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June 19, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 28, 2004 Simply end this war It's time for the "war" in Iraq to end. Why? First, all of the reasons that we were told that we must go to war were lies: o There were no WMD o There were no nukes o There was no link to terrorists Yes, Saddam was a horrible dictator, but the world is filled with dozens of horrible dictators. Are we going to take each of them out? Of course not. The U.S. has, unfortunately, furthered the cause of preemptive strikes, routinely killing innocent people in an attempt to capture Saddam and restore order in Iraq. We routinely abduct innocent people and keep them in prison with no charges for months or years. We allow the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners. We seem to emulate the Israelis who have perfected the inhumane, unforgivable policy of preemptive murders. It is a sign of lost humanity. Nearly 800 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq. And for what? We call the operation Iraqi Freedom, but we were never asked by the Iraqis to come; polls show they want us out. We've taken over he Iraqi radio and TV stations - propagandizing our view. We've tried to put a puppet government into place - a puppet government that has no chance of surviving without U.S. help. We've said that we want to turn sovereignty over to the Iraqi people - as long as we can keep our troops and as long as we are involved in the forming of the constitution and government. This is not sovereignty. Now, instead of fighting the Iraqi army, we're fighting the Iraqi people. The mission in Iraq was never a legitimate one; however now we've converted the war into a war against dissenters - a war against the people of Iraq. If you don't agree with us you're dead. We call those Iraqi people who oppose us "insurgents." Insurgents? These people live in Iraq! We're the insurgents. I would suspect that if the US were invaded, we would fight back and would not consider ourselves insurgents. Once we leave Iraq it's likely that the government will evolve into something not to our liking; it's likely that the country will be unstable. Yet, it's better to leave now, before hundreds or thousands more US troops are killed just to prop up a president who believes that war will win him reelection. Bush is a president of fear. Do you feel safer than 9/11? I don't. Bush campaigned on the promise that he would not overextend our troops and would not nation build. That is exactly what he is doing in Iraq - and this lie (among hundreds of others) is the exact reason why he needs to be booted out of the White House. Tom Dimitre Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams