"Five years of deception" 

Wally Myers gave this speech at the state capitol earlier this month. He is a Vietnam veteran and a member of Veterans for Peace.

The invasion of Iraq was paved with 935 lies. The latest lie to be exposed was the ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Turns out that there were no meaningful ties. Just a whole bunch of lies.

And the deception continues.

The escalation they call a surge. Deception.

The surge is working, it’s bringing peace. Deception.

We are buying peace now for a more intense war later.

We’ve increased the air bombings by five times. We don’t even count the Iraqis who have died since we attacked Iraq, but it appears to be over a million: 1,185,800. Deception.

Then there’s the latest deception about our war plans against Iran. The commander of the entire middle east, Admiral Fallon resigns in protest.

All opposed to those who profit from war are smeared. This is how deception works. But the ultimate question is why are we failing?

Our occupation encourages their rebellion, because occupation is theft. Of course they rebel. Our arrogance emboldens their resistance, because arrogance is blindness. Of course they resist. Our aggression inflames their hated, because war is terrorism. Of course they fight back.

Iraq is not a problem that we can fix; but we can stop making it worse. The longer we interfere; the worse it will get.

America is the problem, our arrogance, our oppression, and our aggression. And we can fix America. We can overcome our arrogance and admit that we were wrong. We can give up our oppression and let the Iraqis choose their own fate. We can reject our aggression and let the world think of America without fear. Make peace now, make peace always, make peace for us, make peace for everyone.