On July 2, 2003, George W. Bush, caught up in his own bluster, uttered the words, "Bring 'em on," in response to a reporter’s question about the dismaying frequency of a supposedly vanquished foe in Iraq.

On that day, only 65 American troops had been killed since May, when George W. Bush was flown onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to deliver a victory speech, backgrounded by a huge sign that stated, "Mission Accomplished."

A lot has happened since them.

Most significantly, no mission has been accomplished, and the Iraqi resistance apparently accepted his challenge to "Bring 'em on."

Over 1,748 American corpses who used to be fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, grandsons and grand-daughters, nieces and nephews, friends and neighbors, have been flown out of Iraq. Most estimates are that more than 15,000 Americans have been wounded, many severely. And the human cost for Iraqis themselves – death, grief, and pain – is currently incalculable but certainly measured in the hundreds of thousands.

It’s easy to talk trash from the White House, where its chief resident has attended one funeral while in office – that of the Pope. No dead soldier’s family has had him cross its threshold.

No one seems inclined to get publicly personal about the President these days. This is a mean, punitive administration, as even its former employees can attest, like Valerie Plame and Paul O’Neill. Many people are intimidated by Bush’s vile-tempered coterie, for which John Bolton has almost become a proud icon – though they refer to this kind of viciousness as "strength." Nasty, catty bureaucrats, who kiss-up and kick-down.

Among the exceptions who have not been intimidated by Bush & Co. seem to be veterans themselves and the families of the military. We don’t intimidate easily and we do take things very personally. Bush and his cabinet are offensive people, even at a personal level.

We are offended by the schoolyard challenge of "Bring 'em on," and we grow more offended with each passing day. During his publicity stunt at Fort Bragg earlier this week, some of us gathered to call out the names of the dead, and while he said – again from the comfort and security of his presidential office and his privileged private-school upbringing – "We have to stay the course," a different "we" gave 1,744 names to "the course," and wondered aloud why anyone would want to stay on it.

A former military police Sergeant who served in Iraq, Kelly Dougherty, was asked what she thought about staying the course, and she said, "Staying the course when you are driving home is a fine idea. Staying the course when you are on a runaway train seems like a very bad idea." She is now a member of a growing organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The Downing Street memos are just the latest in a trail of evidence (for those who didn’t already know) showing that this administration was bent on the conquest of Iraq – not to destroy weapons or liberate anyone, but to plant permanent bases there – while Bush was still telling the public he’d made no such decision. But the other evidence is that they were planning it even before they came into office, and that September 11 was just the "Pearl Harbor" they needed to put their plans on fast track.

The notion that a group this cynical can be compelled to transform the occupation of Iraq into anything except what it is – a mission of bald conquest and a catalyst for social disorder and civil war – is the expectation that a pig will lose its appetite for table scraps. Most Iraqis, responding to independent polls, have said that the occupation is the biggest cause of the violence that wracks Iraq, and that they want to see the occupation ended immediately

Many veterans and military families now agree. On the anniversary of that offensive remark, "Bring 'em on," we say again – and say it clearly – Bring Them Home Now!



Stan Goff is retired from the U.S. Army, where he served with various Special Operations units, and worked in eight conflict areas, beginning with Vietnam. He is the author of Hideous Dream – A Soldier’s Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti (Soft Skull Press, 2000), Full Spectrum Disorder – The Military in the New American Century (Soft Skull Press, 2004), and Sex & War (to be released February 2006, Soft Skull Press). He is a member of Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, and a consultant with Iraq Veterans Against the War ( www.ivaw.net ). He is on the coordinating committee of the Bring Them Home Now! Campaign, www.bringthemhomenow.org .

[permission to reprint widely granted]

Courtesy of Stan Goff