Article: The Real Issue Everyone Skirts & The Tale of Two-Faces

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The mood in the country is changing.I think that after the rallies across the country, Americans are really starting to add their voices to the chorus that is demanding change and that this nation step away from "business as usual". I believe that people who had tried to step away from the debate on this war can no longer remain silent anymore about the death and destruction and the way our government has set itself up to be the arbiter of the world. Sadly, for too many years, The United States has tried to be just that. It is no small wonder that George W. Bush made the leap from one-sided arbitration, that always favored views that most closely aligned to American values and society to just "The Decider". It is this mind set that drives me crazy when I hear politicians or pundits discussing Iraq or Iran or almost any subject that you could put under the heading of world issues. Time and time again we have shown just how xenophobic as a nation, we really are. Take Iraq for example. All day I watched everyone talk about Iraq from almost every viewpoint an all the Saturday talk shows. Time and time again the central issue (at least in my opinion) was hardly discussed, and that was that we had absolutely no right to be in Iraq in the first place, therefore ANYTHING that we do, from killing their head of state, to deciding what government they should have or whether or not they are sincere or pro-American or whatever, simply is irrelevant because the fact is that we shouldn't be interfering with these matters in the first place. It may come as some surprise to many people but Iraq is not part of the United States. Iraq doesn't fall under the mandate of the American Constitution. We have absolutely no right to any percentage of profit from their oil. We have absolutely no right to tell them what to do. The very same people (the right wing conservatives) that abhor the U.N. and are constantly belittling the world body, use the U.N. resolutions as justification for occupying Iraq. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here. I believe that so many people have so many opinions about what we have done and what we should do that they have lost sight of the basic truth about Iraq. The Truth? That George W. Bush invaded another nation against International Law. Since he has broken the law, and is essentially acting criminally, there should be absolutely no debate on a "surge" The questions that people ask politicians are absolutely amazing. I have actually heard the question "Who is behind the violence in Baghdad?" The answer is that WE ARE BEHIND THE VIOLENCE IN BAGHDAD! Who's shooting at our soldiers? Mostly, people that don't want us there, or people that entered the country after we toppled the government. The government and the people must come to realize that its not so much outside forces that seek to harm us. Almost all the time it's we that invite them to take a shot. (Excluding 9/11, but even then we don't know the what the justifications, real or imagined of the people that caused it, according to some, WE were behind that also.) The US is like the school bully that pushes people around and then complains when somebody pushes back. When we accept our role in this war, then and only then can we start to develop a real plan to extricate ourselves from Iraq. Its true that Saddam was a bad guy. The fact was though, that if we didn't put ourselves in his cross hairs and invite him to take a shot, he would not have shot at us. We seem to conveniently forget that he worked for our side for a decade. Then he was gassing thousands of his own people, with gas supplied courteously by Uncle Sam, but then he was on "our" side. We are so duplicitous. The media should start by asking some hard, probing questions from our elected lawmakers in foreign policy positions. The media people know what I'm talking about, and the lawmakers know who they are. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. You can't fool me easily, I saw the original movie back in the 70's and I know what happens.