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Edited on Mon Jun-26-06 09:26 AM by endarkenment
The political road to peace in Iraq requires the withdrawal of US forces and a general amnesty for the insurgent forces in Iraq. There is no other road to peace. Our Democratic leaders in Washington have been advised by the usual beltway idiots to attack the ruling party over the issue of amnesty.
The recent proposal by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki for a peaceful resolution of the Iraqi crisis contains, at least partially, the two key ingredients mentioned above: the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and a general amnesty for the insurgent forces. While lacking specifics on either a withdrawal of US forces or exactly what conditions would accompany the general amnesty, this proposal should be given at least conditional support from our leaders and from the antiwar movement.
Instead of conditional support the Democratic Leadership has seized the opportunity to attack the amnesty proposal as essentially treason. In a propaganda barrage worthy of an RNC talking points memo, Democrat after Democrat has lined up to denounce amnesty as unthinkable.
"the idea that they should even consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country is unconscionable." - Sen Carl Levin (D-MI), sums up the idiocy and emptiness of beltway thinking on this issue. Before accepting what the senator has to say, consider the assumptions behind that statement. Let's start with the phrase "people who liberated their country". Well to accept that as true one has to agree that our invasion and occupation of Iraq was a 'liberation'. I do not accept the truth of that statement, do you? Clearly there are many Iraqis, for example the insurgent forces and their supporters, who do not accept Senator Levin's opinion about the nature of our forces in Iraq.
Now consider the disingenuous use of language in the phrase "people who have killed people". Are we to consider that all of the "people who have killed people" in Iraq are criminal murderers who should always be prosecuted for the crimes they have committed? Or are we to consider only Iraqi people who have killed people for such treatment? The situation in Iraq is a hostile military occupation. Insurgent forces and our own forces are fighting each other in a war. Soldiers are fighting and killing other soldiers, and it is generally accepted that such actions, within the context of a military engagement, are not crimes of murder. The Senator is lying to the American people and should be ashamed of himself.
Democrats are pandering the amnesty issue and progressive Americans should not support this maneuver and should not make common cause with those who would prolong the conflict for political gain, no matter what party they claim to belong to.
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