Morality Obligates End To 5-Year War

During the early morning hours of March 19, 2003, it was determined that American forces had a chance to “take out” (kill) a “target of opportunity” (Saddam Hussein). So, American military leaders did what one might expect of anybody who sees him or herself at “the tip of the spear.” American warships fired forty Tomahawk cruise missiles and two stealth fighters dropped four bunker-busting bombs on the location known as Dora Farms.

Despite the statement by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s on March 21 that “the strike on that leadership headquarters was successful,” Hussein was not at Dora Farms; the bunker below the site did not even exist. The bombs that did hit the target—some missed the complex altogether—landed on homes with families inside. More than a dozen civilians were killed, including one child.

According to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 650,000 Iraqis died as a result of the American invasion from March 2003 through the completion of the survey in July 2006. I would provide the Bush Administration’s count as something of a rebuttal, but it has refused to release any civilian casualty numbers since the end of 2005, and its official total—even at that point—is so low that I deem it to be insulting to the families of those victims.

At this point, some may be wondering why I have not yet mentioned American casualties— perhaps some are even offended. To this, I ask you: how many Americans have died since the American invasion five years ago? How about the last year? How about the last two weeks? Of course you don’t know, nobody knows—I didn’t know until I looked it up—because nobody cares. In the age of 24-hour news, decreasing attention spans, and an American unwillingness to listen to anything that makes us uncomfortable (note to happy-go-lucky EMU liberals: it’s not just Bush), the quagmire that is Iraq isn’t covered in the news because “it’s depressing.”

The answer is 14. Fourteen men—sent by our president and paid for with our tax dollars (well, China’s actually, but that’s another story)—have died in the last fourteen days in Iraq. (Google: “Faces of the Fallen” for complete casualty statistics and stories).

The previous statement is false.

The word “men” is misleading. On March 15, Corporal William O’Brien of Rice, Texas was killed by small arms fire during combat operations in Baghdad. O’Brien was 19 years old. Maybe it’s just me, but if a kid isn’t old enough to buy himself a beer, he shouldn’t be able to be deployed to a war zone. Thus far, 734 Americans have died younger than the age required by EMU to live off campus.

As I write this, a Neil Young lyric has come to my mind so often that I cannot resist its insertion. “There’s one more kid that will never go to school/Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.” Not just for William O’Brien, but for every American soldier and their family, for every American contractor and their family, for every “third country national,” for every foreign freedom fighter answering a call to jihad, for every Iraqi taking up arms in defense of his nation, for every Iraqi family struggling to live in a war zone, for every child who will grow up without knowing one or both of its parents, we—as privileged college students who will never see combat—we are compelled, obligated, and required to do all we can to end this immoral and unnecessary destruction of a people. History will be our judge.

For those curious, the Weather Vane has a full list of the sources used for the data in this article (wvane@emu.edu).