Informant38

The Gaza Withdrawal

With profound, sincere hope that I am totally wrong, I fear the invasion, occupation, and escalating bloody suppression of the Iraqi people will cost our nation dear, in many ways and places, for a long time to come. I do not wish to be right, but believe the magnitude of that unjustified, expanding catastrophe poses serious, sustained threats to the well-being of all Americans.

There is little utility in further questioning the intelligence, honesty, and vision of leaders - or those who occupy leadership positions, an entirely different category - who led us into this morass on the basis of untruths, distortions, and covert objectives which are not at all in our national interest. The horrific reality is that we are there, carrying out actions in gross violation of every political, economic, and humanitarian principle for which we insist we stand. Relying on those same discredited individuals to extract us from a debacle they crafted without shame or remorse, in a manner which minimizes the damage already done and the risk of worse things to come, is a frightening prospect.

This is particularly the case since that band of misguided fanatics, along with much of the media, gaggles of pundits, and probably a significant proportion of the rest of us, sees Iraq through a fog generated by the mythical American West of books and films. The language describing courses of action in response to the massive popular uprisings in key Iraqi cities resembles dialogue from High Noon, The OK Corral, or Open Range. We gotta: ride the bad guys out of town; straighten things out; clean the place up.

But Fallujah, Najaf, and Karbala are not Western Movie sound stages. And the story line is not a dramatic but foregone removal of a crooked sheriff or powerful cattleman by our good guys, wearing white hats and enthusiastically supported by all the townsfolk. In Iraq, it is large and rapidly growing numbers of townsfolk that we are going after, and the survivors will not love us. They perceive us as the bad guys, not as we see ourselves: heroes bringing liberation, freedom and peace.

Edward L. Peck
served as Chief of Mission in Iraq and Mauritania and as Embassy Officer in Sweden, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. In the State Department he served as Deputy Coordinator, Covert Intelligence Programs, and Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He was also Director, Office of Egyptian Affairs. In the White House he served as Deputy Director, Reagan Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism. In the Pentagon he served as Liaison Officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff and Fellow, Institute for Higher Defense Studies.

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Edward L. Peck is one of the 111 signatories of the Letter to President Bush, sent this May:

By closing the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have proved that the United States is not an even-handed peace partner. You have placed U.S. diplomats, civilians and military doing their jobs overseas in an untenable and even dangerous position.

Your unqualified support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories, and now your endorsement of Sharon�s unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends. Nor is this endorsement even in the best interests of the State of Israel.

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The U.S. has dumped more than $40 billion worth of arms into Israel, and Israel is illegally using many of those weapons to put down an uprising against the occupation.

The U.S. has given Israel, one of the richer countries in the world, over $100 billion in financial and military aid, mostly after the Camp David agreement of 1979. This includes billions of dollars in tax-deductible contributions from American supporters of Israel. As our aid to Israel grew, so did Israeli colonies. In 1979, there were 12,000 Jewish-Israeli colonists in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Today, there are over 350,000.

In 14 months, more than 800 Palestinians, including 150 children, have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces, acting on the Government of Israel�s direct orders. More than 16,000 Palestinians have been seriously injured. This is comparable to 56,000 Americans being killed in one year and 1,600,000 seriously injured. Israel has lost 170, including 20 children, equivalent to 8,000 American being killed.

Prime Minister Sharon has been indicted by a court in Brussels. He stands accused of war crimes for his role in the massacre of hundreds of civilians from two refugee camps in Lebanon. He can no longer travel to Belgium. Meanwhile, he is being received at the White House.

Fact Sheet on Israel and Palestine
Council for the National Interest