All Americans Have Blood On Our Hands

I wanted to show this video to remind people that war is hell. People die. And quite often the wrong people die.

The obvious truth is that our military is capable of only four things; destroying property, killing people, polluting our planet, and wasting our resources – in the name of the United States Government.

The American troops here made a mistake. We could argue the severity of the mistake, but I'd rather not. My point is that mistakes like this are inevitable in armed conflicts. We Americans back at home know that. But somehow in the heat of the moment, we still don't seem to want peace bad enough to keep our military forces at home.

American troops never should have been sent to Iraq. I tried to stop it. I sent letters to my representatives. I signed petitions. I even protested in the streets. But at the time, the American people didn't want to think about all the innocent people who would die. They didn't want to think about the country they would destroy. They didn't want to think about the American troops who would do things they would never want to speak about in public. And the American people definitely didn't want to think about the American troops who would be killed or permanently crippled – and for what?

So that American corporations could steal Iraqi oil?

How has that worked out for us? Gas isn't cheap. Our nation's deficit is one step closer to breaking us. Unscrupulous military contractors have stolen billions from us. And we all have blood on our hands.

Sure, we Americans back home didn't literally pull the trigger. But we allowed the orders to be given to the troops that would pull the triggers. And we did so knowing that the “collateral damage” would be extensive.

In America, if you order a murder, you're just as guilty at the person who pulled the trigger. But if you vote for someone to invade a foreign country, and tens of thousands of innocent people die – we blame it on the troops – or we blame it on the enemy.

Hawks in this country; watch this video. And remember, you wanted this. You knew it would happen. Lots of people live in Iraq. This wasn't a military base they were attacking. These were just some people standing in the streets. This is an occupation, not a war. We're shooting at civilians. Some of them are civilians angry enough to shoot back. But most of them are just shooting at each other.

One would have thought that we would have learned our lesson in Viet Nam. But I guess some did. Some learned that they could get filthy rich on war. They lied to us then too. You may be old enough to remember the “domino theory.” If Viet Nam fell to communism, all of South East Asia would fall with it. Well; Viet Nam fell, and that was it.

Now we're being told that Iraqis “need” us to protect them. Yeah... right.

We lost the “war” in Viet Nam – as soon as we started.

But after a decade of dropping bombs on that little country, the hawks still have the nerve to blame the doves for losing the “war” - because we said it was wrong.

We've also lost the “war” in Iraq. But not because we couldn't beat their armies. Because we wouldn't do the right thing – help Iraq create a democratic republic that would have been a model for all other countries – even America.

WikiLeaks provided the video. And now "our" Government is at war with WikiLeaks. Our "Intelligence" community wants to shut them up. They don't want us to know what reality looks like. Please support WikiLeaks – or you may never get a chance to see what the “war” in Iraq really looks like.