Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few — the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
Major General Smedley Butler
From: War is a Racket
I met the aunt of number 3291 today. I was sitting in seat 11E and a flight attendant gave me a note from a woman in seat 33C: “My nephew was killed in Iraq yesterday. I would like to meet you.”
Seat belt light or not, I headed back toward the rear of the airplane. We held each other and she said: “What can I do? My brother was in the Army and he initially supported the effort. Yesterday, he made a sign with a picture of his son saying: ‘Murdered by George Bush.’” I prayed for the Universe to give the families strength yesterday as I do everyday our soldiers are killed, as I pray for the Iraqis and their families who are also murdered unnecessarily. I don’t often get to meet the people I pray for in such a timely manner.
Four of our brave and abused troops were killed in King George’s escalation of the conflict in Iraq. Ten over the Easter weekend while George was hiding out at his ranch in Crawford. George Bush and his bloody gang of war-bandits have caused so much pain and heartache in the world without so much as a blink of the eye. Number 3291’s aunt recounted how she heard her sister ‘screaming for her son,” on the other end of the phone. Number 3291’s family is just beginning to realize the true meaning of broken heart and betrayals.
Number 3291 has a name: Brian. The only thing I know for sure about Brian was that he was in the army, he was probably blown up by an IED (which could have been avoided with an IED detector in his vehicle), and he has a loving aunt named Sheryl. His family lives in North Carolina and that’s where his body will be returning to under the cover of darkness to hide the shame of the Bush Regime.
Brian will never be a number to his family or friends. To the few people in this country who still incredibly support this horror and his war, Brian’s sacrifice will be noted as “freedom isn’t free,” or “he volunteered.” To the anti-war movement, Brian will be commemorated in a candlelight vigil when the 4000th troop is killed in Iraq. To the man sitting next to me in seat 11D, Brian is a non-entity because he: has no opinion on the occupation one way or the other because he has no “time to worry about it.” Trust me though, that’s all Brian’s mom did for the entire time he was in Iraq and there are 160,000 moms who lie awake at night worried about their child and Iraqi moms who never know when the last “I love you,” is the last one forever.
To me Brian represents a failure. I have been struggling with all my energy and resources to insure that Brian’s mom never had to fall on the floor screaming in agony or so that Aunt Sheryl would never have to take a sad and lonely trip across the country to be with her family in this terrible occasion for mourning. Every death since Casey’s has hit me with a fresh assault of suffering. How can my wounds heal when so many new ones are being opened up on a daily basis in three countries that are being devastated by the Bush doctrine of inflicting immeasurable damage with his war for profit being masqueraded as a war on terror?
The anti-war movement is failing in many areas. First of all, like the man sitting next to me, there are too many apathetic people in this country. How can anyone still be so indifferent to so much death and destruction? Even the people who are still confused and support the war have an opinion. The anti-war movement is also failing in its lack of influence on the policy makers. When such pro-occupation entities as MoveOn are being hailed as the “anti-war left” and our Congressional leadership are listening to them and using their corrupt polls as tools to hammer theoretically anti-war Reps into voting for a bill that would extend our troop presence in Iraq indefinitely, then the true anti-war movement has not been effective in getting our message out.
Another goal that the anti-war movement should have would be to move the overwhelming majority of Americans who are against the occupation of Iraq off of their couches and into the streets. The leaders of our country are in the obscenely deep pockets of the war machine and are exceedingly comfortable there. Only a massive electoral revolt will be able to pick the pockets of the war profiteers and force our elected officials to represent us and not the wealthy.
Brian’s family, my family, 3293 other families, our military families who are financially and emotionally strapped by the constant deployments and getting ready for deployments are sacrificing too much on the altar of greed. The Iraqi people who did not ask for Bush’s help are sacrificing horribly on this imperial altar. The rest of this nation is not sacrificing the way that so many others have. I am working so you don’t have to.
But if we, as a nation, want to end the farce of false patriotism to justify wars for profit and empire, we will have to sacrifice until it hurts. In this cleansing act will come redemption, because we can be assured that all of the children of the world are safe and sound. If we don’t work to end the absolute stranglehold of violence we are clutched in, then we deserve what we get.
Our movement has to move toward peace…at all costs.
Please go to The Camp Casey Peace Institute for info on things we can do to end this occupation!
My background is in habitat restoration. As much as that doesn’t seem apropos, it occurred to me that there is a real connection. When attempting to restore a natural area that has been damaged, a widely accepted practice known as the Bradley Method, is to start with the least degraded area first and begin to improve in an ever-expanding front of restoration, so that a kind of snowball effect takes place where the restored area is very stable rather than to apply a little improvement over the whole area and risk being overwhelmed by the inertia of the degradation.
So, in our fight for peace, we need to lift up our brothers and sisters of like mind, keep them going, give them the support they need, before spending energy on debating a Rush Limbaugh or a Bill O’Reilly. We need to gently remind our FRIENDS that they have a duty to their country. In other words, don’t “throw your pearls to swine”.
I attended an anti-war rally in Boston three weekends ago at which Cindy Sheehan spoke. It was thrilling to be together with several thousand people of like mind on that afternoon, but when those events are over we again have to face the huge apathy of the majority of people in the country. Why isn’t there a massive movement now pressuring Congress to impeach the arch war criminals Bush and Cheney? They must not be allowed to finish their terms in a normal way. I’ve participated in two coups d’etat in Ecuador in which the people poured into the streets until the military withdrew support from corrupt presidents who then fled the country. That is direct democracy in action. Here the constitution provides impeachment to get rid of criminal and incompetent presidents and vice-presidents, and if there was ever a time to employ impeachment it is now. Will you please call your Congressperson (impeachment begins in the House) and ask them (demand that they) start the impeachment process against Bush and Cheney.
PAIN is what signals the human body that something is wrong. We now live in a culture of medical anestheizers. Noise 24/7 sends people to “sleep medication,” it was just reported that over 6 million Americans are morbidly obese, with 30% very overweight (sugar as drug); I’d guess there have to be 15 million plus alcoholics, and I read several years back that about 25 million Americans were daily ingesting anti-depressant drugs. There’s also shopping (an addiction for some), gambling, and TV. The real question as per apathy might be what percentage of our adult population is awake (i.e. mentally alert) at the wheel? And due to the increments in housing costs, higher education costs, medical costs, etc many work more than one job and thus have no time or energy to keep pace. It’s quite Orwellian, a society that hypothetically has all this freedom, can’t live with the beast of what its become, so it opts for what legal modes of chemical melt-down and sensory shut-down are available. On the other hand, this lack of will and spiritual responsibility will grant no impunity. What will a wake-up call mean in this climate of chemically induced apathy?
Siouxrose,
All your points are well taken, but some of the most apathetical are trim, non-drinking, church-going orthoretics.
The problem is that amercans have been conditionded to only care about themselves and to have zero curiosity about human affairs (or nature, or anything else) beyond that fed them by the corporate media. The suffering of others beyond their immediate neighbors or members of their church, even when it is inflicted by politicians they voted for, they are utterly oblivious to.
This mess is all about a tragic misuse of power. To me, it is true that the sociopatic person who has ursuped the highest office of our country is a war criminal and I have every hope that eventually he will be shipped off to the Hague to face his destiny. What I hate to see us waste time with is calls for impeachment. With the current Congress, Impeachment is impossible as it takes 2/3 majority and there are not that many honorable Republicans. Best to support the investigations and let the man’s time in office die of a thousand cuts. After the election, watch the airports because he will likely leave for his ranch in Paraguay when things heat up here. Unfortunately, he will have a team of Secret Service bodyguards covering his flight from our country. What we CAN do is keep the pressure on to get our troops out of the deathtrap we have created in Iraq.
I’d disagree a bit. I think the anti-war movement has been very successful.
What I used to always hear when I would go to rallies would be something like this. And I’ve been going to various rallies and marches like this for the last 15-20 years.
What I used to always hear would be a speaker who stands up and says something like …”coming to a rally isn’t enough. Coming to a protest march isn’t enough. We need to go talk to our friends, and our neighbors and our families. We need to build a movement beyond the people who come to a rally.”
When I look at poll numbers, what I see is an anti-war movement that has been incredibly successful. The percentage of people who oppose this war, who now look very critically at the claims of this administration, has soared. Its what, 60% or 70% of the population today? To me, that is a sign of an antiwar movement that has gone far beyond the fringe of a few percent whom I used to see at rallies and who has done exactly what those speakers said we needed to do. We’ve talked to the people around us, and now most of them agree with us.
The problem today is not a failure of the anti-war movement. The problem today is a failure of democracy in this country. The people today are firmly in agreement with us. The people today know our troops need to come home. And given that almost no political or media voice makes the public case for immediate withdraw, a significant part of the population already supports that.
The problem today is that even though a vast majority of the American people are opposed to our continuing the war and occupation, the political system refuses to respond. Instead, to me it looks like the political system is fighting to find ways to continue the war even though the American people now oppose it. To me, I see the political system having to try to trick the American people into supporting another year of war by having to wrap that funding up in loophole-ridden promises of future withdrawal.
The problem today is not with the antiwar movement. People stopped coming to protest marches because it was clear that going to a protest march does nothing to stop the war. Its clear that the political system is not listening. Its a natural reaction to that fact that people would stop making an effort to go to protest marches. But its also obvious that declining numbers at protest marches in no way represents a return of support for this war. The same with apathy. When its obvious that caring about the war will change nothing, its actually a rather logical reaction to not waste the time and effort. One lesson most of us learn in life is to focus on the things you can change.
So, we face a bigger problem. We live in a country that is supposedly a democracy, but where the political system refuses to listen to the will of the people. This means that if we want to stop the war, we have to instead tackle this bigger problem of returning America to being a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
That unfortunately is a bigger fight. If we can go win that fight, the war ends immediately because the people have already decided the war must end. We need to fight to return to a government that listens to the people when they say that.
This fight won’t be easy. Its a fight against the ruling power and structure of this nation. But one good thing is that since there are so many issues where its obvious that the political system is not responding to the people and not listening to what the people say … from jobs to health care to war to many other issues … then I think if we started publically fighting this fight, and gave people a reason to believe that we can win this fight, a lot of the apathy we think we are seeing would vanish. We need to make that fight something that people can feel that it is something can change, and thus worthy of their energy and attention.
PS to the last comment …
If you look back at the history of the communist countries, you’d see a small group of activists who were trying to create change. And beyond that you’d see the vast majority of people who just kept their heads down and tried to live and survive as best they can. I’d imagine activists in those countries talked about the apathy of the rest.
That lasted right up until it was suddenly clear that change could happen. Then instantaneously, hundreds of thousands of people came out into the streets and forced the change to happen.
Convince people that change can occur, and then many of the so-called apathetic will be right there with us.
It’s my opinion that the only way out of this mess is NOT to slowly withdraw, NOT to keep funding the killing, NOT to debate about anything - other than what is morally right….
And that’s to leave these poor people alone. This article has a pretty interesting perspective:
“How about Cut and Walk instead of Cut and Run?”
http://www.populistamerica.com/how_about_cut_and_walk_instead_of_cut_and_run
Unfortunately, in the U.S. we are constantly told that we are the best and brightest in the world and many of us believe it! We are so self-centered that we won’t do anything to rock the boat until our own little universe is threatened. That’s why it will take re-instituting the draft to end this never-ending madness.
I remember when I was about 8 years old, or so, and the Viet Nam war was still going on.
My mother had sent a telegram to the President saying she opposed the war, and that HER son was NOT going to war.
Our phone line was tapped. It could be heard, the irregularities, and the unmarked van that suddenly showed up near one of the phone lines, and lingered. (Remember, techonology was not nearly as good as it is nowadays. Now, you would not know, without special equipment.)
I remember my mama telling my father, “MY son is NOT going to Viet Nam! If they draft HIM, then WE are going to CANADA!”
I wasn’t sure where, or even what, “Canada” was, right that moment, but I knew when my mama spoke, so determined as she had then, that the issue was closed, and that IF it so happened that I was “drafted” (whatever that was also escaped my young mind at that moment) that I was INDEED going to Canada. With or without father! But she would make us go. No doubt her, me, and my sister, at the very least.
The war ended before then, before I reached the age to enlist, as did the draft, too.
But as time has passed, indeed, I have seen, as you all note, a great apathy in my generation, and the ones that follow.
As long as it has not affected their own personal world, people no longer care.
We are as much in danger of our own apathy, our society, as we are in danger from what Bush and his cronies are doing.
As a late-50ish male, it seems to me that I have read this book before, already seen the play and watched the movie. It seems I know the outcome, I have learned, but I seem to be in a “minority” of 60% of the country. After suffering through political neutering at the end of the Vietnam War, until the Madness of King George II, I awoke one day to find I was reading the same book, once again.
This time I asked, “What are you going to do about it?” And I failed myself in my answer: “I’m a person with too many responsibilities to do what I did, play my part as I did, to end the Southeast Asian corporate war.” So, like too many of the 60% minority, a talked to myself, had discussions with my friends, read all the “right” websites, etc.
I took to the streets…maybe once, but the energy, the spontenaiety, the genuineness of my 60’s and 70’s colleagues was not there. The actions were moe like Woodstock II, than Woodstock: going through the motions, acting as players on a stage of unfamiliarity, knowing the curtain would come down and we/they could all go home and resume my/our lives.
I even went to the political well, supporting a presidential candidate with whom I would have totally disagreed during the 60’s and 70’s, an ex-military man. And I watched as a machine took the best and brightest mind in 2003/2004 and chewed it up a spit it out.
In the 60’s and 70’s we had leaders, we had people, some comic, some tragic who inspired and though whom we could see there was hope. We learned respectful civil disobedience, even standing in the street outside the funeral home of one of the four Kent State student/victims. We were on the “right side” and knew that when we did close down universities, demonstrated in the streets, we were putting oursleves on the line. Now, there are no lines to put ourselves on. They have been taken away, moved to the corporate airwaves of an information machine controlled by just seven corporations, where profit supeceded truth and morality, where Paddy Chavesky’s nightmare of “Network” has come horribly true.
I was travelling on business throught the Detroit Airport, and saw the 1984-size 40′ x 40′ TV screens. unavoidable to the eye, speaking only the “truths” of CNN. How quickly we have become helplessly numb, eternal children to be entertained by others, “informed” by tohers, with no way out. Please, do not go to Detroit Airport if you have a brain and free will, it is Orwellian.
How does this relate to Cindy’s essay? I decry the apathy, I bemoan the lack of backbone of my elected representatives, I even remain startled than unlike McCarthy, Kennedy, King, Hoffman, Ochs, Baez, even the Smothers Brothers, no one is, in this post-1984, Kurt Vonnegut (R.I.P), electronically separated, 24-hour news cycle world, a real leader with backbone and courage to inequivocally say what needs to be said, and that burden has fallen on a woman from California, derided, abused and challanged, berated and carrying a burden larger than she deserves.
And so my point, and my mea culpa: Which one of you with stature, like a McCarthy, Kennedy, or King, etc. is now willing to carry and lead, and help out. I can’t do it, I’m a little person, with no money nor clout: but you in your million dollar homes, and high profile positions: Where are you? And to those true Patriots, for whom this Nation has made them wealthy: When will you stand up and use your wealth and power to advance morality?
And when will we all take off the sack cloth and ashes of mourning of the death of the American Ideals and demand new leaders that DO what they say they will: Walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
And when all that happens, then maybe living in a cave will be less inviting, and living in America will be more inviting, once again.
Balto…
Things will change–people will get the message quickly, and in the right way. I give it two or three weeks–then the neocons will use the dollar instability caused by their Iran attack to supersize their wealth, and the rest of us will be left with worthless paper. It’ll be the best of times, the worst of times–
I remember my mama telling my father, “MY son is NOT going to Viet Nam! If they draft HIM, then WE are going to CANADA!”
Trust me though, that’s all Brian’s mom did for the entire time he was in Iraq and there are 160,000 moms who lie awake at night worried about their child and Iraqi moms who never know when the last “I love you,” is the last one forever.
What is the mother in the first quote really saying ? In my opinion, she is defiantly suggesting and condoning desertion.
When those 160,000 moms realize that with no inpending draught to sustain the recruitment , as Cindy pointed out about the man sitting next to her ,most Americans don’t really care about Brian’s death .
The Bring Em Home advocates can rally till hell freezes over but until mothers and aunts do the unthinkably un-American act of suggesting and condoning desertion by their nephews and nieces 3292… will be next.
If Cindy , admirably so , have a candlelight vigil for 4000 then what celebration is grand enough for 5000 or 10,000?
Realisticly those mothers and aunts will be called cowards , traitors , terrorist-lovers by their best friends and even their spouses. It’s tougher to be a deserter and stay in America than to desert to Canada .
I respect their decision not to do something so “unpatriotic” as long as they respect my analysis that it would be the most effective asymetric strategy to end the occupation.
I used to go to all the anti war rallies in San Francisco before the invasion. So did lots of my friends. It was awesome seeing that much unified energy in the anti war movement. I thought it would make a difference. Bush didn’t listen one bit, the war happened, it raged on, got worse and worse, since then Bush and Cheney have committed endless impeachable offences. Unbelievable they’re still in office. Touching on a few points made here, yes, life’s harder and harder these days, I can barely make a living getting ripped off left and right by some corporation or even the greedy little guy raping my wallet. So I haven’t been to one rally since and I believe neither have any of my friends. Not because we don’t care anymore and we’re apathetic numbed out Prozaced out brain dead alcoholics. But I feel a bit beaten down and I need to just deal with life and keep my son fed with a roof over his head. I’m obsessed with commondreams.org, crooksandliars.com and other great information available on-line the mainstream media won’t touch. I keep up with everything but feel helpless. But I can guarantee you, and I don’t think I’m speaking for just myself. That if the shit hits the fan, if there’s a movement to rise up and storm Washington by the millions to show those insane war crazies they pushed one too many buttons. We will join up in full force. How many Ghandi’s, MLK’s, Lennon’s are going to be shot before ya just got to take the schoolyard bully out with a kick in the head? Hate to say it. It’s going to take a lot more to make people wake up.
Due to a deep in the night ploy by former P.M. Paul Martin of Canada and at the behest of George Bush through intermediary
Don Rumsfelt and then to Paul Martin aided by liberal war hawk Bill Graham M.P. of the Submarine fiasco,a motion was approved to send Canadian forces to Afghanistan.
As usual small print coverage back page of our newspapers was in order to get it into effect fast before the public was aware.
Success was had and our military-political
compact was happy. We could sacrifice our green troops as cannon fodder for the Americans and help keep their casualties down.History repeats itself-first fot the British in W.W. 1 annd 2 and now again for the USA.
Why had we done this? Well,we the Canadian people did not do it.It was Paul Martin at the
request of GW that did it.There was no debate,no phlebicite of the Canadian opinion. Oh no ,not that just the colossal
nerve of our government i.e. Liberal party.
The only objection came from the NDP. Well
a short time later Paul Martin was set free.
Unfortunately,we got someone just as bad,the neo con Stephen Harper.
Robert G. Mac Donald.B.A.M.D.
I was sorry to hear of the loss of Canadian soldiers this week in Afghanistan. More wasted lives, sacrificed on the altar of greed, oil and unrestrained power.
Dear BaltoCaveMan,
Excellent! Couldn’t have reflected my sentiment better…
Cindy thank you for this “Number 3291″ today and for all you are doing.
I also got an e-mail today from DEMOCRATES ABROAD in France.They sent out something from MoveOn I wrote to them and forwarded your piece which came the same day.I asked them why they endorsed MoveOn ..or even quoted them..SHORT AMERICAN memory..yes people must go out on the street NOW!!!! to stop these mad men in charge of America.The people have to show their power..PROTEST!!!!they are even doing it in Russia today.
WHERE is America…Torture, corruption, lost of freedoms and justice, lies, false wars, hired killers…gangsters in the White House, what more will it take to wake the people of America to what has happened?
Thank you Cindy for your work and courage.
Cassandra
one more thing; I just read, dinguskhan comment above; very distressing…
Dear dinguskhan, you have a son..think about it…you must get back your courage you must protest,I feel what you are saying,I understand,I see the apathy in America BUT you must protest NOW!It can get worse and it will… the madmen have control and are whipping up the horses the carriage will crash.
Ever think of a bomb or fall out from one falling on your beautiful city.How can you afford to be apathetic?
Cindy has lost her son she has nothing left… but her courage.
Take heart you must get back your courage.
Sincerely yours,
Cassandra
I’m really disturbed by this attack on Cindy Sheehan. I’m not sure of all the details of her son’s enlistment, but I think it was after September 11 when a great many people felt compelled to do something (naively I’ll admit) to defend the U.S. As we all know, Bush used that sentiment to invade Iraq, but it’s not fair to condemn the people who were manipulated.
As for the “lie”, Cindy never denied meeting Bush. She was in shock and mourning at the time. To her great credit, she later realized what she should have said and took steps toward doing so by protesting with her sister in Crawford. In the process, she inspired a great many people and rejuvenated the anti-war movement in this country. She had the courage to face the painful truth about her son’s death when she could have comforted herself, as many military families do, by telling herself he died for a noble cause. That was the lie she couldn’t accept and I admire her and thank her from the bottom of my heart for exposing it.