Everyone knows that the best way to handle getting stung by a hornet is

Labels: hornet, iraq, mission accomplished, terrorists, victory, wasp

It was 5 years ago today.

According to the President, we had accomplished the mission in Iraq 2 months earlier. Although he didn't use the word "occupy", the fact is that our military was occupying Iraq.

Iraq citizens (NOT Al Qeada!) had a problem, nay they had resentment with U.S. Troops occupying their country. The were also unhappy about how many innocent civilians died because of our actions. They responded just as we citizens would respond if foreign troops occupied our land. They conducted a guerrilla war against the occupiers/killers.

U.S. citizens were rightly concerned:

1. why were we occupying Iraq?
2. why had we not asked for a true international coalition to help rebuild the nation that we vanquished?
3. why were we staying in a place where the people didn't want us or our help?

The rumbling amongst U.S. citizens was growing louder: what about those insurgents?

The President responded to his countrymen on July 2, 2003, five years ago today, 1825 days prior to now. His response? he said it loud and clear: "I say, Bring Them On."

Thanks, George. They DID bring it on.

At the time, we had suffered deaths, a few hundred, and wounded, a few thousand. Now we have lost 4100. Tens of thousands of our finest have wounds which are serious, some critical, and some permanent. Add to that hundreds of billions of dollars.

What do we have to show for it? Has the mission been accomplished any better that it was before George's Public Display of Arrogance?

We're told that this war was "Operation Iraqi Freedom." How free are the people of Iraq? When reading the following, exclude the 3 1/2 millon Kurds in Northern Iraq, because they have had little to do with the original and subsequent destruction of a nation and a people.

1. They have had 1 national election. How many local elections have they enjoyed? Count them on your fingers.
2. Death and migration have taken away many of Iraq's future leaders in commerce, education, government
   
3. 60% of Iraqi doctors have left the country
4. Nearly 3 million people left the country
5. 2.5 million Iraqis have been forced to relocate within Iraq
6. Those who remain have less electricity available than before we invaded
7. ALL cities have raw sewage in the streets
   
8. ALL Iraqis struggle with the daily issue of finding safe water
9. Unemployment is 50%, while over 100,000 foreigners are working to support the occupying troops and to make a small effort at rebuilding a destroyed country
10. Billions of dollars went AWOL while in the care of the USA. Those billions were oil revenues that had been reserved by the United Nations for the people of Iraq - once Saddam Hussein was out of power
11. NO highway is safe to drive
12. There are warring factions - private militias - in most of Iraq (including Kurdistan). No neighborhood is safe; walled communities are attacked with missles and mortars. "Open communities are victimized by gang violence on a scale unimaginable in the USA.
    
    I can go on, but I hope you get the picture.

Labels: conditions in baghdad, conditions in iraq, mission accomplished, public dispkay of arrogance, relocate