Anti-war soldiers die in Iraq

In late August I reprinted an article, "The War as We Saw It," written by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

They wrote:

To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched...Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence....

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

It concluded: "We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through."

Now, two of the seven soldier authors, Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray are dead.

How many more young lives will be sacrificed to President Bush's vanity and willful ignorance?

For details read:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091307O.shtml