The thing is that after Reagan was strutting around taking credit for having brought the wall down, what we didn’t hear out of the mouths of our politicians was that every form of government that refuses to listen to the needs of its people eventually winds up as the Soviet Union did.

We didn’t hear utterances of using that point in time to re-evaluate our responsibility to become stewards for other countries and the planet; setting a model for cooperation and understanding and embracing our ethnic differences in order to appreciate why the human race had its level of diversity.

We didn’t hear any word about using our surpluses to decrease the size of our military and have a corresponding increase in the size of Vista and the Peace Corps. We heard none of that.

No, instead, the same dysfunctional band of social misfits charged their way to the top and used the collapse of the Soviet Union to finally put us at the very top with no competition; well, so they thought.

What they did was to open up the Pandora’s Box of every vile and disgusting human weakness that has been a plague upon mankind since before the time of Abraham. Like a pandemic disease, it just spreads. It really is a cancer. It is a disease of neglect and unrelenting self absorbed opportunism. It is greed, lust, and a total lack of faith in anything but themselves; just like something right out of the Bible.

A rich country or empire like the US cannot wage wars of aggresion unless it first wages poverty and ignorance. tnx

As long as the majority of people who are ‘against’ the war continue voting for the democratic party, nothing will change.

So it goes.

http://www.NotOneMore.US

RedHorse said: What can anyone possibly say that hasn’t been said here before…

One thing that hasn’t been said about this is that the US was built on lies. American History is neck deep with the lies of our Government, fully supported by enough of the population to prevent a revolution.

Ask the Indians, still waiting for US to honor a treaty - any treaty! Ask the Workers who thought their labor would be paid for “fairly”, and still lose their jobs to Scabs if they strike! Ask the Blacks, brought here as slaves and promised ‘40 acres and a mule’, whatever happened to the mule? It was pretty easy for the Republicans to abandon the Blacks, in a shoddy backroom deal. Harrison got the Presidency in 1876 and the White, Southern, Democrats got a free hand to solve the “Race Problem”. Or the Leaders of the Suffragettes. who traded the vote for Women in exchange for an end to the Anti-War demonstrations leading up to WW1. WILPF [Women’s Internat’l League For Peace and Freedom] somehow lost its voice in 1916!

And not only was this Great Democracy built on lies and theft, but so were the Colonial years following Christopher Columbus’s ‘discovery’ of the Americas. Of course, the Americas had been discovered several times before that, but those explorers and settlers don’t count - most were not ‘white’.

Perhaps one of the biggest lies is what passes for education in the Public Schools. Most of us who went to University when History and Comp 101 were required courses, may remember the surprise of discovering what we knew as ‘US History’, was mostly lies!

Then, the pundits and the politicians, and the self-righteous dare to point their fingers at the victims and claim “They should’ve known better!” How? Who would tell them?

Do you discuss American Indian History with your kids? Do they know about the blankets with smallpox germs, handed out as ‘gifts’ to the savages? Perhaps you talk about the Japanese Internment and the heroes off the 442nd who fought their way across Italy, France, and Germany, during WW2. Oh, and while they were at it, won more citations and medals for bravery than any other US Army Regiment - ever. Another seldom discussed piece of WW2 History is all the promises made to the Filipino troops who fought with the US Military in the Philippines. They were promised full VA benefits back in the early 1940s. It is now 2010, and the few old guys who are still alive are still waiting.

I hope those Undocumented kids who join the US Military for a Green Card, survive. And, that they get their green cards faster then the Filipino soldiers who trusted MacArthur and his Henchmen got their pensions!

Just sharing a very privileged experience I had a while ago. The young son of a
legal and very hard-working immigrant couple I knew decided to sign up for
the army, right after graduating from high school. He had an enlistment date
already when his mother came to see me. She was extremely heart-broken. I
enquired around and managed to find a Vietnam Vet who was very well-
informed and active in helping to educate young people about what joining the
military really meant. He was a reasonable man who even had a cordial
relationship with the head of army recruitment in the area.

The young boy agreed to the meeting.  The Vet came to the family home and he
and the boy sat in a corner of the living-room while the family and I sat quietly
nearby. The experienced soldier spoke with the young man for quite a long
time. He didn’t try to dissuade him by showing antagonism towards the army or
by proselytizing about any cause. He very eloquently proceeded to explain to
the boy what each of the promises the recruiters had made actually meant.  He
also gave him an idea as to how and where he would end up after joining. The
Vet asked him to think about it and offered him help with writing a letter to
withdraw from the commitment should he decide to do so.

A number of agonizing days followed during which the mother didn’t see any
progress but finally the young man decided to cancel his enlistment. He is now
pursuing his education. It was an incredibly moving experience.

Firefly:  Excuse me for contradicting you, but I believe the reason hundreds of kids like Alex join up is that there are no jobs for them and education above high school is not available so the way they see it, there’s nothing better to do.
  Usually recruiters overload the case also by giving out exaggerated stories about how they can use the Army to vastly improve their future—which is generally exaggerated and seldom works out as planned or presented.
  It is trut the kids are often naive and think they can “see the world” and “become a man” and all that clap-trap.  But that means the behavior of the Services is all the more disgusting, to take advantage of such naivete and ignorance to lead a kid into signing over his life for glitzy talk and what are essentially lies and misrepresentations.
  Furthermore, peer pressure plays its part also. If friends join up, that increases the appeal, which often happens. 
  There are ways to resist and refuse, but kids have no idea how to do it, and their parents are also ignorant of possibilities, or are victims of the “hero” myths. School people—teachers, principals—may know what recruiters are up to, but they hesitate to intercede for fear of pressure on the issue of patriotism, loyalty and so forth.
  In short, nobody tells the kids the straight truth when they need to know it most—either because of lack of access or lack of awareness or lack of specific knowledge about alternatives which are available.
  It’s a subtle kind of exploitation in many ways and any one of us could help avoid it if we became informed ourselves and worked with youngsters we now in our neighborhoods, churches, PTAs and so forth.
See Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Washington, DC.

I have a genuine deep sympathy for families who’ve
lost their sons during the wars, but I can’t help
feeling that they were naive to have joined the war
effort in the first place. What did this guy think
war was? Some kind of Hollywood movie, where all the
Americans win? War is horrendous. If you listen to
the past generation of Europeans, war is NOT
something to be taken on lightly. That’s why Tony
Blair is so reviled in England. His naivety about
war.

These Americans had a choice (unlike in Vietnam). To
blame the government for causing the war is one
thing, to blame the government because they CHOSE to
go and fight, is another. The truth about war needs
to get out there. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the
civilians that have died weren’t given that choice.
The truth about war needs to get out there.

“This is what happens every week to some family in
America,” says Carlos. “This is what war does. And
this is the grief and pain the government does not
want people to see.”

While I have sympathy for families who’ve lost people
during the war, I can’t help feeling that they were
naive to have joined the war effort in the first
place. What did this guy think war was? Some kind of
Hollywood movies, where all the Americans win? War is
horrendous. If you listen to the past generation of
Europeans, war is NOT something to be taken on
lightly. That’s why Tony Blair is so reviled in
England. His naivety about war.

Americans had a choice. To blame the government for
causing the war is one thing, to blame them because
some Americans CHOSE to go and fight, is another. In
Iraq and Afghanistan, the civilians that have died
weren’t given that choice.

Paaul Appell:  Thanks for that!  That’s a real human heart speaking.

Before I went to Viet Nam, I was assigned as a survivor assistance officer.  The chaplain was busy, so I had to go and notify the parents by myself.  At the time I could not think of any truthful thing to say that would give them comfort.  I also had to write the parents of one of my men when he was killed in Viet Nam.  To this day I still think about what I could possibly have said.  I have yet to come up with a truthful justification for their deaths.  For that I am so sorry.  When Chris finished talking to Carlos, I went over and gave Carlos an extra long hug.  That is the best I can do.
I read the following at the poetry reading at the Vetrans For Peace convention.  I wrote it to express my experience with death.
The Messenger of Death
Flip, flip the numbers on the odometer turn over
One less mile till I have to deliver the message from Dover

Thump, thump goes the mother’s fists against my chest
Not enough miles to think of a justification for her son’s eternal rest

The odometer of life flips on with each setting sun
I find myself writing another mother about the death of another son

Though separated by miles of ocean with waves that pound the shore
I fell her fists pound my chest because of the inadequate message that I bore

Though months, years, decades on my odometer turn over
Like the phantom pain of a lost appendage, the thump, thump is forever

In Iraq a boy from my small community can no longer take any breaths
The pounding thump, thump tells me this of all these Iraq and Viet Nam War deaths

Waste, waste, waste

Don’t be so pessimistic into thinking that discussion here doesn’t have it’s merits. What is does do is to cement our commitments to a higher cause so that, when we leave this internet format, we even more sure of our commitment than we were the day before.

And don’t think for one moment that every person you speak with in between postings here can’t tell your level of commitment and that you might actually be able to teach them something that they didn’t know yesterday. So, it isn’t just the ramblings on this post and this is where it stops. This is fermentation pot, a place where we are able to share resource links and poignant one liners that will stick with those others that we speak with off-list tomorrow.

I don’t have a problem with the Democratic Party in the sense that if Dennis Kucinich can do what he does and still be a Democrat, so too can the rest of them. And just as Ron Paul can be a Republican, why is it that the rest of his brethren are so far off the path? This isn’t about parties so much as it is about a loss of faith in the system. The issue is about integrity and anyone with it understands why they were elected and the document they swore to uphold.

Tobysgirl

I wish my nephew, who is anxious to enlist, would have read Zinn’s ‘History of the American People’ or even Churchill Ward’s ‘On the Justice of Roosting Chickens’in school instead of Texas-inspired textbooks.

Although my brother gets me sh** about my unconventional views—- I’ll bet he wishes he would have indoctrinated his son with Leftist garbage now.

What can anyone possibly say that hasn’t been said here before. We are all soaked to the bone in this horror. And we are all culpable. We are well past the threshold of shock, suprise and meaningful discussion. Let me say the truth again: Your country is in the hands of psychopathic megalomaniacal narcissistic paranoid murderers. They have no intention of stopping. You can live with it, or die with it. But that’s the way it is.

    May God bless and guide us all and may God preserve our Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Most people don’t even know they can work against recruitment in schools and neighborhoods locally. There are informative materials available for teachers, parents and students from junior high level up. (Search Quakers, or Conscientious Objection to War or Fellowship of Reconciliation or Peace Churches or American Friends Service Committee.) Some principals of schools think they have to allow recruiters to work on or near school sights and parents need to know where to get counter-information and cooperate with each other to make that information available.
  Go to the website of, for example, Iraq Veterans Against War, or Google “counter-recruitment. Information is available. Many parents go along with the program because they don’t know anything else, or where to go for information.
  We are in danger of using war to bolster a sinking economy without most people knowing the connection between their kids being killed and the price of eggs versus unemployment insurance.  It’s a complicated crime against humanity, inhumane and unfair.  It has to be stopped.

The best thing one can do to fight this is to raise your children—and for vets to go into schools and speak the truth to students—to be SKEPTICAL of their government. The kids I’ve known who enlisted KNEW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the world. They were completely ignorant of geography, history, economics, and how things work. Their parents were either naive themselves or completely apathetic about the world around them.

Odd, you know.  As I was reading this piece, I was listening to this song.  Odd bit of synchronicity.

—

Imagine it pouring, it’s raining down on us
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone’s tryin’ tell us something,
Maybe this is God just sayin’ we’re responsible
For this monster, this coward,
That we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin’
How could we allow something like this without pumping our fists
Now this is our final hour
Let me be the voice in your strength and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply by six…
Teen million people, Are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al-Qaeda through my speech
Let the president answer a higher anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain’t loyal
If we don’t serve our own country, we’re patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes its all lies
The stars and stripes, they’ve been swiped, washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight….

And as we proceed,
To Mosh through this desert storm,
In these closing statements, if they should argue
Let us beg to differ
As we set aside our differences
And assemble our own army
To disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction
That we call our President, for the present
And Mosh for the future of our next generation
To speak and be heard
Mr. President, Mr. Senator
Do you guy’s hear us…hear us…

—Eminem “Mosh”  An excerpt

Thank you, Chris, for yet another article for our times. Your articles are always on-point.

We are all trying to do what is right. In my case, I have just written several elected officials as follows. If it registers with anyone out there, please substitute names and send out copies at will.

The issue has more to do with survival than social justice.

But what I propose aspires to make lemonade out of lemons.

——————————————-

To——:

I’m a progressive. After Obama (and many of your betrayals as well), I will never vote Democrat again.

Anger isn’t the motivator here. Strategy is. My guess is that if this patter (I’m refining it, and it’s pretty succinct at this point) begins showing up in Congressional email and on the web as a meme, it may get people to think.

Think about the transfer of our nuclear access codes in 2012.  There is nothing more important. 

Bush had some checks and balances. Palin (or someone like her) will not, especially if people like Beck or Limbaugh are on the Cabinet). It’s really that serious.

If the Dems win in 2010, they will lose in 2012. By then, things will be much worse, and Obama will be unelectable.  Moreover, no viable progressive/independent third party will have yet been formed. Think Weimar, 1932.

The writing’s on the wall. If we want that to give the nuclear access codes to someone like Palin, we’ll vote Democrat in 2010. Otherwise, we make a bank shot, hoping that things will favor the creation of a viable progressive/ independent party in 2012.

Let’s have no more wasted time in trying to save the DNC’s soul. I’d urge Democratic progressive elected officials to publicly resign from that party ASAP. It could create the necessary groundswell, as nature does abhor a vacuum.

Now, you yourself are a corporately-owned DNC Democrat. So is Senator Patty Murray in Washington State, where I live.

I can’t vote against you, but to do my part in helping to bring forth a truly viable progressive/independent third party, I will not vote for her next November.

It’s way past time closing time for the Dems.

“It’s over,” as Leonard Cohen said.“It ain’t going any further.”

There is not Heaven or Hell, they are creations of those who want the rabble (us) to pine for that while in the real world the infamies done against all of us go unpunished. Otherwise it helps them to believe so.

“This is what happens every week to some family in America,” says Carlos. “This is what war does. And this is the grief and pain the government does not want people to see.”

Read this, Obama.  For when you arrive in hell, these will be the only words you’ll be allowed to speak.

Very good idea but beware, unlike the Tea Baggers, you won’t be immune from police harassment. They will try to get you to do something they can misconstrue as an “attack.” Having children with you won’t protect you. Just words to the wise. It is a noble cause and I am behind you. Hope the gov’t will notice and listen.

He needs to remove that American flag from his truck/display and burn it.

We can write comment after comment and it won’t change anything.  We can blame this person or that cause and it won’t change anything.
  We can do something, write someone, call someone, go meet with someone and create some way to act without violence, and changes will occur which may develop into other changes, and eventually ... who knows what creative ideas and actions will occur.

There are lots of people already working on different kinds of actions, always needing more help.
Lots more people are upset enough to be ready to join them if they could find the way out of their present limitations.  There are still lots more hurting as a result of failing government policies who are willing to learn and want to move toward a better future. 
  I see in my mind’s eye a “Hit the Road to the Future” campaign, starting with one car on the road to DC with several people with enough money for gas and motel and food on the road. They have decided to learn about and promote, let’s say, “End Wars Now” and use what could be done with the money saved as their “message.”
  A mile or two behind, another car decides to join, and it’s people choose to emphasize “Jobs Now” and they learn to talk to people they meet about employment and economic justice, unions, corporate over-reach, etc.
  A third car joins in soon after, carrying people headed toward DC with the message “Justice Now” and its passengers are planning to talk en route with people about problems of equal justice for all, etc. etc.
  By the time the original cars get to, let’s say, St. Louis, every single car has been joined by others who decided to cooperate, joining the interest of their choice.  By Indianapolis, there are 59 cars and 14 interest sections, including Economic Justice Now, Truth Now, Cooperation Now, Hopeful Futures Now, Rebuild Now and Political Courage Now.  Varying numbers of new participants join all along the way.  The venture is all over the evening news. The trip has achieved financial backing from sympathetic people who donate money because they are unable to go themselves yet want to be represented. People throughout the eastern States are panning to join at the arrival in DC.
  There is a loosely knit over-all organization forming made up of people who have experience in social action and coalition work.
  The groups have occasional traffic problems and are careful to cooperate with local regulations. The larger they get, the more they have to work out plans in advance. 
  They regret the necessity of burning gasoline to achieve their ends, but are putting one dollar out of every ten into a fund to donate to a Green organization in order to acknowledge their consciousness of having done wrong in order to do right—or something like that.
  Anyway, this is a better dream than most of us seem to be having these days.  What else could do the job better? (Oh, yeah, almost forgot.  Rules
in the interest of comradeship—No guns. No flag-waving. No religious declarations, preachments. If encountered en route, the answer is silent smiles. No resistance. No counteraction. No confrontation.  Participants need at least minimum awareness of rules of non-violent action.)
  ????????

It is true that we are not getting enough coverage of the personal costs of the war out of our corporate media, who dutifully focus only on military strategic issues.  In truth the loses of our troops in the big picture are quite low, and the stories of “Alex” type loses to Iraq/Afghan parents are about hundreds of times our own.  That is a lot of anger generated over there and makes winning hearts and minds another jingoistic lie.  Obama’s vomitous speech the other day barely footnoted these loses and went on to dress-up “our” criminal wars as “service” to our nation, and make the case for continueing the American killing spree.

True Darth Cheney had 6 deferments but otherwise he is “tough” especially when it comes to others fighting and dying for the elite’s causes not our own. It will continue as long as we allow it. The only justice in the universe is one done by ourselves.

A heart-breaking story or waste and destruction of human life.

All so that the succubus Dick Cheney and his minions could get fatter and richer.

I am aware of the lies used to foment the Iraq war. Were there any truths involved at all?

Requiring politicians to be truthful is sucker bet. They can’t do it and will not. It is almost as possible to persuade a cleric to avoid distortions of reality in explaining why you should believe pure nonsense and support the cleric in a manner never found acceptable by the progenitor of his faith.

“I’m sorry, we’re here to notify you about the death of Lance Cpl. Arredondo,” one of the officers told him. Alex was the 968th soldier or Marine to be killed in the Iraq war.

Now multiply that by at least 10,000 times of Iraqis living in the hell of the USA and the “coalition of the willing” has done to them. Now if we spent the same kind of personal time with each Iraqi family and their members what would happen then? There would be no time for other news because it would take days, weeks and months of 24/7 reporting to cover it. But then people would be disinclined to let it go on, even to the garrison force that will be permanently in Iraq.

Such families as the Arradondo‘s have been used by our military most especially if they are illegals they would bargain their lives for a green card or permanent citizenship. I wonder how many have gotten such post mortem so far.

As long as we let the rich pull our strings and punch our emotional buttons, they will get their soldiers. Heroic is just a word much abused in our society. We see how well they think of our soldiers when they are used up and damaged, they work to leave them hanging without benefits for their care and treatment. A true disgrace.

Did anyone do the accounting analysis as regards the Iraq Invasion? If Joseph Stiglitz estimates the cost at $3T and if casualties are 30,200 wounded and 4300 dead—then it has “cost” Uncle Sam 86.7 megabucks for each and every wounded/dead American soldier/sailor/marine or airman.

Think of the Health Care we could have bought for that amount. Think of the kids we could have put through a post-secondary education ... instead of bringing them home in body-bags or with some debilitating injury.

The mind boggles ...

I can think of no worse duty than that of notifing the next of kin.

I have had to envoke the 23rd psalm over one my subordinate Marines who was killed in action, but that was in front of the unit.  The Marine in question was to due to go home on leave and his parents were not home when the I&I Marines dropped by.  They were notified at the airport waiting for their son.

Just one of those stories which will stay with me till I die.

Re:  The worm, September 6 at 9:20 am
“The populace loves to hate, loves to scape goat, loves the adrenalin rush of it all. And, then, we will be gone. As the Communists said “Destroyed from within” .... By our own hatred, ignorance, arrogance and stupidity.”

Quotes from the movie, The American President, (Michael J. Fox as Lewis Rothschild) “People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”

And in response, (Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd): ” Lewis, ........ People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.”

Unfortunately, they were both right. The people ARE thirsty for the truth and yet they would drink the sand because the people who had control of the water refused to discuss its existence. With enough propaganda, politicians think they might convince everyone that our manufacturing base went overseas because we were lazy and stupid, while self-righteously sitting back in their $5,000 suits to figure out another way to steal from the population.

===================

People don’t “love to hate”. If they hate, it’s because the flames of hatred had been fanned by the likes of Bush the Idiot and every other opportunistic politician who thought they could get some mileage out of a photo op with the prez. Of course they didn’t really understand what they were signing because they didn’t have time to actually read the Patriot Act, but why aren’t we hearing an outcry from Washington for its repeal? In the REAL world, this is called malfeasance and misfeasance. Save for a few, we have nothing but a House and a Senate full of corrupt bobbleheads, who are now rolling up their shirt sleeves and taking off their ties on TV to make it look like they are in the trenches with the rest of us. Gotta luv ‘em!

Again, this is no different than some dysfunctional family where the mother is an alcoholic and hiding the booze in a trunk in the basement, the father is cheating on his wife while saying he’s out playing cards with the boys, and the kids have low grades in school and are in trouble all the time. Everyone KNOWS there is something wrong, but no one wants to talk about it, particularly those at the head of the family.

Parents are normally held responsible, that is, up until the kids turn 21, when they are then ‘legally’ expected to ‘know better’. The politicians are no different than the parents, here, since they have access to all the incoming information and actively CHOOSE to deny the rest of the ‘family’ from knowing the truth; the truth about mom’s addiction, the truth about dad’s philandering, and they refuse to discuss the truth about the kid’s risky behaviors, promiscuous sexual activity, and the time in juvy hall. Who was responsible for setting the moral high ground? The difference, here, is that the politicians have knowingly dumbed down the population so that, in effect, their ‘kids’ remain as intellectual minors and never allowed to mature enough to the point where they could question or then change the actions of their ‘parents’. Now, as the ‘kids’ are becoming more informed about the real truth, the parents turn a blind eye and clam up every time one of the kids brings up an item of concern. And these ‘parents’ now resent the fact that the ‘kids’ have no respect for them.

If the politicians were being totally transparent and responsible about their activities, and the population was still acting stupid and was filled with hatred, I would agree with you, but that isn’t what’s happening here.

Re:  The worm, September 6 at 9:20 am
“The populace loves to hate, loves to scape goat, loves the adrenalin rush of it all. And, then, we will be gone. As the Communists said “Destroyed from within” .... By our own hatred, ignorance, arrogance and stupidity.”

Quotes from the movie, The American President, (Michael J. Fox as Lewis Rothschild) “People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”

And in response, (Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd): ” Lewis, ........ People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.”

Unfortunately, they were both right. The people ARE thirsty for the truth and yet they would drink the sand because the people who had control of the water refused to discuss its existence. With enough propaganda, politicians think they might convince everyone that our manufacturing base went overseas because we were lazy and stupid, while self-righteously sitting back in their $5,000 suits to figure out another way to steal from the population.

===================

People don’t “love to hate”. If they hate, it’s because the flames of hatred had been fanned by the likes of Bush the Idiot and every other opportunistic politician who thought they could get some mileage out of a photo op with the prez. Of course they didn’t really understand what they were signing because they didn’t have time to actually read the Patriot Act, but why aren’t we hearing an outcry from Washington for its repeal? In the REAL world, this is called malfeasance and misfeasance. Save for a few, we have nothing but a House and a Senate full of corrupt bobbleheads, who are now rolling up their shirt sleeves and taking off their ties on TV to make it look like they are in the trenches with the rest of us. Gotta luv ‘em!

Again, this is no different than some dysfunctional family where the mother is an alcoholic and hiding the booze in a trunk in the basement, the father is cheating on his wife while saying he’s out playing cards with the boys, and the kids have low grades in school and are in trouble all the time. Everyone KNOWS there is something wrong, but no one wants to talk about it, particularly those at the head of the family.

Parents are normally held responsible, that is, up until the kids turn 21, when they are then ‘legally’ expected to ‘know better’. The politicians are no different than the parents, here, since they have access to all the incoming information and actively CHOOSE to deny the rest of the ‘family’ from knowing the truth; the truth about mom’s addiction, the truth about dad’s philandering, and they refuse to discuss the truth about the kid’s risky behaviors, promiscuous sexual activity, and the time in juvy hall. Who was responsible for setting the moral high ground? The difference, here, is that the politicians have knowingly dumbed down the population so that, in effect, their ‘kids’ remain as intellectual minors and never allowed to mature enough to the point where they could question or then change the actions of their ‘parents’. Now, as the ‘kids’ are becoming more informed about the real truth, the parents turn a blind eye and clam up every time one of the kids brings up an item of concern. And these ‘parents’ now resent the fact that the ‘kids’ have no respect for them.

If the politicians were being totally transparent and responsible about their activities, and the population was still acting stupid and was filled with hatred, I would agree with you, but that isn’t what’s happening here.

I must say; this is the finest group of comments of any
I’ve read over the last 4 years here @ TD.
Congrat’s one and all.

Obscurity of the wars seem superseded by the Obscurity of Bush evading Vietnam by his so called service in the National Guard, then his demanding the National Guard fight his wars when he was safe as president!

Why does most despicably and disgusting hypocrisy come to mind!

In the grand scheme of things, the little people are as fodder to be used as deemed by those in power, who find war only a chess game and the people only chess pieces!

From the column,“They Kill Alex” by Chris Hedges:

Quote
=====

The government chose not to prosecute him.

Unquote
=======

Of course not!

And the “Of course not!” has nothing to do with sympathy.Period.

And before he got killed,Alex asked his father NOT to forgive him for what he had done in Iraq. And I,for one,will respect Alex’s request.

And there is NO legal status of limitation for war criminals and instigators of the war in Iraq. Sooner or later,they must be brought to justice,if the death of Alex and thousands like him to mean anything.

And “patriotism?” is NOT to cheaply calling Alex’s death in Iraq as “heroic?”,but to bring the war criminals and instigators of the war in Iraq to face justice.

And if America cares to regain its lost moral soul in the mud of Mesopotamia,it has to come clean from the destruction of Iraq and the slaughter and distitution of its innocent citizens some of whom I had known so well,through my countless business trips to Iraq in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I was stationed in Amman,Jordan,then.

And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Fourth Convention and the well established International law and United Nations Charter attest to all of the foregoing.

paradox of deeds…

loyal young lie moments from… those fighting steps to death…
under names instilled within their brains… to have them ‘be their best’...
they looked ahead from days now dead… insurance sold to youth…
invincible their young eyes saw… till blood men showed them truth…
how different front lines change the mind… from boot camps stamping ‘follow me’...
when seeing skies through other eyes… becomes a lie in infantry…
surviving skills put to the test… in battles on his soul…
whip the dread of ‘kill the rest’... which made the soldier whole…
lessons wrought when preachers taught… those kids their golden rule…
sneak outside from where they hide… like questions meant to fool…
down-sized arrows pierce inside… and hit the bull’s-eye knot…
as leaking veins collapse in pain… leaving open wounds to rot…
what’s left tides over soldier’s time… treading water on a wave…
in seas of big shots’ apathy… for finding ways to save…
false towers built by self-made power… crumble neath their spell…
of ‘right is might’ by some men’s light… held in that height from hell…
tales tell them… ‘do it well… as those before you did’...
while memories of old sympathies… emerge from where they hid…
the enemy’s sight of family ties… gets beaten up by second-thoughts…
as faces lose the human race… when saving grace is the guy who lost…
blood lines to what’s left behind… back in someone’s home…
let the despair of not being there… drip on dying bones…
the war within the soldier’s core… strips life from broken seed…
what they go through… for who knows who!?!... is the paradox of deeds!...

(things need to change to get better… lotsa stuff to do… keep telling the lawmakers… ((no matter when their terms come to an end… and hopefully better workers begin!))... to wake up this government!... to care about the basics!... and stop misleading!... and end all the war!... and don’t waste anymore!...

and here’s one of many links that can be used to do that… and get congressional information etc too)... http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials

(and there’s lotsa other stuff to do too!)...

the best of wishes’n'ways’n'todays to each’n'everyone!...

The Pentagon learned the lessons of conscription (draft) backlash during the Vietnam Anti-War Movement. They saw how an involuntary, middle class draft seeding a controversial war ripped at the fabric of American society, driving many thousands of young people into forms of intense protest not previously encountered.  Solution: turn the non-commissioned military into a “professional” career path, a regular “job” with benefits, just like any other job in an auto plant or a steel mill. Make it a choice, albeit a more likely one for non-college bound recruits, and render the draft unnecessary and irrelevant. As recent history has shown, it worked beyond the Pentagon’s most cynical expectations.

Notwithstanding the last nine years of two overlapping wars, multiple combat tours for our overwhelmed, overtaxed, ill-equipped fighting force (remember the body armor and Humvee armor scandals?), and horrific casualties in both theaters, the Pentagon’s plan succeeded in defusing any serious domestic anti-war protest, let alone a movement, against the Iraq war.  With no draft threatening them, middle class American young people, usually college-bound, and their families had little to protest, and left the wars to the warmongers and the professional “rank and file” soldier who joined the military by choice, even if that choice was often accompanied by a recruiter snow job.

Over time, our fighting forces became effectively invisible to most Americans, their obscurity reinforced by severely restricted media coverage (demanded by the Pentagon of course) that morphed previous 1970’s nightly TV news reports of the battlefield carnage in Vietnam into tightly controlled video bites from Iraq and Afghanistan that sanitized atrocities and death to a watchable, acceptable minimum. 

Instead of being permitted to witness through objective video journalism the fighting and dying in their name, or being asked to sacrifice in some tangible way to help support and fund these wars, Americans were asked to “go shopping” and act like nothing unusual was happening, keep spending, enjoy the tax cuts, and leave the fighting and dying and traumatic brain injury and amputations to the pros.

I have two sons, 25 and 21.  They have both been spared these stupid, cynical, pointless wars.  As a father, I am profoundly grateful. I can say this as Vietnam-era vet who enlisted and served 4 years in a Cold War hotspot. I can’t imagine the grief and loss suffered by Mr. Arredondo, or the thousands of other parents who’ve lost their precious sons and daughters in these fiascos. And yet, it continues, and our country is crushed under the burden of its own folly.  Iraq is much worse off than when we invaded, and Afghanistan is immutable, impenetrable, a supreme waste of blood and treasure. To paraphrase my dead grandmother, “Is there anybody home?”

Rationalization does not cause a war of aggression like the one against iraq and afgh’n. A CAUSE causes wars of aggression.
But what precedes an aggression? Words? Yes or no? I say, yes!
Before wars of aggressions are launched, hunches and words first appear in body-minds of some people.
And different and public words follow the unspoken words. Which i call rationalization, or giving a never-ending number of reasons, but none justifying the murder.
But what precedes the verbal bravery? Is it seeing 3 tanks in one’s backyard and one or no tank in your made-in-america enemy’s backyard.

And, yes, that’s how enemies are made. They appear manufactured; the enemies always being much weaker and dysfunctional and thus ripe for the taking.
Cakewalk into iraq proves it. tnx
More can be said!

All that pain and misery filled anguish because Bush and Cheney wanted to show the world they had cojones.  So many people died because our national leaders lied for no good reason at all.

“They” take our children because “We” let them…all the manipulation,propaganda,bribes and lies that governments use to fill the ranks of cannon fodder are supported by the cowardice and/or apathy of men and women who refuse to say “NO”,who cravenly submit to the lies of the powerful…

Compare this young man’s story and tragedy to Donald Rumsfeld picking targets in Iraq because they had “hard targets” and NOTHING to do with 9/11.

When the apologists for George W. Bush’s war (to show he was a “tough guy”) make excuses and false claims about Dems knowing and supporting it, look at this family and repeat your lies.  Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney deliberately wove a web of lies to present to Congress and the American public to drum up support for this war in Iraq.

And, since Alexander was Hispanic, child of working-class immigrants, a million miles away from Bush’s circle, they figured his life was “OK” to sacrifice, along with 4,500 other young American lives, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.  “Faceless” Hispanics mow the grass, paint, build houses, clean buildings—and can send their sons to die and with what response?  Supposedly “Patriotic” fascists desecrate this young man’s grave. 

I rarely praise Chris Hedges but this is one more article on the list of his best.

All wars are a woven fabric of lies, whether or not those lies are later used to justify subsequent violence.
One of the more ghastly aspects of the so-called volunteer military is that it assuages fears of conscription by substituting a voluntary ethos that denies the existence of economic class divisions while taking full advantage of those very same discrepancies.
So much of the American people have become so crust hardened to their own consumerist demands that they refuse to acknowledge that those sacrificed for the global “war on terror”, have any humanity at all.
The best that can often be expected, is a jingoistic hero’s welcome, and a heartfelt thanks from a grateful nation, to a posthumously awarded corpse.

Sad that these things keep repeating.  Truth be told- the Democrats are (for the most part) no better and are equally to blame.

My heart aches for Carlos and his loss, just as my heart aches for what has happened to our once righteous country.  Why are the war criminals still walking around free and bragging?  Why are the banksters who destroyed our economy being rewarded with millions of dollars, government positions, and the license to continue their fiscal crimes?  Universal single pay healthcare is the overwhelming will of the people.  Why does the government persist in playing games with greedy criminal corporations?

The biggest tragedy is that a negotiated settlemtnt will end this particular conflict, sooner or later, and the most of these individuals will have died in vain to accomplish what exactly?
All you need to do is to refer back to the statement made by George W. Bush to the leaders of Afghanistan’s rulers at the time, and you will note that, with the specific request conceded by these leaders in the surrendering of Osama Bin Laden to American custody, and the closing of the training camps, these Afghan rulers could carry on as per normal. It wasn’t of much use to the general Afghan population as a whole but, then, their needs were never taken into consideration, never going to be part of the deal…...and so it continues.

Out of revenge against Muslims came 9/11,our Reichstag, and the invasion of Afghistan. Revange against Saddam came the lies to invade Iraq. Mllions died, countries distroyed, and the Guilty walk free.

This is what America has to look forward to in Afghanistan and next in X , then Y ,
and on to Z. As the perpetual ‘war on terror’ continues under Democrat and
Republican, America loses its youth, its fortune and the moral high-ground.

We have lost our way, and the powers that be (media, military, contractors, etc)
will not allow us to return.

The populace loves to hate, loves to scape goat, loves the adrenalin rush of it all.

And, then, we will be gone. As the Communists said “Destroyed from within” ....
By our own hatred, ignorance, arrogance and stupidity.

Any politician who uses the flimsy excuse that a new 9/11 investigation will only create further divisiveness is only avoiding having the people
become more divided from their politicians when they discover that their politicians were either complicit, knew but supported a cover up, or
got caught up in that stupid “frenzy” of patriotism (whatever the hell that asinine term is now supposed to mean).

Now, the guilty ones are so caught up in their own lies that they have to keep creating more lies to perpetuate the first.

Chris, Ofer was right, you need to get onboard with Leahy’s bill.

My condolences to Arradondo family.

My nephew has a scholarship to college. His mother is Mexican.  She was a lawyer in Mexico, but they have not been able to afford to translate a Mexican license to an American one.

Because he is Hispanic looking the recruiters were all over him his freshman year.  They promised him that the Army was a good way to get into the FBI, and that they would give him everything.

When I spoke with his mom, she waa devestated.  He will lose his academic scholarship when he enlists and not be able to come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  He won’t listen to her or his father because of how the Army preyed on his youthful ideas of glory, heroism, and made him feel chosen and importants.

I hope he stays safe.

What goes threw the minds of those who must deliver such messages, day in and day out. Could these officers be career military men and the paychecks and benefits they receive void in their minds any pain that their message brings?  Are these marine officers so brainwashed that they would back any war our country engaged in? I suspect so. Are their heart made of stone? Again, I suspect so. Does one have the right to call the Sheriff’s office or police demanding such ones who refuse to leave the premises be arrested for trespassing?
What about retroactive bonuses for the Vietnam War Veterans who really got a raw deal?

One more post this mornin…...

Hey Hedges, if you are so concerned then why don’t

you organize a nation wide campaign to get signatures

on the Patrick Leahy bushtruthcommission.com petition?

You won’t.  cuz dey don wan u toooooooooo! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Once again, Hedges spills information that we
already know.
He is so afraid to step on a political party he will
never speak of how to stop this victimization, how to
organize against this policy.

  Just more beautiful Hedges rhetoric of situations
all of us already know about.
We could use a whole lot more of Glen Greenwalds and
a whole lot less of democrat apologists.

This IS where the rubber meets the road in our American ...etc. If
only more parents had this degree of realism to the call of the
recruiter to hell.

Thanks Chris and especially thank you Carlos for such a wonderful tale of a father’s love and his revulsion over what we are doing.  You are right ... we have been sanitized to what goes on and we forget that war is about death and destruction.  To think that these bastards sacrificed so many lives for a lie and now they get away with it.  They should all rot in hell forever.