Today marks the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq. 5 years, 10 months, 19 days since Bush declared mission accomplished and and end to major combat operations in Iraq. 4258 confirmed U.S. deaths. 4577 total coalition deaths. An unknown, and probably never fully known, number of Iraqi deaths.
And the fact remains:
We went in there based on a lie.
It was a motherfucking lie and yet still I see people on television defending Bush and his crew for this shit. Every goddamned day.
Every fucking time I hear someone say that this war was a good idea I have the strongest urge to punch them directly in their motherfucking neck.
As the war continues to roll on and the bodies continue to pile up I can’t help but wonder what we can even do now. Can we safely pull out now? Would the government of Iraq be stable enough? The honest answer is: No one knows. But the fact remains that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Afghanistan? Fine. We should have gone there. It was grossly mishandled and then ignored in favor of Iraq but I still maintain that sending troops into Afghanistan was the proper course of action. Iraq? No. There was no link between the attack on the World Trade Center and Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. What there was is a U.S. president with the need to show up his daddy and make a name for himself and a vice president with a hunger for oil and the ability to lie until the populace is scared.
Think about how many people died because we were so easily scared.

Remember:
Even Cheney said back in 1994 that invading Iraq would be a bad idea.

Part 1: Tour of Duty Changes
Bush made a big fucking deal about changing the tour of duty from 15 months to 12 months. While it was recommended to be 12 months deployed and 24 months home to keep troop moral and mental health high they decided that 12 on and 12 off was good enough. Well, at least it is a step in the right direction, right?
As with everything else with this administration there is small print: This offer only valid to troops starting their tours after August 1st. Now I bet we will see the rapid redefining of the term “tour of duty”.

Part 2: Voting Rights
VA secretary James Peake, in response to a letter from Senators Kerry and Feinstein, say they will not reverse their ban on either allowing injured veterans to register to vote or even helping an injured vet get somewhere where they could register to vote. The reasoning?
They consider registering to vote a “partisan political activity”. So if you are injured fighting for this administration and are laid up in a VA hospital somewhere your right to vote gets essentially revoked.

This administration makes the charge that people who are against the war are not supporting the troops. Here they are, yet again proving that they are truly the ones that are against the troops.
It is easy to get the masses worked into a frenzy powered by fear. Fear of terrorism. Fear of extremists. Fear of people who are different. Fear of who and what they want you to fear. Fear is what got us here and fear is what is keeping us here. I, for one, say fuck you. I will not fear what and when it is convenient for this administration. I will not have a Pavlovian-like fear on command response to the words “Muslim” or “terrorist”. I will not ignore your misdeeds in the name of your redefinition for freedom out of fear.
I will not fear you.
I don’t understand how you could continue to put our soldiers in harms way without the proper armor. Without the proper gear. Without the proper care. How you could continue this and still pretend to have the best interests of the troops in mind. You, Mr. Bush, you and all those working with you are traitors to this country and should be dealt with as such.

Five years.

U.S. deaths confirmed by the DoD: 3988.
An unknown amount of Iraqi civilian deaths.
Happy anniversary.