War is Murder

While now being in the US, I was inevitably confronted with the fact that this country is in a war against Iraq. The news of the massacre in Haditha emerged into the public news during the past few days. Shamefully only half a year after it had "happened". But I am not surprised. Being a soldier is being a murderer. Soldiers are paid to murder other people, and destroy other people's property. It is only a small step from murdering someone who has a weapon (the "enemy soldier") to murdering the people around those "enemies", civilians. Numerous wars in the past have shown this relation, and one would think that humans have learned this by now. But no, nothing will ever be learned from history, despite the History Channel's extensive programs about World War 2 and the Nazis. The direct responsibility of this latest massacre (and all the other ones in Iraq which are still not uncovered, due to the diligent cover-up work of the soldiers involved and their superiours) lies of course with those who commit these artrocities. But the ultimate responsibility is with the US government, who started this war very consciously. And indirectly, the responsibility lies also with all of those morons who supported that war in the beginning.

In March 2003, at the beginning of the US military action, when I drove with my Caddy through Thousand Oaks, there were trees lined with yellow ribbons, "in support of our troops". At a road intersection, a group of young people waved flags and held "patriotic" banners, cheering to each one who drove by, asking them to honk in support for the war. I was very tempted to stop and argue with them - but they were so fanatic and brain-washed that it would have been pointless.

It was at that time that I decided to leave this country, and began looking for a job opportunity abroad. It just seemed to be unbearable, to live in that climate of "pre-emptive obedience" as exercised by the media who hyped that war with trumpets and fanfares in their daily reporting on TV. At that time, more than 70% of the US population supported the war.

Now this support has been diminished, as has the support for the criminal gang running the US government since 2000. This is at least some positive sign, but now it is too late. A country has been destroyed, at least 38,000 civilians have been killed as a consequence of this war (see Iraq Body Count), cultural heritage has been damaged, destroyed, infrastructure of a whole country has been demolished, seeds for a civil war have been spread, and a breeding ground for new terrorism has been established. From all points of view, this war was a failure.

And it was a crime. Those who initiated it, who defrauded the UN with their false and constructed proves of "Weapons of Mass Destruction", who lied to the American People, who pushed forward the going to war, those should be punished for "High Treason". They caused damage to the US, to humanity, to the world. Because starting a war is starting the (legalised) murder, and it is quite a hypocracy to then be shocked about the non-legalised murders.

Comments to this rant are invited!