Postscipts on the Iraq invasion 'anniversary'

Editors, Asheville Global Report, Here are some postscripts on the Iraq invasion "anniversary," which for me is three years of invasion and occupation after twelve long years of "softening up" via economic sanctions, "no-fly" zones, aerial bombardments and destruction of modern infrastructure. *There is no "Exit Strategy" because the US didn't intend to ever leave. The "new Iraq" was always intended as a site for several permanent US bases, partly to replace those we are abandoning in Saudi Arabia. *Although the large majority of Americans want the US military out of Iraq, the large majority of US congresspeople want the US military to remain (a handful of Democratic "defectors" don't change those odds significantly), and remain they will. *The peace movement has said nothing about the trial of Saddam Hussein, and it's about time we talked about it. I'm disgusted that Ramsey Clark is acting as a defense attorney for him, not because Hussein doesn't deserve to be represented at trial, but because Clark is also a leader of one of the main national organizations in the US peace movement, and I feel the guilt by association. *It's time to describe the so-called democratic elections in December as a failure. It is going on four months since those elections, and a government has not been formed. The US is so desperate that the Iranians have been called in to lend a hand! *Finally, when will the anti-war Democrats take on their own leadership? When will anti-war New York congresspeople like Maurice Hinchey demand a change of position from pro-war Democratic New York Senators Clinton and Schumer, for example? ... *When do we begin the discussion on reparations for the rebuilding of Iraq? After destroying the electric grid and water supply, communications and transportation networks, after the dismantling of modern state institutions that supplied life's necessities for twenty five million people, the US ought to remove its military but leave behind the personnel and resources to begin the reconstruction of normal life for the survivors of this catastrophe that bears the stamp "Made in USA." Pete Healey Kingston, NY