Dave Lindorff: The Marines Have Figured It All Out: It's Time to Quit Iraq

[babylonsister]

The Marines Have Figured It All Out: It's Time to Quit Iraq
Submitted by dlindorff on Thu, 2007-10-11 16:46. Impeachment


Over the past year, Bush has pretty much lost his entire Coalition of the Unwilling, with the British, who have already pulled back from Basra into their fortified base, now intending to quit Iraq altogher early next year

But before the Brits close the door behind them, someone else wants to leave too: the United States Marines, America's answer to ancient Greece's Spartan warriors.

According to a remarkable Wednesday article in the New York Times, the Marines have told the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that they'd much prefer to leave Iraq and go take over the fighting in Afghanistan from the US Army, which has some 26,000 troops over there--just about the same number as the 25,000 Marines currently mired in Iraq.

Very convenient.

And very telling.

The Marines have clearly looked at Iraq and have seen it for the horrific, bloddy, hopeless mess that it is. And with recruitment a growing challenge, and their reputation in tatters thanks to the baby murders in Haditha, and the massive slaughter of thousands in Fallujah, they want to go somewhere, anywhere else, where they can at least claim they're acting under UN or NATO authority, where they won't be seen as occupiers, and where at least some of the people in the host country will like them.

Let the U.S. Army deal with President Bush's Iraq mess.

You can't really blame the Marines.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27637

[lyonn]

1. The Marines get it - probably the Navy too, we can only hope

Since one of the Constitutional Rights we have lost is the ability to Impeach, kinda sarcasm, it looks like the military is all that is left to stop/contain bush/cheney from destroying everything with their insane rules. The Courts are worthless, we don't count, our reputation around the world means nothing to these two, they are truly tyrannical rulers.

[madrchsod]

2. is`t this called insubordination?

i think truman fired the "general" for something similar to this

[babylonsister]

3. I don't see them arresting the entire Marine Corps:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2017599

[Demeter]

4. "If this be treason, make the most of it!" Patrick Henry, 1765

In the spring of 1765, the recently enacted Stamp Act was the prime topic of political conversation in the American colonies. In Virginia, the current session of the House of Burgesses was drawing to a close and many of the delegates had already headed for home. Patrick Henry, who had held his seat for only a matter of days, celebrated his twenty-ninth birthday on May 29 by offering a series of resolutions related to the current crisis. Much of what he proposed was familiar to his colleagues:

American colonists had transported British rights to North America at the time of their immigration.

Those rights had twice been confirmed in Virginia’s royal charters.

The right to be taxed by representatives of one’s own choosing was one of the most fundamental British liberties.
Henry, however, included an additional idea that raised many eyebrows and provided a direct challenge to Parliament’s authority:


Only colonial assemblies had the right to impose taxes on their constituents and that right could not be assigned to any other body.

On May 30, Henry gave his maiden speech in the assembly and defended his resolutions. He expanded the scope of his criticism to include not only Parliament, but the king as well. Speaking of George III, he stated that, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third — .” At that point he was interrupted by cries of “Treason!” from delegates who easily recognized the reference to assassinated leaders. Henry paused briefly, then calmly finished his sentence: “...may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1266.html