Meanwhile, back at the illegal occupation of Iraq, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi joins Robert Scheer and James Harris of Truthdig to discuss the past, present and future of the Iraq war. This piece is interesting and thought-provoking. Give this 30 minute interview a read or a listen.
With all the supplemental bills and Pentagon’s baseline budget of $500 billion and everything that’s been appropriated for continuing our occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite all that money floating out there, in 2005 the Veterans Administration healthcare budget came up $1 billion short. The only people who are not supporting the troops are the ones who’ve been delegated the responsibility to do so, and that’s our government. That is unacceptable that the troops who come home can’t get access to healthcare for six months. It is unacceptable that one-third of the homeless on the streets today are veterans. And there’re already Iraq war veterans showing up homeless on the street. It is unacceptable that after we put them in a war zone, when they come home we don’t take care of their psychological trauma.
2 comments:
I found this near the beginning very interesting:
if you look at [U.S.] history, especially in Latin America ... El Salvador ended up in a civil war in the same way that Iraq is now in civil war. Society became characterized by torture and assassination, and today that is what Iraqi society is characterized by. And the very important factor to understand is that we have invoked what is called the “Salvador option” in Iraq, which are American Special Forces training Iraqis to be death squads. Many military-aged men are targeted, and so that taps into the pool of who might join the resistance. This destroys Iraqi families. It destroys the fabric of Iraqi society. And as long as that continues, Iraq remains weak, and we can pursue our agenda in the region to steal the oil, which is counter to the interests of the Iraqi people.
She then points out that the violence is being incorrectly framed as "sectarian violence," and why do we believe the people who are framing it thusly, when they are the same people who told us Iraq had WMD?
I have long suspected that the situation in Iraq has devolved pretty much as Bushco wanted to, and measured by their own twisted goals, they are "successful." I'd love to see some more reporting on Dr. Wasfi's take on this particular angle.
Thanks for bringing us this excellent interview, Hope.
My pleasure Op. Thanks for listening and always putting forth your excellent insights.
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