Iraq Study Group, a day late and a penny short!

The Iraq study group released its highly-anticipated and widely hyped report last week amid barbaric violence in Iraq. The tone of Washington and its mouthpiece Fox News and other neo-conservatives on radio stations all over America is much meeker now that defeat and retreat is the eminent reality. You can dress it the way you like it but for all intent and purpose Iraq is done; you can put a fork in it.

As an American like other millions of Americans who were against this war started by unarguably the dumbest president in the history of this country, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. You never want your country to lose even a sporting event let alone a war against another nation but on moral and human grounds you knew that this folly has to end sooner rather than later for if this exercise would have met even little success, the insanity would have continued on to Syria and beyond resulting in far greater devastation. It is depressing that the real initiators and perpetrators of this genocide that is taking place in Iraq right now will never be apprehended and duly punished because they wear suits and they have titles like Presidents, Secretary of Defense, Senior Defense Advisor, World Bank President etc. It is worth mentioning that upwards of about 200,000 human beings have died since.

This report also recommends that American government engage the “Axis of evil” in bi-lateral talks. There is a saying in Urdu “Apna thook kay chaaatnaa”, if there was ever an apt scenario to capture the real spirit of this saying, than this is it. Iranians who should have been in hot-waters for their nuclear escapades now sit pretty while everyone and their dog looks to get some love from them. I have always said that the reason some third-world characters like Hugo Chavez or Ahmedi-nijad are able to look America dead in the eyes is because they are the leaders of their people. They have popular opinion in their countries on their side and that’s where they draw their cavalry from.

The report and ironically enough the Bush administration calls for Iraqi people to stand up and take responsibility of their country. To build upon a thought from Ayaz Amir, first you kick someone to the ground, you break their limbs and then fracture their skull and then you wonder how come this ungrateful-bastard isn’t standing up and saluting me for the service that I have provided for his well-being? “Iss saadgi pay kaun naa marjayeyy”.

What did we achieve in Iraq? If the proponents of this war posses a shred of affability, a molecule worth of decency; could they now please enlighten us how was it worth killing hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, children just to remove a dictator from power? If that’s what in fact the goal was. Or was it the boogey-man? Do you really think that Iraqis are indebted to American people for this gift of sham democracy? Are you really surprised that we are still not getting thank you letters from the people of Iraq now that our government has completely destroyed their infrastructure, killed their family members and have succeeded in starting an out of control civil war?

And how about the thousands of young American lives that have been lost on the battle field, thousands more severely injured and only God knows how many more emotionally and mentally ruined forever. You pay them back by demonizing their mothers if they dare question your ruthless ways. You say thanks to these veterans and wounded souls who fought your war on the streets of Fallujah by cutting their medical benefits while you are sipping champagne in your mansions and at your penthouse at the World Bank Headquarters.

Shame on Wolfowitz, Chenny, Rumsfeld, Rove and all the neo-con gangsters for creating this mess in Iraq. And for what? Just so the bully can feel better about his inadequacies? Just so Pentagon has a playground to play with its expensive toys? How sad! American public must understand that it took decades to wash the unnecessary blood of Vietnam; we can’t be repeating our mistakes like this otherwise history will remember American Civilization as a careless behemoth drunk with power that ran over innocent by-standers. The legacy is at stake here and everyone that claims to be a patriotic citizen need not only waive the flag and put “support the troops” sticky on their car, they need to hold the architects of this Iraq folly responsible and they should be made an example that we as a country are not irresponsible. Midterm elections was surely a step in the right direction and 2008 should be the emancipation of our disgust with these neo-con thugs. That’s the bare minimum price that these thugs must pay for the devastation they caused to millions of people all over the world.