The Purple Finger of Freedom: The Lies of War & The Lies of Occupation

On the eve of the Iraqi parliamentary election, the president’s fourth address on the Iraq War in two weeks was even more emboldened, more brazen, and more mendacious than those that preceded it.

Clearly, the president was encouraged by a bump in the polls and believes that his eloquence was responsible for it.

It was not in fact the president’s message that slowed his decline in support but the dearth of real opposition in both government and media.

It took three years for the Democrats to take up the pre-invasion arguments of the antiwar movement and less than three weeks to back themselves into an indecipherable corner.

It was no surprise that Bill and Hillary Clinton took up the president’s cause; they were on board from the beginning. It was no surprise that Joe Lieberman rallied the cause. He ran for president on a pro-war, more-war platform.

What is surprising is that Congressman John Murtha stands virtually alone on the platforms of mainstream politics and mainstream media in attacking the lies of the occupation.

With a mendacity rarely observed even in this White House, the president has come home. He has returned to the rhetoric of preemptive war. He has returned to the vilification of Saddam Hussein. He has returned to an indictment of the United Nations and the Oil for Food program.

Has it occurred to no one that the facts have vindicated Saddam Hussein? He was not a threat to the world or to his neighbors. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was fully disarmed and its military was in shambles. The United Nations was absolutely right in refusing to be bullied into a war without just cause. The Security Council was absolutely right in upholding the inspection process.

It was America that was wrong. No less an authority than Kofi Anan, Secretary General of the United Nations, declared the invasion of Iraq was an illegal war, a war of naked aggression and, according to the Nuremburg tribunal, America was guilty of the penultimate crime against humanity. No amount of arrogant mendacity can wash the blood from America’s hands in this war. No authority on earth can restore this atrocity to virtue.

Nevertheless, good old Bill Clinton and his vacillating Democratic comrades believe we ought to give the White House a chance to work things out: Why not?

Tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of reasons immediately jump to mind: The lives of American and coalition soldiers, the lives of Iraqi civilians, the lives of Iraqi coalition security forces, and the lives of those we have come to know as the insurgency.

None of these groupings is inherently evil, depraved or unworthy of life on earth. Each can claim a cause of honor if not righteousness. The American and British soldiers may actually believe they are fighting for Iraqi freedom and democracy. Some may actually believe they are fighting for freedom and security at home. Those who are less gullible can still claim the cause of duty and hold out for the possibility that they may do more good than harm.

Iraqis fighting for the occupying coalition may have a similar rationale with an added incentive that they have little choice. They are living in a country that offers few opportunities of employment other than security. Many must follow the edicts of their clan or religious leaders. They are not loyal to the occupier or the American commanders. They are loyal to their sect, party or mosque and they will fight for their own when the time is right.

If a man in Iraq is not inclined to fight for one side in the current conflict, he is compelled to fight for the other. Such is life in occupied Iraq.

The insurgents are those who decided, against all odds, against the awesome might of the occupying army, despite all hardships and the specter of torture, despite all but personal pride and conscience, to fight for their own land and nation against a foreign invader. If anyone in Iraq can claim virtue (and there are precious few among the political class), it is the insurgent, the freedom fighter, the defender of an ancient homeland, the pride of his people and the hope of his nation.

These are the men that we target with our bombs and offensive campaigns. These are the men our president holds up to scorn and ridicule. Iraq must be cleansed for freedom to reign.

Even the most hardened foreign jihadists have some claim to virtue and this is the ultimate irony of this immoral war. We have given some measure of virtue to individuals that in any other context (save Palestine) would be considered common terrorists.

We decry the death of innocent civilians in the name of any cause but we must wonder how many would occur if the occupation ended.

Iraqi civilians have little choice as to whether they live or die and by whose hands. When American bombs decimate a city, they do not ask where alliances are drawn. When security forces purge neighborhoods for mass detention and torture, they do not care where guilt and virtue lie. When soldiers shoot first in Iraq, they do not bother to ask later.

Truth be told, the common people of Iraq have little choice in anything at all, yet they will proudly display the purple finger of freedom for they know how the American cameras clamor for them. They are the people of an ancient land, the cradle of civilization, and they remain proud despite it all.

The president has proclaimed the parliamentary election a watershed moment in history, yet how many have we seen thus far: The fall of Baghdad, the capture of Saddam, the handover of sovereignty, one thousand American dead, the constitutional referendum, the trial of Saddam, two thousand American dead, and now, the parliamentary election.

By an act of supreme arrogance and aggression, we have condemned Iraq to decades of civil unrest. We have supplanted a tyrant with an occupation and a future of certain turmoil. We cannot solve the conflict for we are its central core. We still cling to illegal oil contracts. We still build and fortify permanent military bases that we have no intention of handing over to the Shiite majority. We still conduct offensive campaigns to cleanse Iraq of those who oppose us.

By what right of divinity, law or ideology do we continue this reign of terror?

Not even the most intransigent neocon ideologue can envision victory in Iraq today, yet every moment we allow our president to perpetuate the fantasy, every moment we maneuver to save face or gain advantage, will bear its burden in blood.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH AND PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE.

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