Let's Pretend

Let's Play Pretend

by Ward Reilly

01/04/04: (ICH) Okay. Let's pretend that there was no misrepresentation as to why we had to go to war with Iraq. Let's pretend the $200,000,000,000 we just spent, was spent well, for our "safety." Two hundred billion dollars in one year. Let's pretend that we were told that the war and occupation in Iraq were going to unfold exactly as it is unfolding, and that our soldiers have been placed in a strange land and are now being worshipped by the locals. Let's pretend our children aren't acting as policemen against a people that do not want us to be occupying their country. Let's pretend our troops are not "sitting ducks" in effect, targets for about 900,000 Iraqi citizens who were previously soldiers in Hussein's army, now doing what they consider to be "defending
their country".

Let's pretend all that. So what have we got? And what are we going to do with Iraq? Why did we do what we have done? Lets pretend that we have "liberated" Iraq and "democracy" is on the way.

Lets pretend that Saddam DID have direct ties to al Qaida...let's pretend that we found military bases all over Iraq with nuclear missiles armed and programmed, ready to fly, as we, and our congressional leaders, were told by the president and his cabinet. Let's pretend we found stealth jets rigged to spray anthrax all over our east coast.

Now let's pretend they are all gone. Let's pretend we captured huge
stores of WMDs but now we have destroyed them. Now what? Do you feel better?
Do you feel justified? Vindicated? Let's pretend like we do.

So what is the plan? Re- paint the schools? Re-establish utilities? Open the country to capitalism? Hold elections? Put the people back to work? Farm? Cook? Make Iraq our 51st state? EXACTLY what is the plan, and why don't those of us that want to know the plan, know where we can read the plan? Let's pretend it's a secret. Why does it take a military army to paint schools? Why does it take an army to repair utilities? Why does it take an army to establish free markets? To farm? To cook? Those are all civilian and business projects. Legal functions. Civilian functions. Let's pretend we don't have to have a military army in Iraq to protect the oil fields and oil pipelines.

Why do we still need a 130,000 of our troops there? Exactly when are they leaving? Let's pretend Curious George Bush did not say we would not become occupiers. Let's pretend Curious George Bush did not say that ousting Hussien was the mission.

Let's imagine what Saddam Hussein ordered his 900,000 man army to do, as they waited for the imminent U.S. invasion. Let's pretend Saddam DID NOT tell his army to take their uniforms off, to run and to hide themselves and their weapons, to cross the borders, and to wait until the U.S. troops were in place, then to attack using only guerilla tactics. Let's pretend guerilla attacks are defendable.

Let's pretend that the Pentagon did not report this week that 12,000 of our children have been medivaced out of Iraq for one reason or another in only 8 months. 12,000. Let's pretend that most Iraqi families do not proudly own weapons just as U.S. citizens do. Free countries are allowed to have weapons, right? Let's pretend that 12,000 dead or hurt U.S. children aren't very many. Let's pretend we haven't killed 10 times more innocent Iraqi civilians than were killed on 9-11. Let's pretend they don't care about civilian deaths like we do. Let's pretend the attackers of 9-11 were Iraqi.

Let's pretend that Saddam Hussein's soldiers have less pride in their country than our citizens and soldiers do, and that they have no intention of defending Iraq if invaded. Let's pretend that W Bush has not flaunted his Christianity to a Muslim nation that believes that Allah grants them instant passage to heaven for killing invaders of THEIR land, Christian or otherwise. Let's pretend Iraq is not in the heart of the Islamic world.

Let's pretend that the Iraqi's understand why our troops have now surrounded entire cities with barbed wire, and that they don't mind proving they aren't the enemy in their own country at U.S. "checkpoints", and that it doesn't bother them to have their doors kicked in even if they have done nothing to warrant search. Let's pretend they think it is all right to have to have permission from foreigners that don't even speak their language, to go from one city to another. Let's pretend that imposing curfews on their general population is OK with the Iraqi's, and that they don't mind being forced to stay inside their homes when we tell them to. Let's pretend we are not humiliating a proud civilization. Let's pretend that what we are doing is the best way to show them our true intentions, what democracy is all about.

Let's pretend that Iraq actually did something to the United States. Let's pretend that we had to attack Iraq because they violated United Nations resolution 1441. Let's pretend that the same United Nations told us we could not attack. Let's pretend we used U.N. resolution violations as an excuse to attack, but the U.N. does not have any authority if they say we can't attack anybody we want. Let's pretend that we are right about what we have done, and what we are going to be doing for the next decade if we do not stop it now. Hell, let's pretend that Iraq has a tropical climate.

Let's pretend we will not have to commit genocide to get rid of those that do not want to live by the rules we tell them they have to live by. Let's pretend we wont have to kill a 900,000 man army to "liberate" the Iraqi's, PLUS many non-military civilians that now hate us. Every one of them has one rifle, at least.

Let's pretend they don't want us to leave. Let's pretend that billions of our dollars aren't being stolen by the worst kind of white-collar criminals. Let's pretend we know where the money is going. Let's pretend that millions have not lost their jobs here, that veterans benefits are not being slashed as the White House continues to "support our troops".

I am going to pretend I wasn't in the infantry for 1095 days during the Vietnam era. I'm going to pretend that our troops aren't suffering and having their lives ruined. I'm going to pretend I am not hurting inside, and I'm not humiliated by the actions taking place in my name. I'm going to pretend that this job in Iraq couldn't have been done peacefully.

I love this country. The land of make believe. Thank goodness we can pretend in our free country. Let's pretend the Iraqi's like our gift of "democracy and freedom". How long are we going to pretend? Let's pretend that it is not time to remove Curious George Bush from the White House in order for us to REALLY fight terrorism.

Let's NOT pretend there will be peace in 2004.

Ward Reilly <wardpeace@hotmail.com> is a member of Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Coalition Against War & Injustice in Baton Rouge. He spent 3 years as a gunner in the famed 1st & 16th(Rangers) of the First Infantry Division from 1971 to 1974