Who is responsible for abuse in Iraq?

Dear Editor,
The dehumanization of the people of Iraq can be directly attributed to the actions of a single man and his administration.  His first act upon taking office was to define entire countries and groups of people as evil.  After the events of 911, he used his office and influence to set back civilization by employing a new policy best described as the school boy
bullying model of world domination.  Next, he alienates nine-tenths of the world by implying that somehow America is more moral than any other country, and that we can use force to impart our (God's) will on anyone that doesn't agree with us.  And to top it off, he encourages the fanatical fundamental factions of the world's major religions by increasing the tension between the groups making the prospects for a world war more likely.

After returning from Viet Nam, I learned a lesson that I guess has escaped President Bush and his administration.  I learned that human beings are not made to kill each other.  (Christ also preached this, something else Bush must have missed.)  Of course there are exceptions to every rule, but in general human beings are scarred for the rest of their life once they take the life of another human being, whether it was justified or not.  If one just travels the streets of America and visits the homeless, almost one half of them are Viet Nam Veterans.  Their experience in Viet Nam has left them unable to exist within American society.  The "first" Gulf war has scarred hundreds of thousands more of our troops, not even counting the untold number of Iraqis that suffered from mental and physical abuse as pawns in a game played by the elite.  Now we continue by introducing untold thousands of more people to the pain and suffering caused by war, and a needless war at that.  Maybe if Mr. Bush had gone to Viet Nam, he too would
have learned this lesson.  The true costs of war can never be totally counted until future history has had a chance to look back with a larger perspective.  Even the loses from Viet Nam have yet to be completely counted.

The abuse in the prisons is being blamed on a few privates and sergeants who obviously got their clues about how to treat the prisoners from their commander and chief.  You see, once you make someone evil, once you make sure that they are less than human, then you can treat them any way that you want.  This message has been pounded into the minds of the merican
people by the false promises of Patriotism.  If President Bush was not aware of the studies at Harvard and Stanford on the inhumanities that develop when people are put in control of other people, then he was incompetent.  If he sent troops to war knowing about these studies and how human nature would lead those troops to commit atrocities, then maybe he should be impeached, for he has done more damage to America than anyone in my memory.

One way to make the Iraqis less than human is by not counting their dead. 

Iraqi lives are not as valuable as American lives.  We count our dead everyday, but when was the last time you heard the total number of Iraqis killed in the war and occupation?  And by all accounts, this war goes against the Geneva Convention, against all international law, and against all Christian and moral training.  How inhumane was that?  And why is there
a cry that releasing pictures now will violate the same Geneva Convention, when the war itself is a much bigger violation?  If we hadn't "elected" to go to war then none of these problems would even exist.

It is very hard to find the true news from Iraq, but I daily peruse many different sources from around the world to try to find the truth.  The truth is that the abuse has been much worse than is presently being reported.  Apparently many people in Iraq are imprisoned without cause, without evidence, without the notification of family or friends, and at the whim of their captors.  There are many reports of indiscriminate fire from American troops killing civilians and non combatants.  There are many reports of American troops entering private homes and destroying property, stealing what they want, and terrorizing the Iraqi people.  Virtually everyone released from the prison system reports abuse.  It is easy to
understand how scared American troops that are fearful for their own lives will tend to fire first and ask questions later.  But who put these troops in this position and who is ultimately responsible for their actions?   War is immoral and the actions of warriors are immoral.  Why don't we strive to have a civilization without warriors?  Shouldn't we value leaders who lead us to peace instead of war?

I will never understand how people in government can be so short sighted.  It appears to me that many people in American government value their tribe (party) more than they value their country.  These same people value their country more than their world.  How short sighted can that be?  We no longer live in a vacuum.   Every action on this world now affects every other part of the globe.  We face problems that are larger than any country or government.  Humanities future is not assured.  We must work together to solve these problems, yet the actions of the current US Administration is
to set the world apart, to set Republican against Democrat, to set nation against nation, to set religion against religion, and to make profits for the corporations through all these injustices to humanity.

There has been much talk lately about requiring Donald Rumsfeld to resign. 

This seems an unnecessary step to me.  The entire administration must be replaced if America is to regain any of its credibility or respect in the world.   We must return to a civilized stance of making and keeping agreements to solve the problems of the world.  Violence must always be the
last resort, not the first.  Remember, we can not claim to be civilized if we are still solving our problems like savages.  President Bush has set back all of human civilization by his actions and we must reverse the current course and learn to live together without killing each other. 

After all, human beings are not made to kill each other.

Mike Moore