U.S. has had a major role in genocide this century

I wrote this letter, and I am grateful that the Citizens Times published it. However - they made an error-

I wrote:
"And it is the children in Iraq that are suffering the most. They now have a malnutrition rate that is double what it was prior to our invasion."

It is not 9% higher - IT IS DOUBLE! I do believe this comes out to 9% of all the children in Iraq, although malnutrition is much higher in the internal refugee camps than 9% of all the children.

I would like to add that I do not hold our military responsible for this genocide. I hold the American politicians and the people who elected them responsible.

Lately, about 25,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have returned to Baghdad from foreign countries. This is a drop in the bucket though - there are millions who are still refugees or internally displaced.

Susan wrote:

I wrote this letter, and I am grateful that the Citizens Times published it. However - they made an error-
I wrote:
"And it is the children in Iraq that are suffering the most. They now have a malnutrition rate that is double what it was prior to our invasion."
It is not 9% higher - IT IS DOUBLE! I do believe this comes out to 9% of all the children in Iraq, although malnutrition is much higher in the internal refugee camps than 9% of all the children.
I would like to add that I do not hold our military responsible for this genocide. I hold the American politicians and the people who elected them responsible.
Lately, about 25,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have returned to Baghdad from foreign countries. This is a drop in the bucket though - there are millions who are still refugees or internally displaced.

Wow! are you missleading in your glee to bash your own country. Check out the Russians in chechnia, the former soviet countries, the talaban, the islamists, etc. How about the sudan, ethiopia. How about Sadaams genocide. and many more! Want some pictures:

www.youtube.com/results...

www.youtube.com/results...

www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/17470

www.youtube.com/results...

www.youtube.com/results...

www.islamlies.com/

www.holycrime.com/crimeflog3.asp

If you want more graphic proof, let me know! I have more video's that are truly heartwrenching.
A poor old chechnian woman laying shot in the stomach, helpless in an expanding pool of blood, gasping as she dies. All around her are the russian soldiers, laughing and walking away as she dies all alone. Of course, there are already dead innocents laying all around her . Viedo's of many dead innocents. Hundreds of them. Not killed by Americans, but by muslim and Russians.

Susan wrote:

I wrote this letter, and I am grateful that the Citizens Times published it. However - they made an error-
I wrote:
"And it is the children in Iraq that are suffering the most. They now have a malnutrition rate that is double what it was prior to our invasion."
It is not 9% higher - IT IS DOUBLE! I do believe this comes out to 9% of all the children in Iraq, although malnutrition is much higher in the internal refugee camps than 9% of all the children.
I would like to add that I do not hold our military responsible for this genocide. I hold the American politicians and the people who elected them responsible.
Lately, about 25,000 to 30,000 Iraqis have returned to Baghdad from foreign countries. This is a drop in the bucket though - there are millions who are still refugees or internally displaced.

You are unbelievably ignorant!

What happened to that Chechnian women is horrible. I saw a video clip this evening of a man (unarmed) lying in the street in Fallujah, still breathing and bleeding, as American soldiers walk away from him and left him there to die. That happened in 2004.

None of the atrocities you mentioned, small town america, are genocides - that means the decimation of an entire group or nation of people.

This invasion and occupation has killed more Iraqis than Saddam ever did. Saddam may have killed more people (it is estimated the Iraq-Iran war killed one million) but it looks like we will (or have) passed that number.

There are 40,000 UNIDENTIFIED bodies buried in Najaf cemetery since March 2003. This is double the number of bodies uncovered from Saddam's mass graves. These UNIDENTIFIED bodies were all from Baghdad and places south of Baghdad. Those who died north of Baghdad were not buried there. God only knows how many IDENTIFIED bodies were put into the ground. Cemeteries for Sunnis in Baghdad are full.

Over a million Iraqi Christians have fled or been killed. This was covered by CBS on 60 Minutes on Sunday. One priest said that things are much, much worse now for Christians in Iraq (and everyone) than they ever were under Saddam.

Small Town America doesn't mention the fact that while Saddam might have executed many Iraqis himself those numbers pale in comparison to those who've died since we "liberated" them and brought "democracy" to their fair country - or at least what's left of it after all the shock & awe and all of the ensuing violence. STA also ignores the fact that when Congress gave Bush the freedom to invade Iraq it was meant to be a last resort only and not because of some trumped up heavily slanted "intel" that turns out to have been purely pro-war propaganda. Still we haven't caught Osama bin Forgotten and those elusive WMD haven't turned up where anyone in this administration assured us they were hidden. Need I quote Rumsfeld, Cheney or The Decider on those locations that turned out to be just more "bad intel"?

Seems most of the truly "bad intel" is situated in the White House and several seats of Congress where the bought and paid for representatives of major corporations reside. War is Big Business and it's the poor volunteers who're in the streets and hills of Afghanistan and Iraq paying the price for their Commander-in-Chief's stupidity.

I love my country. I served in the Air Force for several years during Viet Nam and I've repeatedly seen that it's the grunts and indigenous civilians who bear the real costs of war not the politicians who start and continue it.

The other even more important thing to remember is that STA would totally ignore the fact that WE THE PEOPLE didn't elect the Russian officials who've perpetrated so many atrocities. We are directly responsible for what our "leaders" have done. So in direct response to STA's remark -"Wow! are you missleading in your glee to bash your own country." It isn't our COUNTRY that's being bashed at all. No, it's laying responsibility on the shoulders of those who've defiled the purpose and reputation of our country before the whole world - the Bush administration and their cronies.

I seem to recall plenty of Democrats voting for the war too.
You must have forgotten that fact when writing the letter.
So there, I reminded you.

Excellent letter, Susan! And yes, to "a voter", this is ALL of our problem! Each of us who sits idly by while our nation is committing this horror is guilty. What really appalls me is the news lately of Iraqi civilian deaths being "down" to almost 800 a month. Per capita, this would be comparable to almost 10,000 US citizens dying per month due to an invasion. How would we feel if "only" 10,000 of us were being killed a month? And, think of the children. Not only are they being killed, maimed, displaced, and growing increasingly sick due to malnutrition and disease, but their lives have been forever altered. It's not safe for them to go to school or leave their homes. Can you imagine OUR children losing 5 years of their schooling? Iraq was a beautiful country of educated, compassionate and mixed peoples, who didn't discriminate between Sunni or Shia, Christian or Muslim. That has all changed, and we're responsible. We have got to wash this blood from our nation's hands, and open our eyes to what we've done. So many of us claim to be "Christian"; I'm ashamed to say that we're doing a horrible job of "loving one another".

genocide: "the use of deliberate systematic measures (as killing, bodily or mental injury, unlivable conditions, prevention of births) calculated to bring about the extermination of a racial, political, or cultural group or to destroy the language, religion, or culture of a group" [Webster's Third International Dictionary]

The decision to invade Iraq was, in retropsect, reckless, based on bad intelligence (which was accepted by nearly everyone).

What it was not was a deliberate, calculated attempt to exterminate a racial, cultural or political group, not even Sadam's Baathists. Defeat them, yes. Exterminate them, no.

40,000 unidentified bodies? What could possibly be the reasons for this? Are you saying that the bodies were so torn up that no one could identify them? Do you think that no one has tried to identify them? Or could it be that their families would've had to come from a different country to identify them? If they're unidentified, then you don't really know whether they were Iraqis or not.

Is the world better off with more muslims or less muslims?

Tom Shuford wrote:

What it was not was a deliberate, calculated attempt to exterminate a racial, cultural or political group, not even Sadam's Baathists. Defeat them, yes. Exterminate them, no.

Translation: "I sometimes confuse my opinion with "the truth", which makes me look decisive and authoritative to those who are impressionable, but undermines my credibility with everyone else."

Mr Translator wrote:

<quoted text>
Translation: "I sometimes confuse my opinion with "the truth", which makes me look decisive and authoritative to those who are impressionable, but undermines my credibility with everyone else."

More babble.

When you stir up a killer bees nest, expect to have a lot of pissed off bees. Unfortunately, Rumsfelt did not send enough bee keepers. The Republicans prosecuted that war like a bunch of Democrats (see also Vietnam, started by Democrats, which took a Republican to get us out of it). Bush senior knew how to run a war. Regarding genocide, who is supplying the improved munitions (human and roadside)that has killed far more Iraqis than our soldiers. Why, the Iranians, the same people that had a war with the Iraqis. Strangely enough, that was back when Saddam was our buddy.

The world would be better off with fewer retired lawmen.

Susan your letter does not deserve an answer.
It is a copy of something I would expect from moveon.org .
Where were you when Americans got murdered?

Good points, ZD

Susan's comments are more balderdash from an uninformed crackpot. At least she has a right to spew her nonsense. It's her priviledge to be stupid about the greatest country on the face of the earth.
God Bless America!

Of course Susan you must think people hanging from meathooks is perfectly acceptable. Or maybe being taken outside and shot or how about even gassed. Maybe you should include the fact that we don't do things like that.

Maybe you should include the fact that rebuilding of the infastructure is constantly being delayed by outside factions in an attempt to rile up disdain for the US soldiers. Maybe you should look at the Kurdish north where there is no violence or infighting among the various groups and that Iraqi's actually vacation there because it is so peaceful. Maybe you should also look at Iran and Syria as a hinderance because they are the one's supplying the weapons and the fighters to the area in their own attempt to takeover the country.

Genocide is the planned extermination of a race, ethic, or nation of people. I believe Susan has confused genocide, suicide, and gang warfare between these "religious" leaders who have taken advantage of the situation to consolidate power.
If our disposal of Saddam had been the first step in the entire annihilation of Iraq and its people, then genocide could be the charge.
These people kill themselves to be martyred for killing children in a hospital, or blowing up a market, or a school, or a wedding, or American soldiers propping up a government that THEY elected.
These people don't seek peace. There are no moderates begging for calm, from any of the neighboring nations. We aren't killing them, they are killing themselves. The blame lies with Islam.

Genocide....let's talk about inner city blacks murdering each other over petty drug deals gone bad. Hundreds of thousands killed over the years right on American soil.