Can You Hear Us Now?

Patricia Ernest (Pissed Off Patricia's Blog )

OpEdNews.com

Can you hear us now?  I ask that question because apparently you couldn't hear us before.  Remember last winter, and into the spring when we were saying, "NO WAR IN IRAQ"?  Remember, we said that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction?  We were saying that because we heard the UN weapons inspectors saying that, and we trusted them more than we trusted this administration.  We didn't trust the administration, because we had visited the PNAC website and we read about their desire to remove Saddam from power.  They wanted to go to war with Iraq for a long time, but they couldn't find a good excuse.  We took the effort to research and read.  We read and we read, but we saw nothing that would convince us that a war with Iraq was necessary at that time.  We also agreed with the majority in the world, as they also said no to an invasion of Iraq.  

We knew that it was not Iraq who flew the planes on September 11, 2003.  We saw no connection between that event and Saddam.  We saw none, and if you had bothered to think and look, you would have seen no connection either.  Iraq had never issued a threat to the United States but Osama Bin Laden  had.  We kept telling you this but I guess you just weren't listening. 

Remember during all our protests about the war, you kept saying we were traitors and we weren't patriotic?  You said we didn't support our troops and you said a lot of other nasty things about us.  Now don't you wonder about what you said to us?  Over 500 of our troops and thousands of innocent Iraqis are dead due to a war that should not have occurred.  That war that we tried our damnedest to prevent is to this day happening and your President is slowly telling you that the reasons he stated for going to war were false.  There were no weapons of mass destruction, Saddam was not involved with the attacks on our soil, and he was not an imminent threat to us in any way.  Your President seduced you by using the deaths of the victims of 9-11 as a reason for attacking and killing thousands of people in a country that had nothing to do with the pain of that terrible day.

If you had heard us, if you had listened when we cried to keep our soldiers at home, maybe our soldiers could have stayed at home instead of suffering and dying on foreign soil.  Think about all of our soldiers who have died because of this war.  Think of all the Iraqi men, women and little children who have died because of this war.  Think about the faith you placed in the President, and while you're thinking, think about how he has used you as a pawn to promote a war that should never have been.  This President, the one who claims to be a man of God, has abused the faith of the citizens of the United States, and he declared a war that should never have been.  Think deeply about that.

Do you remember the day the President landed on the aircraft carrier and implied that the war was over?  You relied on him to tell you the truth and he didn't.  You cheered because you thought that our troops were coming home, but he didn't tell you the whole story did he?  He didn't tell you that an awful lot of our soldiers and Iraqis were yet to die.  He didn't tell you that, because if he had, you wouldn't have cheered along with him, would you?

Yes, Saddam will not harm another person for the rest of his life.  No, the people of Iraq are not free.  They are now in the middle of what appears to be the beginning of a civil war.  The US President invited terrorists to come to Iraq and cause more death and destruction.  He invited them the day he boasted, "Bring em' on!"  He invited them, and it appears they responded to his invitation, because they came.  Today they are still coming and the killing continues. 

Your President has used his avowed faith to lure you into supporting unnecessary death to many, many people.  When these soldiers start coming home and you see boys and men, women and girls who have been injured and maimed due to this war, what will you say to them?  What will any of us say to them?  The President did not send them to Iraq to protect our freedom because our freedom was never in jeopardy.  Iraq was not threatening our freedom.  The attackers of 9-11 were not threatening our freedom; they were making a tragic and deadly statement.  The attackers of 9-11 died in the attacks.  We were not invaded by another country.  We were the victims of a terrorist attack. 

The only threat to our freedom is the Patriot Act.  The terrorists didn't write the Patriot Act and the Act is not patriotic.  Any freedoms we may have lost were not taken from us by terrorists.  It was because of the terrorists that our freedoms were taken away.  We allowed this administration to reel in our freedoms in the name of prevention of another attack.  If the terrorists wanted us to be less free, then they got their wish.  The President along with the congress and Attorney General Ashcroft took away our freedom.  They did what terrorists could not do. 

Before the war, the drums for going to war were being beaten pretty loudly, and  now the funeral dirge is not being played loud enough.  So while there is a lull in the noise I thought I might ask you one more time--Can you hear us now?