History will judge this nation

Dear Editor:

On December 17, two commentaries - "History will judge role," by Ann McFeatters, and "War's finally over - sort of," by Dale McFeatters - shed light on the absurdity of Obama's claim that our military really is pulling out of Iraq, the fact that the US will have a huge presence in Iraq forever, and the fact that there was no justification for a US invasion of Iraq in the first place.

Not only did Iraq have no "weapons of mass destruction," but none of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq. In fact, of the 19 9/11 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, 2 were from the United Arab Emirates, 1 was from Egypt and another was from Lebanon.

In her article, Ann McFeatters grossly understates the estimated number of Iraqi civilian deaths as "more than 100,000," when the estimate of the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, is more than a million. And, sadly, due to the radioactive contamination of the soil and water by the depleted uranium weapons rained upon them by the US military, the astronomical rate of related birth defects and diseases will continue to increase virtually forever, as some radioactive materials persist in the environment for 4.5 billion years.

Not mentioned by either of the McFeatters is the fact that the US preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is a crime under international laws to which our government is signatory, and that George W. Bush and members of his administration should be tried for their crimes in the International Court of Justice.

Yes, we can be certain that history will judge this nation for wreaking massive death and destruction on the innocent people and environment of Cradle of Civilization, all for purposes of empire and lust for oil.

Shireen Parsons

Summit Hill