving our problems by killing people we don't know, whom other circumstances we could enjoy the same music or books with, or enjoy a conversation about the similarities between our children is just wrong. Murder, and that is what it is, is never ever right.

Recently a coalition of Arabic nations appealed to the United Nations for a sit down meeting concerning the situation in Iraq. They feel that the war is unfair considering the power that we have and how little they have. In the interim, the world looks on and history records. All around the world people, like myself, people are still protesting for peace. I urge everyone to become involved and to visit the American Civil Liberties website at www.aclu.org and read the Patriot Act II and how it will affect your civil liberties very soon should it be passed into law. People you want to get the jump on this one.

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