Giving
our life for an ideal in which we believe is the ultimo sacrifice. Every day
American men and women engage in the army are willing to leave their civilian
life to serve their country. They are ready to sacrifice their lives to protect
this country because they believe in universal rights of freedom, justice and
democracy. These men and women on uniform may die for a cause that appear to
them legitimate because they were born and rise that way. How about their
enemies’ side? Their enemies may see their own fight as legitimate as any cause
may be. They will live and fight until the last drop of blood as any honorable
soldier.
Before
coming to the USA, I was preoccupied by the American discourse seen on the
media. To me and any eastern person, it was a pretentious discourse. I had the
impression that USA is the police of the globe. Whenever there is a conflict
they had to intervene. What an American soldier should be doing in Iraqi desert
far from his sweet home Alabama? The media make them look like country high
school boys carrying heavy guns and acting like their ancestors on the Wild
West. The only difference was the exchange of horses with blended
vehicles. The behaviors of some of them
made it worst. How can you show in compassion or respect to soldiers that raped
innocent civilians and urinated over dead bodies?
Coming
to the USA was a real challenge. How Am I going to leave in such society? .
Society that lost hope in resolving conflict in diplomatic way. My first
interaction with American people was surprisingly agreeable. I discovered a
spontaneous population eager to learn about my culture. They were as much as I
interest to know about our differences. Certes they had a lot of stereotypes
about my origins and believes but, I had even more stereotypes about them. I
discovered that most of Americans worry more about the intern policies that
affect their daily life such: taxes, wages and price of gas. The foreign American policies were the
business of their representatives on congress.
I
understand that U.S army members and their family believe in notion of freedom
and democracy. They see their sacrifice as primordial to keep US territory
secure. They may argue that without intervention in some countries the security
of all American citizens will be threatened. However, sending thousands of U.S
troops to Iraq was unjustified. After 10 years of occupation we did not find
any single weapon of massive destruction. We lost and destroyed thousands of
innocent lives. Over one million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of
the 2003 American invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious
British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB).It’s a real genocide and
no reason will never justified. The damage was collateral. According to CBS
News Sources. 4,486 US Soldiers Killed, 32,226 Seriously Wounded and these
without counting the number of suicide committed by US Soldiers after arriving
home. Iraqi saw their country destroyed by a sectarian civil war that we
implement to control the country. We promised them freedom and democracy and
left them in chaotic situation. In the history of civilization, a war did only bring
hate and detestation. For these who still doubt, I will refer them to the
history of Roman Empire and how they adopted The Greek model of democracy not
because the Greeks invade them but because they were influenced and amazed by
the Greek cultural heritage. We should not also ignore the significant cultural
and religious difference between Iraq and the USA .The Iraqi civilization
flourished when Europe was in its darkest age and the USA did not existed yet.
How can we talk about exporting American Great civilization when the newest
shop in the Clothiers Souk in Baghdad it’s older then the history of the USA? What changed after all these years? One and
only one things, American Oil Companies have the monopole of Iraqi oil making
huge profits and paying back the administration that supported this war.
Some
will tell me yes but, the war in Afghanistan was legitimate. We killed Osama
Ben Laden. Was it really worth it? After 10 years of American presence in
Afghanistan, how many soldiers were scarified? How many civilians we deported
or killed by mistake? I will answer too many. We did not improve the conditions
of this poor population at all. We supported a corrupt government and lost the
sympathy of the afghan population. We invested on weapons and machineries not
on the Afghans hearts .This is why too many Afghans turned the weapons against
their Americans trainers’ .The Taliban’s provided security and compassion to
the population instead of buy a relative peace using tax payers’ dollars and
Viagra pills. . The population did not
have choice between a corrupt government supported by US or extremists Taliban’s
praising Jihad against the invaders.
Let’s
talk about the wife who lost her husband, the 3 year old girl who will never
see her father. What explanations have we for them? They may look at him as
hero but, he did not die for a legitimate cause. He did not change anything.
Some family are frustrate seeing the US troops pulled out from Afghanistan and
Iraq. The sacrifice of their beloved one was mean less. We did not make any
single improvement in these countries. The real reason why we went to
Afghanistan is to control the mining industry. According to the Persian
Encyclopedia of Economics and Management. Based on the information most of
Afghan mines are still intact. With the biggest rich mines of lapis, gold,
turquoise, coal, copper, iron, barite, lithium, uranium and as well as oil and gas fields Afghanistan
is one of the countries with the richest and biggest intact mines in the
world. Afghanistan's resources could
make it the richest mining region on earth.
We
have to stop lying to ourselves and stop being naïve. Ask our representatives
about the utility of going to any war because in the end of the day it is us
folks who will pay it from our taxes. I am astonish by the headlines on our
national news, before even leaving Iraq and Afghanistan we are talking about to
get involve in another war with Iran. Did we learn anything from 10 years of
involvement in Afghanistan? The story is repeating itself. Who will benefice again?
It’s the oil company again. Just look at the price of gas at pumps it’s about 4
dollar.
I’m
going to be even clear ,if Iraq and Afghanistan were supposedly a direct threat
to our national security, Iran was never a threat for us , they never supported
al Qaida because they have a different doctrine .Some will say they are
threatening our allies. I think in this time of recession and poverty attaining
unprecedented numbers it’s time to start thinking about our own interest and as
the French proverb say: “Charité bien ordonnée commence par
soi-même." Or Efficient Charity begins with oneself.
Sources
Maki al-Nazzal , Dahr Jamail, “Iraq:
Not our country to Return to”. www.projectcensored.org.
March 3, 2008.Project Censored.
Deborah White,“Iraq War
Facts, Results & Statistics”. Www. usliberals.about.com.
Jan
26, 2012.