What is going on in Iraq?

OK, I'm digging this. Air America Radio is (though not without its quirkiness) an excellent radio station! I tune in all the time and I am listening right now.

When I listen to people discuss Iraq without the right-wing distortions offered by Time-Life, Fox, CBS, and other voices of christian fundamentalism, I realize just how badly things are going over there.

I still don't know why we are in Iraq.

Iraq was not, and is not, a hub of terrorism anymore than New Jersey was when they arrested the cleric allegedly responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing. That's right, New Jersey was the residence of the guys who tried to destroy the WTC the first time! Why haven't we attacked New Jersey? It's obviously filthy with terrorists that are being harbored by America!

When I suggest that we are fighting in Iraq only to grab their oil, the argument is dismissed as too simplistic. Why does the reason have to be sophisticated? Since when do militarists have sophisticated reasons for killing their neighbors? I think we ARE there for the oil. The guys running the American government are all oil guys.

The Iraqi people seem pretty irritated about us right now. There doesn't seem to be a strong movement within that country for embracing American servicemen and women. Seems very similar to a war I remember from my childhood.

I heard on NPR this morning that our military has shutdown a newspaper run by a cleric and his family. Now, I am no fan of clerics running governments or publishing newspapers or broadcasting on television or radio; but, freedom and democracy mean that everyone gets to express themselves.

My government is telling me that we are there to fight terrorism, but I don't know of any terrorists working out of Iraq. Terrorists work out of big cities all through Europe and North America, not shit-hole towns in the middle of the desert. So, this can't really be an anti-terrorist campaign.

My government is telling me that we are there to install democracy, but we seem to be shutting down newspapers and quieting the voices of those who disagree with us.

My government is telling me that my opposition to war is unpatriotic; but, they are constantly abridging the Bill of Rights while cloaking themselves in patriotism which is the most unpatriotic notion I can imagine.

Why do you think the USA is at war in Iraq?

Peace.