PACIFICA COMMENTARY FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2003

Hello, this is Blase Bonpane with a comment.

What is the proper time for the United States to leave the disaster it has created in Iraq?

Now is the proper time. No it is not very complex, it is quite simple. Go Home, yes, right

now.

But what would happen? Iraq has been governing itself for over 5,000 years. Tyrants

come and go. Iraq is quite good at either letting them die a natural death or in the case of

foreigners just throwing them out. They threw the Mongols out in 1258.

They threw the Brits of after a 1917 invasion to "liberate Iraq."

And what is this talk about creating a constitution? Iraq has a constitution. It was

put together in 1921 in the wake of the failed British attempt to take over the country.

Just think of the contradictions. The tyrant Saddam accepted the Iraqi doctrine of

separation of church and state. The tyrant Saddam accepted the liberation of women.

and he refused to allow Islamic religious leaders to dominate the politics of Iraq.

Indeed, this tyrant did not interfere with the right of Iraqis to health care and education.

And across the sea in the United States tyrants beginning with George Herbert Walker

Bush began one of the world's greatest massacres of civilians; a holocaust lasting

between the time of Bush the Greater and Bush the Lesser has eliminated some two

million people, mostly civilians. These massacres were initiated by 88,000 tons of bombs

followed by a brutal blockade which targeted children as the enemy.

One of the differences between the tyrant of Iraq and our own tyrants is that our tyrants

are incapable of delivering health care, indeed they are opposed to health care delivery

and they have turned health care delivery into profit delivery for the greediest of

corporations. Our tyrants cannot deliver a right to education, they can only deliver

bombs. The Iraq I saw just prior to the Gulf War delivered health care and medicine to all

citizens without charge.

Friends we must stop denying what is taking place. Our finest young men and women are

forced into the role of being an enemy in a place where they are not wanted. They are

tortured physically and mentally by the orders they have received. And for each of our

young people who die, at least 20 Iraqis are killed.

We are living at a time of some of the greatest war crimes in history. We simply must

get the thugs out of our government. The entire leadership qualifies for trial and

conviction for murder, war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against

peace.

As 2,000 pound dumb bombs fall on Iraq today, Ken Livingston, the Mayor of London,

did not give Mr. Bush the keys to the city. On the contrary he denounced the unwelcome

visitor saying that Bush is: "The greatest threat to life on this planet." Let's get our troops

out of Iraq now.

For a free copy of this commentary please call: 323/852-9808...323/852-9808.

This is Blase Bonpane.