20 years after the illegal US invasion of Iraq, Millions are Dead, and Nobody has been Held Accountable

The United States War Machine has killed millions of innocent people in the last 20 years alone, and not one US president, government official, or corporate media personality has ever been held accountable. The US has lost credibility in many parts of the world due to its lying, illegal occupations, ongoing “wars”, and recent efforts to both engage in a proxy war with Russia, while also provoking China into the next world war. The United States continues to be the biggest threat to the survival of our species. When, and how, will the madness end?

“I want to know why my government is sabotaging negotiations and why Biden can’t pick up the goddamn phone and call Putin!”
– Peace Activist Medea Benjamin

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the illegal US invasion of Iraq. I marched in Washington, D.C. in 2003, as I was one of millions around the world who took to the streets because we knew then, that the US government was lying, and that the impending US invasion of Iraq was yet another unconscionable and criminal act. Over the last 20 years, thousands of us have continued to march for peace, including last week in the US capital. Our brothers and sisters who organized and sponsored the event (ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Black Alliance for Peace, and Radical Elders), rocked it as usual, and were as inspiring as ever. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go as the Masters of War (US government officials & the corporations and billionaires who own them), remain hell bent on creating misery, death, and destruction in their relentless quest for obscene profits, and world domination. Do you know that the United States sells weapons to over 100 different countries, and that nearly 3/4 of the world’s dictators receive US weapons and military assistance? Also, when was the last time we heard the word “peace” spoken in a meaningful way by a US president? I don’t believe that the illegal US invasions, occupations, and ongoing “wars” will end, until we make the current and former US officials who are responsible for so much suffering and death, pay for their lies, and horrific crimes. We need to make it clear to everyone that the decades long nightmare is ending.
Click here to learn more about the March 18th, Washington, DC, Peace Rally.

According to Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges, “What is disturbing is that the architects of these debacles have never been held accountable and remain ensconced in power. They continue to promote permanent war, including the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, as well as a future war against China.

The politicians who lied to us —George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden to name but a few — extinguished millions of lives, including thousands of American lives, and left Iraq along with Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Yemen in chaos. They exaggerated or fabricated conclusions from intelligence reports to mislead the public. The big lie is taken from the playbook of totalitarian regimes.

The cheerleaders in the media for war — Thomas Friedman, David Remnick, Richard Cohen, George Packer, William Kristol, Peter Beinart, Bill Keller, Robert Kaplan, Anne Applebaum, Nicholas Kristof, Jonathan Chait, Fareed Zakaria, David Frum, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Brooks, and Michael Ignatieff — were used to amplify the lies and discredit the handful of us, including Michael Moore, Robert Scheer, and Phil Donahue, who opposed the war. These courtiers were often motivated more by careerism than idealism. They did not lose their megaphones or lucrative speaking fees and book contracts once the lies were exposed, as if their crazed diatribes did not matter. They served the centers of power and were rewarded for it.

Many of these same pundits are pushing further escalation of the war in Ukraine, although most know as little about Ukraine or NATO’s provocative and unnecessary expansion to the borders of Russia as they did about Iraq.”
Click here for Chris Hedges’s excellent piece, The Lords of Chaos.

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” – Howard Zinn

Although it is always satisfying to be on the right side of history, I don’t know how much has changed in the last twenty years. Yes, we have made progress in some areas, but in other ways, we seem to be moving backwards. It is obvious that the US government, and the US corporate media haven’t learned anything from the Iraq debacle. And why would they? Nobody has ever been held accountable for an invasion and occupation that was based on lies, and resulted in MILLIONS of innocent people being killed. It is terrifying to watch the US government, and the US mainstream media, apply the same playbook once again to both Russia, and China, with billions of innocent lives hanging in the balance. Did you know that the US has close to 300 military bases surrounding China, and nearly 800 worldwide, while China has just 8 (none of which are close to the United States). How much tolerance would the United States have if the situation was reversed? Despite the glaring hypocrisy, and the attempts of US politicians, military leaders, and media personalities to re-write history and blame their crimes on bad information, those of us who have been paying attention, know better. They knew they were lying, and we knew they were lying, yet they still went ahead with their diabolical actions anyway. The US hasn’t been interested in world peace for decades. Incidentally, a full reconciliation may never be achieved until reparations are made to Iraq, as well as to Native Americans, African Americans, and to the people of Vietnam, Hawaii, Palestine, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world as well. Unfortunately, restitution is not even on the table. It would also help if Americans stopped sleepwalking while war criminals like George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Benjamin Netanyahu, and countless others dance and yuck it up on popular TV shows with fawning hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Maher, and other nudniks. For years, it has been one nauseating vomit-fest after another. Unsurprisingly, the war criminals who belong in prison, or worse, are somehow celebrated by a significant percentage of the US population.

“America is a country where one in five children under the age of five are [food] insecure. And they’re cutting food stamps because ‘we can’t afford it.’ Yet, on March 9, the Biden Administration proposed a fiscal year 2024 budget that asked Congress to give the military-industrial complex $842 billion. They sell us a false dream that they’re protecting women in other countries, while the bodily autonomy of women in this country is being stripped from us. They say that one of the reasons why we have to beat Russia, why we have to unseat Vladimir Putin, is to protect trans and queer people in Russia. And there are over 350 bills criminalizing trans youth in this country.” – March 18th speaker, and Anti-War veteran Afeni Evans

The United States’ monstrous crimes against humanity also extend, albeit more gently, to US citizens through our broken food and healthcare systems. Over one million Americans die each year due to the Standard American Diet (SAD), which is heavy on animal products, and processed foods. The US government, and its healthcare system (along with Big Pharma), purposely shield Americans from the truth regarding the power of plant-based nutrition, and its ability to improve wellness and prevent disease (chronic, auto-immune, viruses like COVID-19, etc.). Why is it that at the height of the pandemic, the CDC encouraged people to wear masks, and wash their hands, but made no mention of nutrition (even though The British Medical Journal published a study showing that people who ate a healthy plant-based diet reduced their chances of moderate to severe symptoms of COVID-19 by 73%)? As mentioned many times on this website, we know that we can prevent, effectively treat, and even REVERSE most of our top killers, including heart disease, prostate cancer, and type 2 diabetes, simply by adopting a whole food plant-based diet. But most people don’t hear about it because there is NO Financial Incentive for these industries and institutions to raise awareness and educate people on the power of plant-based nutrition. Granted, many individuals will continue to eat the SAD diet (human, animal, and planet harming food), even after knowing the truth, but millions more would change too if they had access to the data, and healthy plant-based food. Although this is a public policy issue, don’t expect changes anytime soon as the US government rarely concerns itself with human needs.

According to the Program Director at the National Priorities Project (Institute for Policy Studies), Lindsay Koshgarian, “Just weeks ago, Congress and President Biden agreed to a $858 billion Pentagon and war budget. That’s the highest the military budget has been since World War II. About half of the Pentagon budget every year goes to corporate contractors who pay their CEOs multi-million dollar salaries and engage in stock buybacks to artificially raise their own stock prices…We shouldn’t be adding billions upon billions of tax dollars to enrich Pentagon contractors at a time when real people are struggling. We’re so used to hearing that we can’t afford programs that meet real human needs for basics like housing, food, education, and child care. The truth is that we can definitely afford it, if we stop throwing money at Pentagon contractors.”

What if the Pentagon and war budget was cut by a modest $100 billion?

As per Lindsay Koshgarian:
Here are a few things we could do with $100 billion
– Power every household in the United States with solar energy
– Provide 11.89 million public housing units for one year (see calculator below)
– Hire one million elementary school teachers amid a worsening teacher shortage
– Provide free tuition for 2 out of 3 public college students in the U.S.
– Send every household in the U.S. a $700 check to help offset effects of inflation
– Hire 890,000 Registered Nurses to address shortages
– Cover medical care for 7 million veterans
– Triple current enrollment in Head Start, from 1 million children and families to 3 million
– Want to know what else we could do with $100 billion? Check out our online calculator.
Click here for Lindsay Koshgaran’s exceptional article.

So yeah, aside from the abuse & slaughter of animals, we marched on the 20th anniversary of the biggest crime of the century.
And the fight for accountability and justice continues. 🙂

Until next time…

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