I was going to just not acknowledge that a decade has passed since the Iraq War began, but this I came across a tweet from Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
"10 yrs ago began the long and difficult work of liberating 25 mil Iraqis. All who played a role in history deserve our respect and appreciation."
First of all, I don't remember the people of Iraq begging anybody, let alone the US, to liberate them. They are dozens of countries who are under oppressive dictatorships, and the US did not have plans to liberate them.
Second, I don't get angry often. Upset, yes. But this prick made me very angry. Having the absolute gall to give himself a pat on the back. For destroying a country that had nothing to done with 9/11. For bankrupting the most powerful nation in the world into oblivion, not to mention damaging our reputation at home and overseas. For changing the lives of our troops and their families and hometowns, both deceased and survivors and veterans.
This tweet just sounds like he's congratulating himself. On a job well done. And by well done I mean completely fucked up, causing damage to all in his way.
10 years ago the US military invaded and struck Iraq, based on false information and bloated egos of leaders who were suppose to know right from wrong, but did not.
Not only did they lie to the American public, they lied to the entire world, going as far as having Colin Powell go to the UN and telling them that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. (Which was not true at all.)
People still cry for the heads of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove et. al. but even if justice were to be served (and that will never happen unfortunately), that still won't bring back the 5,000 plus dead American troops and the countless thousands of Iraqis killed in their own homes and those defending them.
That still won't undo the struggles that hundreds of thousands of troops who have returned (many from multiple tours) must deal with every single day, from PTSD, missing limbs, and other psychological, physical, and mental issues, not to mention unemployment, depression, and being kept apart from their homes and loved ones for long periods of time.
All the war propaganda, all the screaming and the lies and the hatred, comes from people who are not fighting, wrote George Orwell. Donald Rumsfeld and co. did not have to fight this disgusting and shameful war. He had other men; the sons, husbands, brothers, boyfriends, domestic partners, co-workers, friends, classmates, and neighbors of ours fight for him. These so-called leaders do not have to pay the impossibly large amount of money that they spent carelessly on bombs, fighter jets, drones, and other war toys, all with money and loans that could have gone to millions of other useful things, like education, health-care, repairing roads and bridges, or giving out grants to scientists to cure cancer and AIDS or to prospective students to attend university so they could contribute something to America. The war was sponsored by our tax dollars and from money that was cut from various programs.
The funny thing about history is that someone out there will always remember what really happened, even if the whole story is never printed into the history books. And with all the information in the world available to us with just a few clicks, we can all know what really happened. There is no longer just the official story.
So to Donald Rumsfeld: Fuck you. If hell does exist, may you burn there for all of eternity.
