Candidate Obama ran against the Iraq War, at least in the Democratic primaries. He eventually settled on a promise to bring home most of our troops in the first 16 months of his presidency. He already is breaking that promise by trying to drag the war on indefinitely.

Some would say that the facts have changed. One fact has. The US economy has collapsed, and the war on the Iraqi people is one of the most important causes of our economic meltdown. We simply cannot afford to divert hundreds of billions of dollars more towards devastating another country and slaughtering its people. The economic collapse provides a vitally important reason for ending the occupation ASAP.

There never was any legitimate to get us into the war, and there is no legitimate reason for us to stay there. Propagandists for corporate interests profiting from these crimes against humanity routinely lie and say we are "helping" the Iraqi people. You don't help people by killing, raping, and torturing them. You don't kill them by inflicting a constant barrage of damage to their infrastructure and keeping them from rebuilding their country.

The only people in Iraq that are being helped by the war are Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's recruiting and training efforts are helped enormously by this war. Ironically, Al Qaeda didn't have a significant presence in the parts of Iraq controlled by Saddam Hussein before the occupation started. Supporting the Iraq War is the practical equivalent of building a monument to the 911 hijackers.

There are no logistical reasons why our troops couldn't have all been withdrawn from Iraq by now. Such claims are slurs against our military, accusing them of the most grotesque incompetence.

There are lots of bullshit excuses for the war, but the reasons are simple. Big Oil, arms merchants, and mercenary corporations are making shitloads of money off the war and stand to make a lot more.

This war shows us that "Power, Corruption, and Lies" isn't just a New Order album title.