And almost four years later.....

March 19, 2003, Mr. Bush addressed the nation to annouce the start of America's invasion of Iraq. I had spent the preceding months marching in protests, signing petitions, writing letters to the White House, politicians, and even the United Nations. I, an ordinary 55 year old American woman, predicted that this was a war that could not be won, that with the topple of Saddam Iraq would erupt in civil war, that we would run up an astronomical debt, and we would lose many of our people fighting this war. If I, an ordinary woman, could forsee all this, why in the world couldn't Mr. Bush and his advisors? Did they not know anything about Iraqi history including the tribal tensions and conflict? How could they not know where this war would lead us? Have they never read and studied other countries, did they have no understanding of the Iraqi culture? How terrifying that we have people leading our nation who are so uninformed and stupid. Their stupidity has resulted in the death of over 3,000 of our American men and women, and between 53,101 to 58,704 deaths Iraqi civilians.




Those of us who protested the beginning of this war were labeled unpatriotic, unAmerican, and left wing radicals. When, in fact, we were just individuals who could foresee where this war would take us. We were people who read and listened to the news, so we knew the 911 terrorists were not Iraqi citizens, and that it was very unlikely that Iraq had WMD. We realized either Mr. Bush had a hidden agenda for this war he was determined to launch, or he was just plain stupid. And we were in the minority.




Now after 3,000 of our military people have lost their lifes, we who protested, find ourselves in the majority. Finally the majority of American people, even those who voted and elected Mr. Bush to a second term, now understand that this war was a horrible mistake. Does it feel good to now be in the majority and be proven right? Absolutely not! This is one time I wish I had been wrong. I also wish all those 3,000 military people who gave up their lives were home safe and sound with their families. I wish that the thousands and thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died during this war were alive.



Tonight I watched Mr. Bush's speech outlining his new strategy for Iraq. I believe this new strategy will fail as miserably as his first. I had so hoped that the results of the last election and the fact that even members of his own party were speaking out against the war, would convince Mr. Bush to begin withdrawing our troops. I hoped he would see it is time to let the Iraqi people decide the future of their country, whether through civil war or elections- their choice. But none of that proved to be true. I came away from Mr. Bush's speech with the same sick feeling in my stomach that I had after his speech on March 19, 2003. Mr.Bush believes we Amercians haven't sacrificed enough to establish freedom and democracy for the Iraqi people. He plans on sending an additional 20,000 troops...our sons, our daughters, our mothers, our fathers, our brothers and our sisters.



U.S. troops freed the Iraqi people from their dictator. Now it is time for us, the American people, to free ourselves from our own dictator- it is time to impeach Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney.

Peace-

American Woman