The images of war atrocities committed by “us” and “them” underline the abysmal failure of this war in Iraq and the equally abysmal failure of this administration to conduct American foreign policy. One of the only things that will help salvage the current American defeat in Iraq is for the voters of this country to overwhelmingly vote out the Bush administration in November.
That would say to the world that Americans condemn this war in Iraq and demand a change in leadership. To the new leadership, its first priority should be the formulation and implementation of a sensible exit strategy – something in the middle ground between “cut and run” and a blind ongoing commitment to continued aggressions in Iraq. Forget winning the war, we’ve already lost. We’ve lost the moral mandate that this administration has tried to sell at home and abroad.
The atrocities committed in our name have created a sickest yet reality TV atrocity game and an escalation of consuming hatred on all sides. It was just a matter of time before terrorist elements would outdo us with their own ruthless execution video. What possible victory can we rescue from this quagmire when suddenly the word quagmire seems weak. Instead of stabilizing the Middle East we have fertilized the terrorist movement and put our people in a position to shame themselves and our nation. We gave the terrorists a golden opportunity to retaliate with their own viciously choreographed beheading.
It may seem simplistic, but waging war in Iraq was never the answer. Bush’s failed policy in Iraq has brought home to our living rooms the most base and damnable human acts imaginable, tolling more and more horrific as each new image hits thefan.
Mona Loo