Let me put this as bluntly as I possibly can, the forces of the United States of America are in Iraq and on a larger scale the region, the region meaning the Persian Gulf and Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan for a long, long time. Pay no attention to Obama and Clinton’s promises of withdrawal. Pay no attention to McCain’s absurd promise of withdrawal the year after his first term. Pay no attention to the Sunni versus Shia nonsense, this conflict has become far more messy than any American would like to admit. The so called insurgents are fighting the occupying forces and the U.S. backed Iraqi government for control of their country. When it comes to fighting for one’s home, sectarian lines don’t define the passion and loyalty of the fight. The present enemy and foremost obstacle lying between chaos and peace in their country are the United States occupying forces.

Until a formidable Presidential candidate ties their candidacy to an immediate unconditional withdrawal from Iraq, something McCain, Obama and Clinton have all refused to do, the U.S. will never leave the region.

Any civilian who took the time to watch the Winter Soldier testimonies will understand that the situation in Iraq has broken down far beyond any recognizable paradigm of warfare. Only a slow grinding failure has become possible for American occupying forces.

The region is far too important to the occupying U.S. economic interests for the U.S. government to willingly leave, or in the words of Bush “appease” the enemy. Oil is the game, this isn’t Vietnam (this isn’t simply a proxy war or regime change), and Americans must understand this reality. The way that politicians in Washington are justifying the continuation of the occupation of the region amongst themselves is by rationalizing that they do not believe the American people know what it would mean for this country to withdrawal all troops from the region. This is true to a large extent; most Americans do not understand the consequences of a complete withdrawal. It would mean the rise of Iran as a power in the region and the further skyrocketing of oil prices, which in turn would increase the price of everyday life in the United States. However, the price of continuing to occupy the region would be the lives of young Americans.

In order for the occupation to ever end the American people need to convey to the powerful offices in Washington that they both realize the consequences of a complete withdrawal from the region and that despite these economic consequences they are still demanding a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

All the cards need to be laid on the table and then a clear decision made, until then it will be a tragic gridlock. The neo-cons are dealing in a game of absolutes and therefore winning. Even progressives like Senator Obama will continue down the safe path of advocating responsible, slow withdrawal. Until the true motivations for the positions being held on both sides of the left/right paradigm are completely exposed this debate on the Iraq occupation and U.S. foreign policy in general will never progress and the U.S. military will continue to involve themselves in the international community’s affairs without the approval of the increasingly organized and furious and frankly terrified non-aligned movement (Venezuela, North Korea…etc).

Consumers of the mainstream media are largely accepting the Democratic Party as the saviors of this country, and yes that includes the accepted threshold of dissention in the American mainstream media such as Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart, who want nothing more than to see Barack Obama elected. The problem is systemic; the problem is not simply manifest in the being of George W. Bush. What these consumers need to realize is that neither side in the two party paradigm has any interest whatsoever in the welfare of the American public.

The only reason the Democratic Party is allowed the praise that they are currently receiving in the U.S. is because the Republican Party has completely blown their cover and publicly lost their collective mind. The very fact that the Republican Party has been able to hold onto their base is solely a tribute to the incredibly effective propaganda machine in this country, which is alive and well and growing every day. This is the propaganda machine that has crushed the American moral compass underneath its unrelenting boot and led the country down a dark and seemingly never-ending horrific nightmare of apathy.

We have completely lost our connection to our fellow man, we have somehow forgotten that the greatest satisfaction in this human life is not an argument that ends in success, it is understanding, and the longer the path to the eventual understanding the greater the satisfaction in the triumph of that moment of connection.

So as long as the leaders in this country and yes they are only people, I don’t care how large the house is that they hide in, or how many people they surround themselves with or how many cameras are in their collective faces…at the end of the day in a quiet room they feel their heart beat. And as long as we continue to build these U.S. leaders and global elitists up to super-human levels and at the same time dehumanize the dead Iraqis, the easier we are as an American population to conquer.

And so it is ironic to me that so much scrutiny has recently been given to portions of a sermon by Reverend Wright, a sermon which has now been revealed to be about self examination. The irony of the scrutiny cast upon Reverend Wright’s sermons is ironic in a time when the American public is starving for the truth that he spoke in those sermons, the truth of the brutality of the American past.

Now since the leaders in our government did not take the time for self reflection, a self reflection which could have lead to self restraint in foreign policy, we are in this terrible mess around the world. Shock and Awe followed by occupation, the most recent and obvious case of reaction without the comprehension of repercussions has lead to the current predicament.

The question becomes: How do we change the course of the current administration and the administrations to come? The young in this new generation are choosing to stick to the methods of chanting in the streets, when far more serious means have become mandatory. But it seems that this generation has grown far too apathetic to organize the type of civil disobedience necessary to cripple this well oiled war machine charging forward into the teeth of Armageddon at a time when the nuclear weapons are available to make it possible.

There was sadness in my heart as I saw the caring youth in this country sprawled out in solidarity with their fellow Iraqi and Afghani humans in Washington D.C., Chicago, New York and San Francisco and countless other American cities only to be portrayed as freaks and hopeless progressives on the evening news dismissed with a cyclical sweep of the streets in this cycle of war that the country has been trapped in for centuries now.

With the recent revelations of violence in Baghdad …we have to decide if the current violence is the obscure mid-sleep nightmare or the night terrors just before dawn in a situation that has already been assured the label of tragedy. Will we join together in the necessary workings of civil disobedience of Martian Luther King and Gandhi or continue in the purely symbolic opposition to the powerful…only time will tell.

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