My Opposition to the Iraq War

After 'Mission Accomplished' and the shift from successful invasion to unsuccessful occupation of Iraq, many people questioned why even less visible opponents were not more outspoken in opposition. In my case speeches and interviews were given, but few received any publicity. There is no guarantee that simply because one "speaks out" that the media will report or take notice. In my case opposition included resistance to joining a well-organized band of former Democratic office-holders who publicly advocated in support of the Bush invasion policy. My response to the request to join that band follows:

Click on image below for full-sized letter

Comments

[OldKnute]

Dear Mr. Hart.

Thank you for resisting support of this Neo-Con military adventurism.

The only benefit to this Iraq debacle will be the Bush Family Defense Industry holdings,, WAR Profiteering,,,, as Iraq rearms and America tries to reset our Armed Forces and restock our expended munitions.

The Obvious being said,,, I fall back on the warning of Gen. Colin Powel,,,, “You break it,, You own it.”

Fact,,, Saddam Iraq used WAR, to employ his people, OIL Money to fund his wars, and Tax Dollars from the United States. High Paying Military and Police positions are how Saddam attracted people,,,, OFF THE LAND.

Iraqi Agriculture Suffered.

Mr. Hart,,, If you will but review satellite photos,,, you will see a VAST network of ancient irrigation systems built during the Babylonian exile,, 2500 years ago and before.

It still exists!

Just beneath the sands!

A NO-moving part, gravity feed, staged and self-regulating system for irrigating nearly 70% of Iraq landmass.

My suggestion to get us out of Iraq,,, Renew this irrigation system,,, and make farming and Agriculture the product that Iraq exports,,,, rather than the Neo-Con plans for Weapons, WAR and Death.

FOOD!

Help Iraq redevelop their EXISTING irrigation system using modern piping and help Iraq begin to export FOOD!

The Saudis need FOOD.
Iran needs FOOD.
Syria needs FOOD.
Jordan Needs FOOD.

Export FOOD,,, Not War.

Help the Iraqi people,,,,, return to the LAND!

All the best

Knute

[JXJASON]

I was against the second Iraq war because I did not want to put our troops at risk, the no fly zone had Saddam Hussain contained and I did not want to waste any more money on senseless wars.

It is too bad that the military, the military contractors, Congress, stupid George Bush Jr. and Bush's administration lied to us and were greedy people.

The poor and the middle class are now suffering for it.

WAKE UP AMERICA. as Representative Dennis Kucinich said at the recent Democratic National Convention.

Do something about it. Tell President Obama to start bringing our troops home now.

[archtoplee]

Good. I'm glad Senator Hart didn't join other Dems to give "W" a blank check vis a vis the Iraq war.

Iraq never attacked the US so the WMD's are a moot point. If one were looking for WND's one would find them where they are in North Korea and Pakistan. But the WND's were just a lie by "W" designed to persuade a few million idiots that Iraq was a threat. The war was used as an excuse to turn our airports into replicas of scenes Nazi Germany in the 1930's, and make a Neo-Con mess out of our Bill Of Rights.

It would really be great if the former Democrat Senator from Colorado would come out publically against leaving 50,000 US troops in Iraq indefinitely and to come out hard against escalating the war into Afghanistan.

Since Gary Hart had a role, along with Neo-Con Republican Warren Rudman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Rudman in pushing for a Department of Homeland Security months before the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, I doubt he will join many of us in demading that Obama bring our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

[usastar]

Dear Slowtono,

Your extremely naive about Iraq's WMD's. The fact that we had two "No fly/No drive zones" of Northern and Southern Iraq with the world's most powerful military coalition (i.e., US. UK, Canada. etc.) kept Anti-Iranian, Anti-Al Qaeda, Christian protecting, woman liber, secular Saddam in a box without any possibility of using weapons of mass destruction. This said deception is the greatest lie/hoax ever perpetrated on the American people and the world.

[slowtono]

I find it simple. Mid Eastern countries are theocratic dictatorships that want to impose their laws and beliefs on the world by force and repression. Anyone who supports such a government is themselves a worshiper of theocracy and dictatorship. Democrats and Republicans are imbedded in a belief system, each of it's own worship, which represses individualism. Being against something doesn't make a person right. Often it makes the person a foe and if that person holds a public office they are often interjecting their own opinion towards their vote. That makes them dictators of their will not the will of their constituency. WMD exist anyone who doubts that should visit ground zero N.Y. city U.S.A.

[realistic2008]

Are you ralking about Israel, Bushe's US?

[rgblue]

Media giving no coverage to the voices and letters of dissent / protest / disagreement was a huge factor.

Worse still, they mis-represented many of the anti-Iraq activities and groups when they did cover anything,

Does anyone remember the massive demonstrations against the invasion? Probably no, unless you were there, because they were almost totally ignored.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Very nice, Gary.

Who circulated the letter and who signed it?

[HGMercury]

I'm sure Mr. Hart would disclose that information were he to think it's appropriate.

[LizM]

Yeah! That's what I want to know! We'll have to do some checking 'cause I'm guessing we're not going to get an answer here.

[Digeeedad]

A recent letter to the editor in our local newspaper:

Bush did the right thing…

An extraordinary event took place on Jan. 31. Eight million Iraqis voted in nationwide elections without a single incidence of violence. What most had deemed impossible happened. The first functioning Arab democracy in the Middle East gave millions of men and women a real choice of political leadership for the first time in their lives.
America did that -- not the United Nations, or the European Union, or NATO, or Russia or China. None of them would even attempt to bring democracy to Iraq; in fact, most of the world vigorously opposed it. Where there had been 30 years of state terror and torture inflicted by Saddam Hussein on a helpless population, there are now peaceful elections.
As many have done during the past eight years, we can point to the one responsible: President George Bush.

[freddiefreeloader]

Jan 31, Bush did right, eight million voted, how about march 8, 2009 bomb explodes outside a Bagdad police acadamy killing two dozen and injuring more than two dozen, I bet it did'nt even make page five of your local newspaper, If that happened in any other major city in the world, you would be hearing about it for weeks. There is no democracy in Iraq and there never will be, only anarchy. democracy over there is a pine box with as many pieces in it as they can find.

[Digeeedad]

letter to the editor part 2:

Bush believed that freedom and democracy would be embraced by any people given the opportunity, even Arab people. The left laughed at him as naive and dim-witted. But like President Abraham Lincoln, he believed that emancipation was worth fighting for on the battlefield. When the war looked lost, he did not give up, as lesser leaders had done in Vietnam. In spite of obscene abuse by the American left for the mistakes he made, Bush persevered, finding the military leadership he needed in Gen. David Petraeus.
The rest, as they say, is history. American soldiers fought on and finally won the war. As a result, Iraqis selected their political leaders again at the ballot box last month. They now lead the Arab nations in the exercise of those two basic human rights: freedom and democracy.
The American left worked hard for our defeat in Iraq, and they have now lost. In Bush, they met a man of faith and principle, who could not be defeated by personal attacks, poll numbers and liberal libel. This is exceedingly rare today.

The halls of greatness are walked by a few who have stood for freedom in face of overwhelming opposition. President Bush has joined their ranks.

* I found it incredible that anyone, with all of the information we now have at hand, could believe these things to be true.

[larryburns94]

Bush got all the blame when Iraq was a disaster, so he should get full credit if it ends up a success. Most reasonable people who aren't blinded by Bush-hatred will come to accept that.

[realistic2008]

Succeess? 4,500 American soldiers dead, 35,000 injured for life, hundreds of thousands Iraqis dead as many homeless, without water, jobs and love ones, the world hate US, we have more enemies than before, is that a success, pleae!

[LewisWalsh]

Mr. Hart, why haven't you shown us the letter that you had responded to or identified those who had signed the letter? Most of us would like to judge the strength of you contentions for ourselves . Not having provided full disclosure reduces your posting to a self-serving gesture.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

I think we can judge the strength of what he is saying by the extraordinarily costly distraction that Iraq became.

[TruthmongerII]

I remember that before the Iraqi war began, hundreds of thousands marched in San Francisco. It was so packed with people that BART could not drop passengers off at two downtown stops. While the local media covered that, the national media was deafenly silent. People like me who opposed the war did not exist to the media; today they do not exist for me. I look forward to MSNBC collapsing like AIG, without bailouts.

[ayub]

I have just returned to the U.S. after 7 years of travelling & working abroad and am shocked to see how little "hard" news Americans are exposed to on the majority of T.V. news networks. (It is no wonder it took so long for normally good hearted Americans to recognize the misguided policies of the past 8 years!!) Obviously the last election was a referendum on American discontent, but still appears to have focus more on the economy and war in Iraq than the multiplicity of miscalculations, blunders and arrogance we have displayed in our relations with countries like Iran, Syria, Russia and N. Korea. As a result, Obama inherits a world that almost universally distrusts and in some cases despises America. The President has much damage control to do to restore our reputation and standing abroad. The American media could help this process greatly if they only begin reporting international news as well as domestic and steer away from tabloid journalism for the sake of ratings.

[Bernique]

I agree, Ayub. What you say is true. When one travels outside the U.S., the news reporting is entirely different, and a lot less focused on tabloid-type stuff. The U.S. have to work hard at undoing the great harm done to its reputation as a result of Boosh and its media-distorted flag-waving, and fake patriotism, and related foreign policy blunders.

[kimleehan]

A large part of the American population out there believe that the Democrate congress authorized Bush's invasion of Iraq, I hear it all the time "but the dems voted for the invasion" Nothing can be further from the truth. Yes a majority of democrate senators voted to authorize the invasion, 29 yea to 21 nay, but in the house 126 democrates voted nay to only 82 yea so if you do the math, 126 +21=147 nay to 82+29=111 yea so you can see a majority of democrates in congress voted against the invasion of Iraq. So the next time a republican tell you that the dems voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq, tell them their full of crap.

[outnow]

And many of the Democratic votes were conditioned on the premise that Bush would provide further confirmation of the presence of WMD. Hillary's statement lays this out. Bush jumped the gun and did not await further UN findings and the results of the weapons inspectors. Bush was as eager to invade as he was eager to avoid actual combat duty while flying for the National Guard. But Bush was not opposed to the war in Vietman, he was just a chickenhawk

Too many Americans confuse war with Patriotism. Blindly accepting every war as being good or necessary has blinded citizens to unjust wars. Wars for land and resources are not just wars, but wars of conquest.

As early as Nixon and certainly by the Carter Doctrine, the US officially declared that we had the right control the oil in the GulF. The UN charter stated that countries had the rigtht to self-determination and the US enforced that against other countries. So which is it?

[kimleehan]

I believe that any Democrate in congress who voted yea thinking Bush would honor anything from the United Nations, was nieve at best. Bolton sumed up the republicans point of view of the United Nations when he said "There is no such thing as the United Nations, there is an international community that can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that is the United States." For any democrate to come back and say their vote was contingent on the U.N. is ludicrous, and thats one of the reasons why Hillary did'nt get my vote. Obama got that

[vernbvb]

What continues to upset me about the Iraq war was the role the media played in helping to spread the propaganda and helping to lend credibility to the concept of WMD's. I wrote letters to news media before and during the attack expressing grave concern about the rush to attack Iraq with so many civilians in the path of destruction just to get one man. It was a ridiculous idea and it seems to me that it was akin to genocide since the attack was mostly on innocent civilians. We can never justify our uncivilized attack of Iraq nor can we repair the damage done. One letter i wrote to a news program described my concern about innocent children cowering underneath their mothers dresses in fear of the bombing going on around them knowing that at any moment their lives might end. I cannot imagine the horror of something like that happening in this country if a country like Iran or China decided that we were hiding weapons of mass destruction and took it upon themselves to attack us. President Bush has probably set a new precedent for countries deciding to attack other countries without just cause. That is his legacy.

President Obama wants to look forward but this country owes it to their citizens and to the world to look back and thoroughly investigate the actions of the United States toward Iraq. All resources in Iraq including oil and money should be relinquished to that country by the US.

[biwee]

If one shoots, and kills, thinking that the shooting is within the law (i.e. justified), and it is later determined that the killing was NOT justified, the full force of the law drops on the shooter, who likely will go to prison. What Bush did with the unnecessary war of choice, a war based on lies and distortions, is the same as the unjustified shooting. But, Bush and his band of Zionist criminals have not, and likely will not be punished. There is nothing more serious that a President can do than taking the nation to war. Bush took the nation into an unnecessary war.
Only when this is fully investigated will America have a chance to regain its moral standing in the world.

[outnow]

The bombing of Desden was directed against civilians. There were many refugees there. Andrew Jackson killed off Indians. It has always been this way since the beginning of time and the founding of our country. Both Washington and Jefferson supported the idea of America as an empire if you read all of their writings. Manifest Destiny is an imperial manifesto. How about the Spanish American war? Did we need to nuke Japan? Invade North Korea? Vietnam? Bomb Serbia?

The MSM always supports a war with very few exceptions. Yellow journalism is a black art. That's why people use the internet to obtain some objective information. Even economic sanctions and no-fly zones kill children - 500,000 in Iraq before the latest war there.

[LewisWalsh]

Thank you, outnow. It's time that Americans be realistic about what our history has really been. We can never change our despicable conduct if we continue to revise history and continue the myth that the US is somehow the most benevolent and the most ethical of all countries and peoples past and present. The US has had a golden opportunity to change the normal horrendous human conduct throughout history, but failed, and has fallen into the usual trap that befalls economically successful societies. Heaven help us.

[forurby]

Fox supported the war 100%. Every single person on that station supported the war. NO EXCEPTIONS!

[kapo]

The issue is not whether the act was imperialistic or even that it was destructive. The issue is that it was stupid. It was a dumb investment of money, blood and political capital at a time when the country was nearing the end of a business cycle that was obviously going to turn unpleasant.
Your grandkids may be better off because of the genocide of the native Americans, but they will not be because of the slaughter of Iraqis. Simple as that. America has been pursuing silly miliatristic policies for the past decade that make a few people rich and win elections, but do not benefit the ordinary folk.
Bush ran the country much like Galtieri did Argentina, so the country looks like a big banana republic.

[writerroz]

Vern and Kimlee, you're SOOO RIGHT. The media and most Republicans were so gungho for Cheney's & Bush's war, they still have NOT ever gotten it right about the reason Democrats voted as they did or what it meant. I knew long ago that the Democrats voted for military action ONLY IF other measures failed and depending on what weapons inspectors found. the Democrats should have been more forceful in explaining what their votes meant and they should have raised a BIG STINK at the Republicans' ditching all concerns and invading anyway.

On the other hand, we're getting worn out with dismay at the Democrats who think they can carry on with "Business as Usual." That was not what we voted for, and it is the reason we voted for President Obama instead of Hilary Clinton. I do believe this all needs to be straightened out for the sake of History and for the future of the Democratic party.

[perk]

Oh whatever Gary.

Is this to shore up your legacy for the grandkids or are you actually planning on running for something?

Signed:
-- former Colorado resident in the years you did nothing in the office we elected you to but plan to run for President.

Bub bye.

[Ppossom]

The message is still potent,Perk,even if you don't approve of the messenger.

[DouginCT]

Your letter is a thing of beauty. The toll of this war will ripple for time to come in the wrecked lives. Here. In Iraq. And elsewhere. The casualties are many and not always obvious. What a sad, sad thing they have wrought.