Repost : Edit

Today I heard a report from NPR about the Iraq war, particularly about an incident from a corps in the backwoods region of the Sunni Triangle. These soldiers get IEDs every day, sustain mortar fire 3 days running. They are common, and they say it amazes them that it only reaches the news when 'a roadside bomb goes off somewhere in Baghdad.' They apparently had 7 that week.

In this report they iced 6-8 "MAM"s, which stands for 'military aged men'. Not because they had weapons, not because they committed a crime, but because they showed up from a mosque after an AC-130 gunship began firing at a roadside bomb.

First, I'd hit it from the hum turret at 30 yards and rely on the twin metal shields. Second, I would NOT call in a ground strike to kill 6-8 men who showed up after a gunship started shooting. That is homicide and nothing less. I can imagine they were in the mosque praying, possibly with their women, and came out to see what the shooting was. Just being a military aged man is not a crime punishable by execution. How many of you listeners or readers are MAMs? Do you know any? Would they kill you? These people made no 'sudden moves', had no evidence of armament, nothing. Dead.

I realized while listening to this report that the insurgency in Iraq is a war of families against the US military. Extended families. This is a feud that we've started and are sticking around to fight. Call in the UN, they are a neutral party. We dumped weapons on the area, came in and searched through women's clothes in front of families, and turned our backs. This is shame, especially in that part of the world, and the only cure is more cowbell... I mean, kill them.

Or peace.

We've taken a freestyle war and pinned it down, yet again. We've already left the safety of our walls. Lessons of Cambodia are thus: don't fight in someone else's civil war. Don't fight dirty. Don't get involved in a land war in Asia. Only fight when you have to. The enemy we're fighting in Iraq is 'discontent'. Not Ho Chih Minh, not Kim Jung Il. There is no man we can kill to wipe this thing out. We're fighting ghosts.

If we want to get to the bottom of this war, as a people as well as a nation, we should examine the video that got it all started: The Osama bin Laden Confession video [link:9/11 Confession Video Faked]. 'Osama' is wearing a gold ring and watch in the video. Muslims cannot wear gold rings by their religion. He writes something with his right hand, but Osama is left handed. His face is also different than in other publications. This is not Osama. 12 jurors would agree this is not Osama.

From there we can examine both forwards and backwards in time. 70 million Americans and the vast majority of NYC residents want the 9/11 Commission reopened for a plethora of reasons. Nine of the nineteen alleged hijackers remain alive. The mayor of Cleveland and Delta both said that Flight 93 landed in Cleveland at 10:45am on the morning of 9/11/01. firefighters reached the 77^th/78^th floor of the WTC and were attempting to put out the flames from the crash, while secondary explosions rocked the building. WTC Building 7 collapsed without being struck by a plane. American medical staff gave Osama bin Laden medical treatment as an honored guest weeks before 9/11. It is very likely that Osama Bin Laden has nothing to do with the incident, and therefore invading Afghanistan was a farce.

But that is for another shovel load. Here we are anyway, working in Afghanistan and Iraq. From the outlook of a sane and informed American, what is the best way out of these fiasco/quagmires? If we’ve truly ignited a blood feud between the American military and Iraqi honor, the best solution is to get out and replace the nanny occupation with someone else who is not the worst enemy of millions of Iraqis, and whom has a longstanding reputation of nation building: the UN. George W Bush refused their offerings of assistance in Fall 2003, but this is and continues to be the perfect moment to reduce our force strength in the region and replace it with fresh rainbow forces who can hope to heal the wounds of the Iraqi nation without simultaneously being an incendiary force.

There is more we can do for the people of Iraq than free them from a brutal dictator…We can leave them in peace.