Unleashing Hell

7/25/2007

Is there anybody out there who understands that we have unleashed a nightmare for the Iraqi people by what we have done in Iraq?
As we sit and watch debates about troop surges and report cards, Iraq has turned into a living hell.
Over four million refugees, no electricity or clean water or sanitation for the majority of the country, hundreds of thousands dead, most of the doctors have left the country, rampant unemployment, millions wounded, and millions of Iraqi children who will deal with mental illness from severe childhood trauma.
And what about the hell we have put upon the soldiers and families who have paid the price in this war? What about the child who will suffer emotionally because his father cannot be there for him because his father is battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury? These poor people and their families to come will suffer from this trauma.
For what.
For Weapons of Mass Destruction that never existed and ties to Al-Qaeda that never existed either.
Yet, the people who sold us this war are not held accountable.
The corporations are in control and they want access to that oil. These corporations own the media and employ the people who read these submissions. They don't have the decency to print an essay like this one because they fear the wrath of their corporate masters.
I hope the living hell we have unleashed upon these poor people is worth it. I hope maintaining our oil-driven lifestyles is worth it. I hope your lies and corruption in the government/industry/media is worth it.
Is it that easy to look away?.

On Beyond Zebra

The Bush administration is now supporting the Sunnis who are fighting against Al-Qaeda. In a conflict where you can't tell who is who, they are supplying them with support and weapons. How do we know for sure that the Sunnis we are supplying arms to aren't Al-Qaeda themselves?
Let me see if I have this straight.
We supported Sadaam Hussein with money and weapons when he was at war with Iran. Then, we decided Sadaam was an imminent threat (which he was not) and attacked Iraq, deposing him. We disbanded the entire police force and army which was made up of Sunni (Baathist party) Sadaam loyalists. The Sunni resistance (insurgents?) have been primarily responsible for the attacks on the American occupying force. The US military has been training an Iraqi security force that contains members of militias of both Sunni and Shia origin. How can we be sure that the arms and training we are supplying won't be used against our troops?
It's bad enough that the Sunnis are being supported by the Saudis who use profits from the oil we buy from them.
How can we continue to send bodies of young men and women into a contradictory mess that our leaders are guessing at different strategies that so far have had dire consequences? How can we stop this madness? When will the Congress wake up and impeach this administration to stop this insane nightmare?

An Open Letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi

After the Democrats took control of Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment was "off the table" and a "waste of time".
Well, Nancy, how does it look now? The Iraq war is fully funded without withdrawal. Guantanamo is still open. Secret prisons are still open. Extraordinary rendition (kidnapping) is still happening. Torture is still happening. American soldiers continue to be maimed and killed. Millions of Iraq refugees are homeless and starving. America is hated across the world. World wide acts of terrorism have grown every year of the Bush administration. The US armed forces are devastated. Wounded soldiers are not cared for. The budget and trade deficits are growing. The Neocons are using our justice system to attack Democrats. Americans are being illegally wiretapped. Our Constitutional system of checks and balances has been trashed. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed, maimed, and have become homeless refugees.
The only reason that impeachment at this point would be a waste of time, Nancy, is if you are more concerned about your political career than what is humane.
Impeachment is part of our Constitution. If this is not the reason to use it then what is? If this is not the time to use it then when?

Veteran Expose' Helps Al-qaeda

Showing the veterans how poorly they will be treated after sacrificing their bodies for the rich man's oil is a real downer for troop morale. Does "be all you can be" mean hailing a taxi with a hole in your skull to get to a mold and rodent infested building 18?
Why can't the corporate run media keep a lid on the fact that the money for Iraq is really going to corporate fat-cats and not to the poor who have risked their lives?
If you were in Iraq in the middle of a civil war where most of the population agrees that it is okay to kill Americans, wouldn't you be a little upset to know that if you get wounded, you are on your own?
Remember, not keeping up troop morale helps Al-Qaeda. Telling the truth helps Al-Qaeda. So, let's keep everything under wraps as usual and let the troops have their false reality: that Uncle Sam will take care of them.
By the time they find out the truth, the corporate sharks won't need them anymore.

The failure bus already left

The delusional Republicans who assault our egos by saying we must not fail in Iraq need to be informed that that bus left the station a long time ago.
We lost in Iraq on March 18, 2003.
We lost because we as a nation allowed our President to perform the ultimate international crime of aggression.
We lost because we let the military/industrial/legislative complex rob our treasury and the treasury of generations to come.
We lost because a nation of honor has resorted to kidnapping, torture, and murder.
We lost because we let our government make the rich richer, and the poor poorer.
We lost because we have let an administration strip us of our rights to privacy.
We lost because this strategy has caused terrorism to increase worldwide.
We lost because of over 3,000 military deaths, 20,000 wounded, unknown thousands of PTSD sufferers and other mental and brain injuries, an estimated 655,000 dead Iraqis, hundreds of thousands of crippled, homeless, orphaned, innocent people.
We lost because the billions we have spent on this carnage could have been spent on education, hunger, and infrastructure.
We lost because the rest of the world now looks at America as a rogue, imperialistic bully.
We lost because we have become negligent in our materialistic, glutinous lifestyles of greed instead of keeping constant vigilance on our government.
We lost because we were a beacon of hope in the world that has become a cloud of war and despair.
So, when the Neocons spin their way into telling you that we should listen to them or we are defeated losers, when they tell you that failure is not an option, tell them they are right.
It's not an option.
It's a reality.

The First 100 Hours

The President of the United States has committed the supreme international crime of aggression. The top priority in Congress should be to hold the President accountable.
Is the newly elected majority in Comgress just another puppet of the military/industrial/legislative/religious complex?

Bush Helps the Enemy

The Bush administration is considering a "surge" of troop numbers in Iraq. What is a surge? It is a temporary increase of troops. Given that a surge only lasts a short time, it is an increase of troops with a timetable for withdrawal. According to President Bush, timetables help the enemy. All they have to do is wait out the surge and it will be over. Therefore, won't a surge in troops help the enemy?

The real tragedy of Ted Haggard

The real tragedy of Ted Haggard was not that he was gay or a drug user. The real tragedy was that he used the power of religion to influence his followers into believing that war was a Christian necessity.
His flock will probably write off his behavioral aberrations as the work of the devil. Maybe he was just a gay man who played a role because of the power, influence, fame, and money it provided him.
Ted was in constant contact with the Neocons at the White House. Maybe the Christianity he was preaching was not the verses of Mark but the gospel of Rove. The talking points headed down the calling tree from Karl Rove to Ted to the National Association of Evangelicals to the pastors to the calling cells to 30 million people.
I won't judge Ted for his lies, his homosexuality, his drug use, or the role he played. But, to turn the Prince of Peace into the God of War in his followers minds is a real societal tragedy. Why was the Christian community not outraged by the endorsement of preemptive war, a policy called the supreme international criminal act by the Nuremberg trials?
If his followers believe that the devil was responsible for his sinning behavior, can't they believe that his support of preemptive war was just another trick of the fallen angel?

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." - Gandhi

Free Market Boogie

We give our money to the Saudis for their oil.
The Saudis fund the Iraqi Sunni insurgents.
The Iraqi Sunni insurgents kill Americans.
Thank you, America, for paying to have our soldiers killed.
Can't a free market guy make a buck?

Reinstating the draft

I support reinstating the draft, only if the draft did not allow special privileges for wealthy individuals. The wealthy chicken hawks, like President Bush, who support war will not fight it themselves or enlist their children to fight. If they were forced to put their children in harm's way, it might not be so easy for our politicians to declare war.

Dems have power, now use it

Dear Democratic Congress:
Congratulations on a decisive victory. Bringing back integrity to Congress includes bringing back accountability. Bush and Cheney need to be held accountable for the lies they told to get this country into war in Iraq, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people and costing a trillion dollars.
You no longer have the excuse of not having control of both houses of Congress. To say that you will not hold them accountable and just work with them is tantamount to being an accomplice to their manipulation.

The Death of Our Democracy

It is time to sound the funeral dirge. It is a time of lament and sorrow. Having your vote count is the basis of democracy. When the Governator came from a future where machines ruled the world in the movie Terminator, we thought it was science fiction. Now the voting machine rules the world. Now vote totals are subject to no paper trails, hackable machines, and lack of verification.
The then CEO of Diebold, a large voting machine vendor, had given large sums to the Bush campaign and wrote that he would bring the vote home for Bush in 2004. Diebold's machines are proven to be hackable.
I could never imagine we would be living in a corporate/totalitarian state - but, here we are.
All those people who agonized and died for the banner of freedom and we end up with democracy being destroyed in a second with a keystroke.
Woe is us.

Rove Attacks!

With the Republican corruption scandals spiraling out of control, spin master Karl Rove and his media minions have begun a counter attack on the Democrats. Spoken in the same newscast breath with the indictments, convictions, and ethics violations of Delay, Cunningham, Ney, Foley, et al. are the admonishments of Sen. Harry Reid. You make the call. Which is more pernicious an ethics violation - money laundering of millions, taking bribes of millions to influence legislation, sexual predation of children, or tipping workers at a convention. The $3,000 over three years that Reid paid out of his campaign funds as gratuities is not enough to cover one night's comped meals for Rove at Abramoff's Signature restaurant. An uninformed viewer will look at the news cast and think the Democrat's violations are just as bad. As usual, big corporate media which supports the Republican war machine, will give each violation equal air time while some are much more egregious than others.

Neocon Manipulation of Evangelicals

The neocons in control of the Republican party have won elections by manipulating the evangelical Christian vote. They use issues like gay marriage and prayer in schools to prey on the "moral values" of the evangelicals. But, there are other important moral issues here. I do not seem to remember Jesus saying that it was acceptable to attack another country and cause the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. I do not remember Jesus saying that the rich should get richer while the poor suffer.
David Kuo's new book Tempting Faith, paints a picture of the neocons pandering to the evangelicals for their votes while sniggering about their sanity behind the scenes and not keeping their promises about what they will accomplish.
I am not saying that the evangelical Christians should vote Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent because of this manipulation, only that they should consider all the issues and their morality before blindly being steered by the neocons.

They Just Don't Suspect the Court Jester

In Frank Rich's new book The Greatest Story Ever Sold , he says that the only journalists who looked skeptically at the facts before the Iraq war were the fake news journalists (John Stewart, etc.). It is as it has always been, the universal blindspot of the arrogant elite is their failure to grasp the message and the power of the message of entertainment.

In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell -

Let's Cut and Run in '06

The neocons have had a great ploy to manipulate public opinion in saying the opposition would have us "cut and run". If a ship you are on is sinking and you will drown if you "stay the course" then "cut and run". If a car you are in has no brakes and staying the course will get you killed then cut and run. If you stay the course in a country that you have invaded to stop terrorism and it is making terrorism worse, you should cut and run. When staying the course puts us on the verge of causing more deaths than the dictator you overthrew, then cut and run. If staying the course is a strategy of installing democracy at gun point, then cut and run. It is very easy to say stay the course when you are only sacrificing the lives of poor strangers and your children are safe at home. It is easy to say stay the course when you and the friends around you grow rich and the poor are forced to join the military and risk their lives to support their families. As a matter of fact, I think cut and run is one of the best ideas I have ever heard. I think it should be a campaign slogan. "Let's cut and run in '06".

Manipulating with fear

The logic of "fight Al-qaeda there instead of fighting them here" is debatable. I think there are more options possible, but for the sake of argument let us say these are our choices.
To fight them there, we spend billions of dollars to send poor, young soldiers to their front door so they can be picked off in a shooting gallery. Al-qaeda does not have to have any transportation and very little money to kill the Americans that our government has been so kind to transport to them.
So, let's look at the other option. If we fight them here, how will they get here? Al-qaeda has no planes or boats. What will they do, swim?
And, just because we are fighting them there, it is still possible for them to fight us here anyway. I do admit it is much easier to kill Americans who have been brought to you than it is to go half way around the world to kill some. But, they can still come here while they are fighting there.
Isn't this just a fear ploy - pictures in your head of masses of Al-qaeda fighters coming up your street - to use fear to manipulate voters? We heard this same kind of rhetoric when invading Iraq - mushroom clouds and poison gas. The Republican party has fooled us before with this rhetoric, and as President Bush has said "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

God's Army

Onward Christian soldiers,
Marching on to kill.
With the cross of Jesus,
Ringing up the till.

The Devil at the U.N.

"I can still smell the sulfur..."
Venezualan President Hugo Chavez speaking at the United Nations after saying that the devil (George Bush) was in this place yesterday and crossing himself several times.

wtc negligence

I heard on the news last night that 70% of workers on the world trade center construction site have chronic respiratory problems.
Who are the people that are running this country? Do they think science is to be ignored? Or, do they just not care about the lives of the poor? Why is no one held accountable for this mass suffering of human life?
Take a look at the scorecard.
We have attacked a country that had no weapons of mass destruction and was of no military threat to the United States, killing thousands of innocent people.
We have botched the occupation of Iraq with gross incompetence.
We have cut the funds to repair the levees in New Orleans, causing the worst natural disaster in American history.
We have mishandled the response to Katrina, causing death and suffering to millions of our own people.
We have spent billions on wars and mistakes that could have been used to the benefit of humanity.
We have let 2 million refugees in Darfur rot in their camps.
Our country is being run by people who have been grossly negligent. Yet, no one is held accountable. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer, sicker, and neglected.
The rich and powerful who put the poor in harms way should be made to pay for their decisions.
The people who sent the unprotected workers into the world trade center site should have toxic waste dumped on their beaches in the Hamptons, so they can watch their families suffer, the way the poor have been made to suffer.