Get out now

America is lessening the chance for peace in the Middle East by killing even one more Moslem. Only by withdrawing all our troops and arms from Iraq and Afghanistan now can we increase chances for peace. There's no good reason to wait a day longer. Every new news nuance is diversion from these facts.

The latest diversion is the suggestion that releasing pictures of torture victims will endanger American troops. American troops have killed hundreds of thousands of Moslems (up to 1 million, according to Opinion Research Business) and wounded or maimed up to seven times that many, all while leaving millions homeless. Almost everybody in the Middle East already hates Americans, although some pretend they like us in order to get money and arms, or because we have a gigantic arsenal of terrible weapons cocked and pointed at their heads.

It's true that the Taliban philosophy is horrible – an amazingly primitive and brutal view of the world, especially towards women. But the consequences of their fundamentalisms are miniscule compared to the consequences of American fundamentalisms. We believe that an invisible hand is guiding our endless quest for profits towards economic and ecological health. Instead, we're polluting the entire Earth to get more stuff, wrecking the Middle East partly to get more oil, while being choked by the invisible hands of our own financial markets.

The Taliban could care less whether American women show too much cleavage, if American people have too much freedom, or whether we worship Allah, God or celebrity parties. They just want us out. It's the Al Qaeda who want to harm us, and then only because we've been killing and bullying Moslems. They'll slowly stop killing us once we completely withdraw. Iraq may have some civil war, but the main effect of our immediate withdrawal from there will be a decrease in the efficiency of killing machines.

— Bill Branyon
Asheville

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2 thoughts on “Get out now

  1. Mark farnsworth

    So right on Bill. Afterall, we all know it is the US military that causes all the suffering in the world. And I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that Obama lied about the war. He said he’d get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as he took office. Now he’s talking about it being 2011 before we leave Iraq. And to add insult to injury, Obama has INCREASED our troops in Afghanistan. I say a march on Washington is in order!

  2. Dionysis

    “He said he’d get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as he took office.”

    Incorrect. He ‘promised’ to have the U.S. out of Iraq within 16 months; he also repeatedly stated during the campaign to re-direct our efforts towards Afghanistan, where Al Queda is rooted. Agree with him or not, he seems to be following that playbook (although it remains to be seen whether we’ll be extricated from Iraq anytime soon).

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