Alboraq Media Organization (alboraqmedia.org) made an interview with one of the ant-war actisit named Mr.John Smith ans asked him about the situation in iraq .... Here is the full text for the interview :
1- Briefly what is your view about the war called "Iraqi freedom"?
My view on the invasion of Iraq by the United States and others is that it is simply wrong. This view is shaped by my understanding on the reasons why it happened in the first place. For me and for many others all over the world, we don't understand the reason for the war other than to take the oil from Iraq and the people, to establish a permanent base for US military forces in the region, and for helping to expand the American empire to Iraq. The reasons Bush explained have all been proven to be completely wrong, even worse, these were all magnificent lies! The weapons of mass destruction and the link to Al Qaeda and the attacks of 9/11 in the US. None of this was really the true reasns, this was all just used so the majority of the people in the US would allow the war to happen. Iraqi Freedom can only come from the actions of the Iraqi people. So for me the war by the US is not bringing the freedom to Iraqis, but the resistance forces who are fighting against the occupation, they are bringing the real freedom to Iraq.
2- What is the best thing to stop this war in your opinion?
I think the best and quickest way for the war to end, is for all foreign armies to remove themselves from Iraq immediately. This can happen if the people in the US and other nations pressure their governments to make this happen. Also on the ground in Iraq, the people must continue to reject the occupation and demand that Iraqis be allowed to determine the future of their own country.
3- How can the soldiers currently serving quit from the army?
The decision should be a very easy one for them. The war is based on lies, and is doing nothing positive but killing people on all sides, the most victims being Iraqi civilians. So with this fact alone, they should refuse to obey orders for such a useless war. But there is a lot of pressure for the US soldier to stay with his friends and protect them. So this is one reason why many soldiers are against the war but stay and continue to fight, kill, and see their friends get killed. If a soldier wanted to leave the military, there are many options to look at. There are even groups and organizations that are set up to help them navigate their way through the military system and leave the service, they just have to make this decision and do some research.
4-How does the Pentagon enlist young people, what are the main points? Do they use things like "poverty" to their benefit?
The Pentagon does a lot of the same things as the government to get their way. They lie a lot, and spend billions of dollars to tell their lies and make them look very fancy. One trick for them to get people to join the military is telling them, join the Army and we will pay for all your college and school, and also we will train you in a fancy job, so when you leave the Army you will have a high education and good jobs training. Of course this depends a lot on if the soldier survives in the war at all, or comes home missing one leg, or arm, or has some brain damage. The most effective tricks they use are against the poor people of America, they believe a lot in what lies they are told by the military recruitment people.
5- Does the Pentagon fulfill the promises like education and job training?
Does Bush bring freedom for Iraq? The answer to both these questions is NO. They tell the lies to get them to join, once they have joined it is easy for the military to just change the soldier's job trainining, change their education plans whenever they want to do it. The job training in the military is all jobs dealing with war and killing, so how effective is these skills for a civilian work place? For education benefits, most soldiers don't get the maximum education benefits, they get only half of them or even less.
6-How much do they spend for recruiting?
They spend billions of money for recruiting, close to $4 billion to do it. This money pays for all the advertising on television, in radio, newspapers and magazines, and in films. It also covers all the toys they make to attract the young people to talk with them, the toys are like video games, and phone cards, and things like that.
7-What is the "stop loss program" and how does it work??
The stop loss program is a policy in the military. When someone joins the military, they agree to serve them for 2, 3, or 4 years. After this agreed time is finished, the soldier is due to leave the military. So the stop loss policy gives the leaders the power to keep the soldiers from leaving the military even after their time for leaving arrives. So many soldiers in Iraq may have times for leaving the military, but the leaders can keep them past their time for leaving by 6 months or even a year. This is part of the problem in the US military when you can feel like they own you and you are like a slave.
8- How similar are both the situations of Iraq and Vietnam?
The situations are very similar, but also different. The problems are all the same for the US: impossible to win against the guerilla warfare and the reasons for the war are not good ones. The Iraqi resistance is always steps ahead of the occupation, they operate and coordinate with the local population, which makes it very hard for the US. This is similar to Vietnam war. I think one of the main differences is the US military in Vietnam had a military draft, and the war today in Iraq is all-volunteers. Of course the numbers of the Army in Vietnam and Iraq is very different because of this. In Iraq only 150,000- 160,000 soldiers at any time, in Vietnam there were much more troops. In the end I think the war in Iraq is much worse than Vietnam and America will learn another lesson with Iraq, but this one will be much harder for the US.
9- How much has the war cost so far, and what would happen if this money was spent on improving the lives in other fields like education and health care?
The money is now maybe in the trillions! I remember in 2004 they reported spending $2 billion per month in Iraq, then in 2005 they said it went up to $4 billion per month there. So in one year it is easy for them to spend $24 billion in 2004, and $48 billion in one year of 2005. If this money was spent on Iraqi health and education it would improve things so much for Iraq. Also if this money were used on health and education in the United States it would also improve things much better than spending it on war and destroying of Iraq.
10- We have heard that some soldiers are sent to Iraq after their Basic training only, is it true?
Yes this has happened. Some soldiers are sent to die in Iraq in their first 6 months or year after they joined. The US military has become desperate for troops by sending very newly trained soldiers to Iraq, by sending soldiers to Iraq for their 5th or 6th time there, also they are recruiting lower educated people into the military and sending them quickly to Iraq, and also senidng soldiers from the Navy and Air Force to help the ground forces in Iraq. All of these things show that the US military is very desperate and doing things that are not a good strategy to try and win the war in Iraq.
11- To stop this war,in your opinion what should be done by the American people?
I said it before, but the American people should not allow any more Iraqi people to suffer from this war. They should not allow one more of their sons or daughters to die like a dogs in the streets of Iraq. They should not allow one more dollar be spent by the companies and the government to continue this war. These things are still only happening on a small scale. The American people could end this war quickly by going to their government and demanding the war to end, but it have to be in large, massive numbers of people. Also the people inside the military could refuse to fight this war. This is starting to happen, and maybe in some more years it will become a powerful effort like during Vietnam War.
12- Finally any advice to the soldiers in Iraq!
My advice to US soldiers in Iraq is to try and survive there without doing any bad or horrible things to people in Iraq. Count your days for leaving and when you leave Iraq, tell yourself you will never come back to Iraq as an invader, or a part of the occupation. Ask your family in the US to research how you can leave the military and begin to make the effort of separating. Tell all your friends there and also back in the US the truth of the war; how it is useless and ask them to help stop it.
1- Briefly what is your view about the war called "Iraqi freedom"?
My view on the invasion of Iraq by the United States and others is that it is simply wrong. This view is shaped by my understanding on the reasons why it happened in the first place. For me and for many others all over the world, we don't understand the reason for the war other than to take the oil from Iraq and the people, to establish a permanent base for US military forces in the region, and for helping to expand the American empire to Iraq. The reasons Bush explained have all been proven to be completely wrong, even worse, these were all magnificent lies! The weapons of mass destruction and the link to Al Qaeda and the attacks of 9/11 in the US. None of this was really the true reasns, this was all just used so the majority of the people in the US would allow the war to happen. Iraqi Freedom can only come from the actions of the Iraqi people. So for me the war by the US is not bringing the freedom to Iraqis, but the resistance forces who are fighting against the occupation, they are bringing the real freedom to Iraq.
2- What is the best thing to stop this war in your opinion?
I think the best and quickest way for the war to end, is for all foreign armies to remove themselves from Iraq immediately. This can happen if the people in the US and other nations pressure their governments to make this happen. Also on the ground in Iraq, the people must continue to reject the occupation and demand that Iraqis be allowed to determine the future of their own country.
3- How can the soldiers currently serving quit from the army?
The decision should be a very easy one for them. The war is based on lies, and is doing nothing positive but killing people on all sides, the most victims being Iraqi civilians. So with this fact alone, they should refuse to obey orders for such a useless war. But there is a lot of pressure for the US soldier to stay with his friends and protect them. So this is one reason why many soldiers are against the war but stay and continue to fight, kill, and see their friends get killed. If a soldier wanted to leave the military, there are many options to look at. There are even groups and organizations that are set up to help them navigate their way through the military system and leave the service, they just have to make this decision and do some research.
4-How does the Pentagon enlist young people, what are the main points? Do they use things like "poverty" to their benefit?
The Pentagon does a lot of the same things as the government to get their way. They lie a lot, and spend billions of dollars to tell their lies and make them look very fancy. One trick for them to get people to join the military is telling them, join the Army and we will pay for all your college and school, and also we will train you in a fancy job, so when you leave the Army you will have a high education and good jobs training. Of course this depends a lot on if the soldier survives in the war at all, or comes home missing one leg, or arm, or has some brain damage. The most effective tricks they use are against the poor people of America, they believe a lot in what lies they are told by the military recruitment people.
5- Does the Pentagon fulfill the promises like education and job training?
Does Bush bring freedom for Iraq? The answer to both these questions is NO. They tell the lies to get them to join, once they have joined it is easy for the military to just change the soldier's job trainining, change their education plans whenever they want to do it. The job training in the military is all jobs dealing with war and killing, so how effective is these skills for a civilian work place? For education benefits, most soldiers don't get the maximum education benefits, they get only half of them or even less.
6-How much do they spend for recruiting?
They spend billions of money for recruiting, close to $4 billion to do it. This money pays for all the advertising on television, in radio, newspapers and magazines, and in films. It also covers all the toys they make to attract the young people to talk with them, the toys are like video games, and phone cards, and things like that.
7-What is the "stop loss program" and how does it work??
The stop loss program is a policy in the military. When someone joins the military, they agree to serve them for 2, 3, or 4 years. After this agreed time is finished, the soldier is due to leave the military. So the stop loss policy gives the leaders the power to keep the soldiers from leaving the military even after their time for leaving arrives. So many soldiers in Iraq may have times for leaving the military, but the leaders can keep them past their time for leaving by 6 months or even a year. This is part of the problem in the US military when you can feel like they own you and you are like a slave.
8- How similar are both the situations of Iraq and Vietnam?
The situations are very similar, but also different. The problems are all the same for the US: impossible to win against the guerilla warfare and the reasons for the war are not good ones. The Iraqi resistance is always steps ahead of the occupation, they operate and coordinate with the local population, which makes it very hard for the US. This is similar to Vietnam war. I think one of the main differences is the US military in Vietnam had a military draft, and the war today in Iraq is all-volunteers. Of course the numbers of the Army in Vietnam and Iraq is very different because of this. In Iraq only 150,000- 160,000 soldiers at any time, in Vietnam there were much more troops. In the end I think the war in Iraq is much worse than Vietnam and America will learn another lesson with Iraq, but this one will be much harder for the US.
9- How much has the war cost so far, and what would happen if this money was spent on improving the lives in other fields like education and health care?
The money is now maybe in the trillions! I remember in 2004 they reported spending $2 billion per month in Iraq, then in 2005 they said it went up to $4 billion per month there. So in one year it is easy for them to spend $24 billion in 2004, and $48 billion in one year of 2005. If this money was spent on Iraqi health and education it would improve things so much for Iraq. Also if this money were used on health and education in the United States it would also improve things much better than spending it on war and destroying of Iraq.
10- We have heard that some soldiers are sent to Iraq after their Basic training only, is it true?
Yes this has happened. Some soldiers are sent to die in Iraq in their first 6 months or year after they joined. The US military has become desperate for troops by sending very newly trained soldiers to Iraq, by sending soldiers to Iraq for their 5th or 6th time there, also they are recruiting lower educated people into the military and sending them quickly to Iraq, and also senidng soldiers from the Navy and Air Force to help the ground forces in Iraq. All of these things show that the US military is very desperate and doing things that are not a good strategy to try and win the war in Iraq.
11- To stop this war,in your opinion what should be done by the American people?
I said it before, but the American people should not allow any more Iraqi people to suffer from this war. They should not allow one more of their sons or daughters to die like a dogs in the streets of Iraq. They should not allow one more dollar be spent by the companies and the government to continue this war. These things are still only happening on a small scale. The American people could end this war quickly by going to their government and demanding the war to end, but it have to be in large, massive numbers of people. Also the people inside the military could refuse to fight this war. This is starting to happen, and maybe in some more years it will become a powerful effort like during Vietnam War.
12- Finally any advice to the soldiers in Iraq!
My advice to US soldiers in Iraq is to try and survive there without doing any bad or horrible things to people in Iraq. Count your days for leaving and when you leave Iraq, tell yourself you will never come back to Iraq as an invader, or a part of the occupation. Ask your family in the US to research how you can leave the military and begin to make the effort of separating. Tell all your friends there and also back in the US the truth of the war; how it is useless and ask them to help stop it.
1 comment:
What does it matter if the pentagon isn't living up to what people wanted of it?
The radical militants in iraq, if they take over, are going to run it FAR FAR worse than the pentagon.
Hell, some reports have there being 600 thousand iraqi deaths during the occupation. But here's the kicker, they didn't die at the hands of the americans, they were killed by their fellow iraqis, the militants.
If that many iraqis have died WITH the US, at a minimum, drawing some fire on itself, then one can only imagine whats going to happen if these lunatic jihadis get control. It'll be another holocaust.
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