Guest Column

And why did we invade Iraq?

By Roberto Miranda

April 18, 2005

It was two years ago that American troops invaded Iraq, and still they have yet to find those murderous weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s). In truth, it appears that the troops are having more success finding GMD’s (Genuine Miller Draft beers). 

  Indeed, Saddam Hussein, British Prime Minister Tony Blain once proclaimed, had the ability to lob a weapon of mass destruction onto western soil in only a matter of minutes. So, in order to avoid a mushroom shaped cloud from growing atop some city in the west, and to protect our borders from the national security dilemma Saddam presented, an invasion led by the crusader president, George W. Bush was launched against one of the “axis of evil”.

  Into battle rode the forces of freedom, the defenders of liberty and the all around good guys. Almost certainly looking shocked and awed, Saddam took a powder from his pompous royal like settings and opted to set up shop in some spider hole behind some home in the desert. A very undignified position to be in, I would assume the Iraqi dictator thought. Leading his forces against imperialist America from a hole in the ground is not the place one would assume a leader of a nation would conduct military operations. Certainly, the one-time friend of Bush Sr. had to have felt shame when the world saw him crawl out of his hole once he was found by our troops.

  Nonetheless, two years after the invasion of Iraq, not one shred of evidence of WMD’s have been found. In addition, not one shred of solid evidence linking Al Queda and Saddam has been established. Ahh, but there is a bright spot in all this mess. We did manage to stay true to one fact that was a reason for our need to invade this ancient nation, and that was the fact that we needed to protect Iraqis from being tortured at the hands of their despot ruler. Indeed, we did manage to get this one right, but truth be told, we got this one right because we knew Saddam had been torturing the Kurds during the Reagan and Bush Sr. White House years. The evidence of his murderous actions against his people is well documented from those days. But since Saddam was a friend to the United States, when we had that Ayatollah issue in Iran festering, well, turning a blind eye in the interest of politics and U.S. self-preservation was o-key-dokey back then.

  Now we’re in Iraq and over 1500 American military service members are dead. Death appears almost every day over there for our troops, and still no WMDs have been found.

  To be sure, after two years of destruction and bloodletting, Bush and Cheney have now taken to that old routine of smoke and mirrors.

  The White House is telling us now that any reason to invade Iraq will do because Saddam was just basically an “evil man”. What?

  Two years later the lies and half-truths are now being exposed and all the Republican Party has to say is that it wasn’t WMDs that we were after, it was our aspiration to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. Well, break out the hot apple pie and get ready to roast some weenies boys, we got some Iraqis to teach a thing our two about freedom. What a bunch of baloney.

  The New York Times recently reported that the National Assembly of the newly elected government of Iraq had its rendition of the World Wrestling Federation as politician after politician pointed purple finger after purple finger at each other, before breaking out into a hockey game. The turmoil comes about because of disputes over oil, Kirkuk and the role of Islam in the new democratic westernized Iraq. Yes, the dream of a new constitution being adopted by these new leaders in August for their country appears to be out of the window.

  Folks, we have a mess in Iraq.

  But wait a cotton pickin’ minute. What have the conservative media and right-wing talking heads been bellowing about over the last couple of weeks? Well, not surprisingly, their media outlets have focused on the Terri Schiavo case, the Michael Jackson fiasco, along with anything else other than Iraq has dominated the news for the right-wing neo-cons.

  Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, Iraqis continue to die, our soldiers find themselves as targets within an ever-increasing hostile environment, and there are several more scandals related to torture of Iraqis—but not from Saddam Hussein, no sir. It is our military forces that are torturing Iraqis now. Hmmm...

  And why did we invade Iraq?

Contact Roberto Miranda at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com