The Iraq War: Fifteen years and counting

Editors, Asheville Global Report, It was three years ago that the Bush administration launched the invasion of Iraq that has led to the disastrous (for both the US and Iraq) occupation that seems to have no end. But the US war against Iraq is fifteen years old. It began in January, 1991, and never really ended. Even after the US and the "Coalition of Forces" withdrew from the region in the spring of 1991, sanctions were put in place that halted any normal life in Iraq, until the current invasion destroyed the industrial infrastructure and made life dangerous for every citizen of that unfortunate country. And it has been argued that the twelve years of life under sanctions killed more Iraqis than both wars have done. I always remember this so-called "anniversary" (the January, 1991 date, that is) because my personal life is tied up with these events. It was in the fall of 1990, when the first Bush administration was preparing for war that I attended an anti-war rally in Woodstock, NY. It was also a first date for me and the woman who would become my wife. We went out to lunch before the rally and went out for a drink afterward. We were eventually married, and have a son who will be fourteen soon. We were divorced recently, and I have struggled to remain in daily contact with my son. And this country during those fifteen years, through three presidential administrations, both Democrat and Republican, has utterly destroyed another nation, killing probably a million of its citizens in the process. And I've attended countless demonstrations and rallies, written many letters (like this one), and worked hard to be a husband and father. Three years of war? That's not how I remember it. That's how the Democrats would have you remember it, so that the Clintons and Albrights would be off the hook for their part in this long, brutal war. They would have you thinking only in the short term, so they would have a chance to buy your loyalty for another election cycle–until the pro-war types who are really in charge of the Democratic Party reassert their authority and continue the policy of endless brutality toward Iraq, a policy that has been in place for fifteen years and counting.