This Friday, they're hoping to stage the biggest protest Iraq has yet seen. This is being led by Iraq's college age citizens and, while hoping for protests throughout Iraq, they're also keyed up with hopes that Baghdad will see a huge protest.
Already "hundreds" and "thousands" is common in Baghdad and other cities. Those protesting have included widows and orphans, the disabled, the working class, the unions, the activists, the Communists, a real cross-section of Iraqi society.
And some US outlets dismiss the protesters and dismiss their demands. Their demands are very clear and go to the fact that they do not have a legitimate government, they have a puppet government. The people are demanding their rights, their most basic rights.
While they demand self-sovereignty, we learn just how much the US doesn't want to leave Iraq.
The US military will remain in Iraq past 2011 despite the lies from Barack Obam and so many others. The US military will remain. It will remain under the Defense Department if the SOFA can be extended or a new treaty can be pushed through. If neither happens, the plan is to switch the US military forces under the umbrella of the State Department to allow them to stay.
Last week at the US House Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explained what he wanted:
Well I think that there is -- there is certainly on our part an interest in having an additional presence and the truth of the matter is the Iraqis are going to have some problems that they're going to have to deal with if we are not there in some numbers. They will not be able to do the kind of job and intelligence fusion. They won't be able to protect their own air space. They will not -- They will have problems with logistics and maintenance.
The very next day, Nathan Hodge (Wall St. Journal), John T. Bennett (The Hill) and Leo Shane III (Stars & Stripes) were all reporting that US House Rep. Adam Smith (a Democrat) had announced that he thought the US military would remain in Iraq past 2011 and he was okay with it and assumed others would be as well because "we're talking about a small number of trainers, counterterrorism operations". And that's what happens when Leslie Cagans and Tom Haydens distract you and claim -- before US forces have ever left -- that the Iraq War is over.
This is among the things the citiznes of Iraq are fighting, for self-determination, free will. It's amazing that in the US where we're supposed to have it, we ignore our rights and allow our elected leaders to go back on their words and to continue an illegal war for eight years and counting as the deaths just keep piling up. On the US side, last week Airman 1st Class Corey C. Owens and Shawn Evans died in Iraq. If Leslie Cagan, Tom Hayden and so many others hadn't sent the antiwar movement packing with the lie that the war was over, those two might still be alive. Yes, it is a case of blood on the hands.
