AN APOLOGY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE

We, individual citizens of the United States, hereby deeply and humbly apologize to the people and government of Iraq for the actions of our government, specifically the invasion and occupation of Iraq and associated activities, that have resulted in:

• the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,
• the injuring of many, many more Iraqis,
• the torturing (as we individuals would define it) of captured Iraqis,
• the destruction and damaging of private and public property in Iraq,
• the disruption and destabilization of Iraqi society,
• the emotional suffering (grief, terror, uncertainty, rage, hopelessness and many other feelings) of the Iraqi people,
• the dislocation of hundreds of millions of Iraqis within Iraq and into Jordan, Syria and other countries,
• the indignities of being invaded and occupied by foreign troops
• the aftereffects of all the above and more that will last through the lifetime of all those affected and their descendents.

We are ashamed and humiliated by the actions of our government and fervently wish that the invasion of Iraq had never taken place.

We make this apology because our government is an elected one and so, even if we individually did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000 or 2004, we feel a sense of responsibility.  In the United States constitution, it says that our government “is of the people, by the people and for the people.”  None of us did as much as we could have or as much as we now might wish we had done to prevent his election and re-election or to sway public opinion and government decision-makers in the executive branch or in Congress to not go to war.

We assert two reasons that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is unjustified and should be apologized for. 

1.      Because we strongly disagree with the “Bush Doctrine” of  proactive attacks on countries that the United States government believes is a threat.  Any government can claim its country feels threatened by another country – does that then give it a legitimate justification to attack that other country?  We say “no”.  Right now there are countries in the world that could legitimately claim to feel threatened by the United States, under the “Bush Doctrine”, they could justifiably attack the United States.  We see the “Bush Doctrine” as setting a horrible precedent and that it will make unjustified or poorly justified international aggression more likely rather than less likely.

2.      Follow-up investigations have found that the reasons given for the invasion of Iraq (Saddam Hussein and the Iraq government having or developing “weapons of mass destruction” and links to Al-Qaeda) were incorrect.  Some of us believe there was willful deceit by members of the United States government; others of us believe that it was a combination of overzealous tunnel vision and incompetence; others of us remain unsure.  Again, we all believe that the invasion of Iraq was wrong and should not have occurred and blame the United States government and George Bush, as its leader, for the death and damage in many forms that has resulted from the invasion.  If further investigation reveals that there was willful deceit by any member of the United States government, then we call for the prosecution of those individuals to the full extent of US and international law.

Many of us wish to have United States troops leave Iraq immediately, recognizing that their presence there is wrong, a continuing insult to the Iraqi people, and contributes to further death and injuries of both Iraqis and Americans.  Others of us that are against the invasion are concerned that a sudden withdrawal of US troops would make matters worse in Iraq as the US troops do contribute in some ways to maintaining civil order and since we created the destabilization thus have a responsibility to leave Iraq in a stable condition.  Many of us see both sides to this argument and feel stuck.  This apology is for the invasion and starting the occupation and does not attempt to prescribe the next steps.

We want to add the following clarifications:

• We make this apology as individual citizens of the United States and can not claim to speak for the United States government or all citizens of the United States.
• We recognize that the Iraqi people have a long, proud history and have many strengths today and should not be defined solely as victims of U.S. aggression
• Although we are against proactive attacks, we agree that any country can respond to an attack and defend itself.
• We agree that there is good evidence that Saddam Hussein and his government was abusive and murderous towards individuals and groups within Iraq and we condemn those actions.  We do not feel this behavior gives a justification to invade a country.  Many countries, including the United States, have been abusive and murderous to individuals and groups within those countries and would not agree that it gives other countries a justification to intervene.  When the United States was abusing and killing African Americans in the institution of slavery, would that have been justification for Canada to invade and overthrow the US government?
• We are not blaming individual United States soldiers for the invasion of Iraq.  We feel that vast majority of US soldiers have acted honorably.  It is in no way their fault that the United States government has acted wrongly in our view.  We do acknowledge that there are individual US soldiers and other US government personnel or contractors that have acted illegally and unjustifiably to harm Iraqi citizens and we condemn this and regret that the Iraqi people have suffered this further harm.
• This apology does not cover all the acts of the United States government that we would wish to apologize for.  Most notable of these other acts is the torture (as we define it) of the citizens of Afghanistan and other countries held by the US.  We have focused this apology to be to the citizens of Iraq.
• We acknowledge that there have been, within Iraq, individuals and groups that have done actions, including killings and destruction, that have contributed to the destabilization of Iraqi society.  This is no way reduces in our view the responsibility of the United States government for the invasion and subsequent terrible death and destruction.
• Each individual United States citizen signing onto this apology also has the opportunity to add commentary regarding the apology including his/her own additions, deletions, and/or restatements in their own words.