A spade's a spade, and this is not a war

The notion of “war” contextualizes certain hostile actions and in a legal way justifies offensive actions against some identified enemies. When a war metamorphoses into an occupation, it is still referred to as a war, lest support for such characterization lead to questioning the hostilities or rationale for continued offensive operations.

In the immediate case of Iraq, it is no longer a war, but an occupation. Our troops are caught in violence as targets of opportunity in a civil war. Their deaths are recorded as combat deaths. The wounded are cared for as combat wounded. To change the identification of Iraq as an occupation would bring havoc on veterans killed and wounded in terms of insurance payments and VA support. We can’t call it an occupation because our Constitution would be violated by such a term. No president is authorized to occupy a country. We are only allowed to go to war!

Our men and women dying and wounded in this fray are suffering for another constitution, not ours. The seeds of impeachment lie in developing the White House’s set of organized propaganda to the point where the lies of our executive branch can be unraveled for all to see.

Thomas P. Johnson

Harwich Port