Thanks a lot to all who sacrificed their lives for the corporate crime families

A new day is upon us. And let us never forget those who gave us this chance: the untold number of Iraqis who’ve given their lives; more than one million Americans, military and civilian, who have served in Iraq; nearly 4,500 fallen Americans who gave their last full measure of devotion; tens of thousands of wounded warriors and so many inspiring military families. They are the reason that we can stand here today. And we owe it to every single one of them; we have a moral obligation to all of them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.—Barack Obama, December 12, 2011

Thanks for your sacrifice, dead Iraqis.

Thanks, families of dead Iraqis, for your sacrifice.

Thanks, maimed Iraqis, for your sacrifice.

Thanks for your sacrifice, families of the maimed.

Thanks, babies born with two-heads, for your sacrifice.

Thanks, families of the genetically mutated, for your sacrifice.

Thanks for your sacrifice, all the displaced.

Thanks for your sacrifice, Iraq. Perhaps, if you’d had serious armaments, five or six nukes instead of frogs, snails, puppy-dogs’ tails, nails, shrapnel, and something to make them BOOM, we wouldn’t have used your landscape, airspace, and people for our WMD testing. Kudos, though, to you, because during nine years, you mounted a valiant an impressive fight against the U.S. military/industrial/security complex.

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks, dead “coalition troops,” for your sacrifice.

Thanks, families of dead troops, for your sacrifice.

Thanks, maimed, traumatic brain-injured soldiers, for your sacrifice.

Thanks for your sacrifice, families of maimed and brain-injured soldiers.

Thanks, troops who’ve committed suicide, for your sacrifice.

Thanks, families of suicides, for your sacrifice.

Thanks, for your sacrifice, posttraumatic stress disordered troops.

Thanks, families of posttraumatic stress disordered troops, for your sacrifice.

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks, war criminal Henry Kissinger, for saying, years ago, that soldiers are “dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.”

Thanks, Congress, for your sacrifice in giving George Bush and Dick Cheney authority to invade and occupy a sovereign nation.

Thanks, those of you who shouted, “USA! USA! USA!” in support.

Thanks, Barack Obama, for reuniting military men and women for the holidays.

Thanks for your confidence, Mr. Obama, in saying that our (the U.S.’s) goal is a successful Iraq.

Thanks some more, Mr. Obama, for not wanting to “create big footprints in Iraq.” The Iraqis must be grateful. And, maybe, at the end of December, finally, they’ll present those flowers.

Thanks, too, for saying that “history will judge the original decision to go into Iraq” when, Mr. Obama, you, while campaigning, called the Iraq war “dumb.”

Thanks for not emphasizing the contractors who’ll remain to protect strategically (?) the Green Zone, the U.S.’s largest embassy.

Thanks, Mr. Obama, for offering an “enduring” partnership (?) with Iraq, based on “mutual interest (?) and mutual respect (?). Whatever this partnership of mutually exclusive mutual exclusivities is.

The war In Iraq will soon belong to history, and your service belongs to the ages. Never forget that you are part of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries—from colonists who overthrew an empire; to your grandparents and parents, who faced down fascism and communism; to you—men and women who fought for the same principles in Fallujah and Kandahar, and delivered justice to those who attacked us on 911.—Obama, December 14, 2011 to military men and women at Fort Bragg, NC.

Troops, your service belongs not to the ages but, instead, to the corporate crime families.

And until there is a real, independent criminal investigation of the events of 9/11, there will be no justice.

There, also, will be no justice until those responsible for the collapse of the economy are held accountable.

Without justice, the bloodstained sacrificial altar of US foreign and domestic policy, presided over by Wall Street warlords, will continue to be bullish.

Missy Comley Beattie lives in Baltimore. She can be reached at: missybeat@gmail.com.