grandchildren, do not volunteer for war!

Gireen has been a staunch anti-war crusader since she was old enough to understand what war was, and when she remembers the 453 unidentified corpses found on the streets of Baghdad during the invasion  -- on top of double that number of identified corpses -- she wonders how we can tolerate, let alone participate in these crimes and calls for young people to wake up and stop volunteering for murderous wars.

"American defence secretary Gates allegedly proposes to reduce the number of American forces to 50,000 - 70,000 by election day in November 2008," says Gireen,"and because the figures are similar to those floated by Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nomination front runner, I suspect cross-party collusion for retaining a presence in Iraq after Bush’s final term in office expires."

"This bodes badly for our volunteer troops who are being killed like flies on a daily basis -- not to mention the innocent Iraqis," says Gireen, "and if anyone thinks that the Democrats will end this madness, think again. All politicians are out to feather their nests, and there's nothing like a war for making big money."

"Sure, Hillary has been raving on against remaining in Iraq, but that's just a bit of suck-up to capture the support of party activists,' says Gireen. “The Clintons are as thick as thieves with the Bush family and have more in common with Big Business and Big Oil than the average Jane and Joe putting their lives on the line for one damn lie after another."

"Whatever party is in power," explains Gireen, "they intend to stay in Iraq and will use the same old lies to keep up the murder and plunder, and we'll be paying for it in increased taxes."

"Having illegally invaded the country and reduced it to rubble -- so Cheney and his cronies could reconstruct the country, transferring more taxpayer funds into a single private company than ever before in history -- they will say, using typical Doublespeak, that it doesn't look good for America's image to pull out and leave the Iraqis in a worse situation than they were in before we invaded them."

"They will say that we have an international duty to help provide continuing stability and security for the country," sighs Gireen, "but while oil remains in Iraq, they intend to ensure instability continues so that they have an excuse to stay forever and keep feathering their nests."

"Our allies are wising up and pulling out, privately cursing us for dragging them into this war of lies," says Gireen, "and we are going to be left holding a very bloody and a very dirty baby and serves ourselves right for voting in Bush, not once but twice. Are we all idiots, or what?"

"The neo-cons, of course, want us to stay forever so that they can control the oil supply and continue plundering the country," says Gireen, "and the arguments for pulling out or staying are being run along the same lines as the initial arguments for invading or not invading."

"As I see it, the Iraqis want their country back and want us to leave," says Gireen. "The longer we stay the more violence we will cause and whereas the weak-kneed Nouri al-Maliki government may profit from a continued American presence, the Iraqis themselves -- the Sunnis, Kurds and Shi’ites -- can't wait to see the back of us."

"So, to hell with international duty, Big Oil and bi-partisan political guilt for illegally invading the country in the first place -- it's time to pull out and stay out," says Gireen. "And, if the new government, be it Republican or Democrat, won't make that decision then it is up to our foot soldiers, the volunteer army, to stop volunteering and let the politicians and their cronies do their own dirty work."

"The stupid surge hasn't worked and, given the need to rotate and refresh troops, it will be impossible to maintain high troop levels beyond February," says Gireen. "Our volunteer army is already overstretched and something has to give."

"The new 'weapons of mass destruction' spin being weaved by the war-mongering neo-cons is this: if we pull out we will hand Al-Qaeda a victory," says Gireen. "Well, Al-Qaeda was never in Saddam's Iraq and if they are there now it is because our government deliberately failed to secure the borders. Just like our government allows thousands of illegals to cross our borders to provide a pool of cheap labor, it has created a similar green-light situation in Iraq for the Iranians to walk in and keep the war going and the money rolling in."

"If Al-Qaeda exists, then it exists in the form of radical Muslims everywhere -- including our own country," says Gireen, "and since we cannot possibly go to war against every Islamic nation on earth we should go home, secure our borders and employ our volunteers in the manner they were meant to be employed -- defending us and our borders!"

"Within three months of our withdrawal the Nouri al-Maliki government will be replaced by a majority Shi’ite government -- as befitting 60% of the population --and if the Sunnis and Kurds object someone with the iron-will and brutalaity of Saddam will arise to take care of them," says Gireen. "That's how middle-eastern countries have always been run, and always will be."

"You can't impose democracy upon undemocratic people," adds Gireen, "and if control of oil is what the 2003 invasion was really all about then considering that terrorism is financed by Saudi oil it would have solved all of our problems had we put our energies into converting to new sources of power."

"What stopped this happening? Big Oil of course."