A Thousand Points of Light...extinguished
Clicking the title will take you to a page put up by the New York Times (sent to me by MoveOn.org), for which I am grateful. It may require you to subscribe, but it's free...and worth much more than the price.
55 or so points of light lit up last night's vigil for the fallen soldiers. MoveOn.org named the date, and Sheri Myers gathered us together, at the southwest corner of Mar Vista park. She called for a simple and dignified observance with no speeches or announcements, and we almost succeeded in respecting both of those wishes. It's easy for tempers to flair, or at least I know mine does when I think of the human price of this war. It's also easy to hurt for our fallen military personnel; but the cost to the Iraqi people is estimated to be ten or more times our cost.
When it became obvious that Dubya was going to war in Iraq (and it was obvious as early as September of '01), I was one of many Americans who thought: "Okay, you go after Saddam, but God help you if all they find are Pepsi bottles & toe nail clippings." God help you, and us, Dubya. When you look into the eyes of the service people killed in Iraq, (almost all of them pictured, click the title) these soldiers being some of our country's finest young men & women, do you see what I see? I see a person, and an individual's family, and that family's community, all devastated by their death. Multiplied by one thousand. I see our country with blinders on, covering not just peripheral, but all vision. I see a thousand points of light, extinguished, all for a regime change. How can America think that getting Saddam out of Iraq was worth this price?
It may have been worth it IF:
We were removing an imminent threat, which we were assured existed.
Or if Dubya hadn't had a hard-on for Iraq since about 1994.
Or if Dubya didn't win the presidency on a Supreme Court decision, that turned out to favor the loser of the election.
Or if he hadn't just finally admitted to his administration's "miscalculations" (how many of those thousand lives paid for those "boo-boos"? Boo-boos like dismissing the Iraqi army, sending men home to promptly join insurgent movements. I'm not sure Dubya acknowledges this as a "miscalculation." To me it has the feel of "severe error"). I of course know that some of these things you only learn when you go to war, BUT THAT'S WHY THE BAR IS SO FUCKING HIGH TO GO TO WAR!
Sorry, WAS so fucking high.
Or if the hubris of Dubya's administration hadn't lead directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
NO, not Abu Garump. I feel like Bob Dole when this topic comes up: why doesn't America recognize that Bush's and our country's moral authority is GONE, not just weakened, but now non-existant thanks to the conduct of many at Abu Ghraib? That this "miscalculation" may mean the difference between success & failure in Iraq? As Dole put it, where's the outrage? Abu boo-boo, indeed. If you don't think Bush is a liar, go back and listen to him say late last year that the tortue rooms and rape rooms of Saddam were gone. Sorry, they're not gone, they're just under new management!
What kills me the most is that when we finally went into Iraq, I remember the prevailing attitude being, "okay, but if there's no WMD's, you're busted." That isn't what the polls are saying today. Bush's cabal act as if they are beyond punishment. Well, if Bush wins (re-elected is not really accurate), we are REWARDING the sons-a-bitches (and Condie Rice as well).
Our soldiers have paid enough. We need them more here; sadly, we're stuck. Once again hubris is to blame. We can't leave until Iraq is stable, and that looks like something we are moving closer to, doesn't it? It's time for Bush to pay for his mistakes, acknowledged or not, with his job. If Kerry takes the right steps upon taking office, he could regain our moral authority.
The next person I hear DARE state that Bush has brought respectibility and decorum back to the presidency, gets 3 things from me. 1) a lecture explaining that it is less moral to lie the nation about a war, than it is to lie to the nation about a blow job; 2) a local sex worker to provide them with their first blow job, in case they still don't understand, & 3) my boot, made for postal workers to wear in the snow, instep-deep up their ass.
55 or so points of light lit up last night's vigil for the fallen soldiers. MoveOn.org named the date, and Sheri Myers gathered us together, at the southwest corner of Mar Vista park. She called for a simple and dignified observance with no speeches or announcements, and we almost succeeded in respecting both of those wishes. It's easy for tempers to flair, or at least I know mine does when I think of the human price of this war. It's also easy to hurt for our fallen military personnel; but the cost to the Iraqi people is estimated to be ten or more times our cost.
When it became obvious that Dubya was going to war in Iraq (and it was obvious as early as September of '01), I was one of many Americans who thought: "Okay, you go after Saddam, but God help you if all they find are Pepsi bottles & toe nail clippings." God help you, and us, Dubya. When you look into the eyes of the service people killed in Iraq, (almost all of them pictured, click the title) these soldiers being some of our country's finest young men & women, do you see what I see? I see a person, and an individual's family, and that family's community, all devastated by their death. Multiplied by one thousand. I see our country with blinders on, covering not just peripheral, but all vision. I see a thousand points of light, extinguished, all for a regime change. How can America think that getting Saddam out of Iraq was worth this price?
It may have been worth it IF:
We were removing an imminent threat, which we were assured existed.
Or if Dubya hadn't had a hard-on for Iraq since about 1994.
Or if Dubya didn't win the presidency on a Supreme Court decision, that turned out to favor the loser of the election.
Or if he hadn't just finally admitted to his administration's "miscalculations" (how many of those thousand lives paid for those "boo-boos"? Boo-boos like dismissing the Iraqi army, sending men home to promptly join insurgent movements. I'm not sure Dubya acknowledges this as a "miscalculation." To me it has the feel of "severe error"). I of course know that some of these things you only learn when you go to war, BUT THAT'S WHY THE BAR IS SO FUCKING HIGH TO GO TO WAR!
Sorry, WAS so fucking high.
Or if the hubris of Dubya's administration hadn't lead directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
NO, not Abu Garump. I feel like Bob Dole when this topic comes up: why doesn't America recognize that Bush's and our country's moral authority is GONE, not just weakened, but now non-existant thanks to the conduct of many at Abu Ghraib? That this "miscalculation" may mean the difference between success & failure in Iraq? As Dole put it, where's the outrage? Abu boo-boo, indeed. If you don't think Bush is a liar, go back and listen to him say late last year that the tortue rooms and rape rooms of Saddam were gone. Sorry, they're not gone, they're just under new management!
What kills me the most is that when we finally went into Iraq, I remember the prevailing attitude being, "okay, but if there's no WMD's, you're busted." That isn't what the polls are saying today. Bush's cabal act as if they are beyond punishment. Well, if Bush wins (re-elected is not really accurate), we are REWARDING the sons-a-bitches (and Condie Rice as well).
Our soldiers have paid enough. We need them more here; sadly, we're stuck. Once again hubris is to blame. We can't leave until Iraq is stable, and that looks like something we are moving closer to, doesn't it? It's time for Bush to pay for his mistakes, acknowledged or not, with his job. If Kerry takes the right steps upon taking office, he could regain our moral authority.
The next person I hear DARE state that Bush has brought respectibility and decorum back to the presidency, gets 3 things from me. 1) a lecture explaining that it is less moral to lie the nation about a war, than it is to lie to the nation about a blow job; 2) a local sex worker to provide them with their first blow job, in case they still don't understand, & 3) my boot, made for postal workers to wear in the snow, instep-deep up their ass.
posted by TRS at 9/10/2004 05:09:00 PM
2 Comments:
Hey - nice writing. Really nice. thanks. Xs
Excellent writing, TRS. I'm proud to be your friend.
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