Two men from Iraq

Yesterday two Iraqi immigrant men approached our weekly peace vigil here in Brunswick, Maine.  They spent quite a bit of time talking to several of us along the line of sign and flag holders.

I was the last in the line and by then someone had mentioned I was a veteran.  One of the two men told me he was a veteran of three wars in Iraq.  First the Iran-Iraq war (where the US armed the Iraqi  government in hopes to destroy Iran).  Secondly was the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91 (the daddy Bush war) and lastly the 2003 Bush Junior 'shock and awe' attack that still continues today with about 5,000 US troops deployed there.

I asked the Iraqi veteran if his country would at some point soon kick the US military out.  He said, "They can't".  I took that to mean that Washington's grip on Iraq was still too strong.

I asked him about the recent Israeli bombing of Iraq.  What is behind that?  He replied, "Israel and Saudi Arabia want to start a big war."  Many are speculating that Israel and the Saudi head-chopping monarchy (remember when America had a revolution against a monarchy in 1776?) want to force the US into a full-blown war with Iran.  In other words they want us to do their dirty work for them.

Some passing cars were honking support for the vigil and again the veteran said, dripping with cynicism, “See you have support, but in the next election they will all vote for more war”.

I must say that I was sadly impressed that this Iraqi man has figured out the American people quite well.  They'll honk for peace, won't lift much of a finger to help stop our endless war$, and then likely in large numbers will turn around and vote for the next Democrat (no matter who gets the nomination) that will keep us in costly wars.  The system we live under limits the 'national debate' about such issues which only makes it harder for the public to believe anything can actually change.  So they tend to take the easy way out.

The two men were glad to see our group on the street but they don't harbor much hope for an end to the madness in their beleaguered nation.  The US has used Iraq as a tool for many years to destabilize the region giving further justification for on-going Pentagon occupation.

Bruce