Radical Ethics: No Bucks From War
Just less than a year from now, Americans will choose a new president. After years of debilitating public distrust, President Bush could assure a better atmosphere for his successor by adopting a rather singular idea, one that is an odd combination of radical thinking and good old American common sense.
President Bush (and, ideally, Vice President Dick Cheney, given his power) ought to promise not to accept any profit from war. In doing so, they would set a new, higher standard of White House ethics that might foster more rational public discourse on issues of war and peace.
The radical part of this idea is mainly its origin with Michael Masley, a colorful, bitingly humorous anti-war activist (he calls himself the nation’s “artist general”) who has been trying to get the media, Congress, anybody to ask Bush to promise never to accept any profits flowing from any military action he authorizes. But this left-wing, left-coast idea actually reaches into the heartland and history of the country. Americans have always had a healthy skepticism about unholy influence by money and power on military and foreign policy decisions. Indeed, great presidents have voiced the same concerns when they have warned about foreign entanglements (Washington), war profiteers (FDR) or the sway of the military-industrial complex (Eisenhower).
As much as we opposed the misguided Iraq war, we never much liked the “blood-for-oil” rhetoric. The administration could turn down some of the heat with a lifetime, no-war-profit promise. Bush’s most ardent detractors (who actually might think the administration was deluded not just by neocon fantasies about promoting democracy but also by a desire to pump up profits of companies with which they have been connected) might find the chances laughably unrealistic. Perhaps, perhaps not.
Bush is said to believe history will look more kindly than contemporaries on the war, an idea that may not be entirely fanciful. Setting a new ethical course for himself and, by example, his successors might help clear the air for re-evaluation.
But even if this administration and Congress ignore the idea, the topic ought to draw discussion among 2008 presidential candidates, who have a lot of air time to fill in an overly long campaign. Forswearing profits from war is very little to ask of someone who would be president. More important, anything that can ease the painful levels of distrust among people for this or future administrations is worth consideration.
© 2007 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Thanks, P-I.
About 1970, I was sitting alone at the desk in the Peace Center in Eureka, California.
Suddenly a Navy man in pretty uniform burst through the door, and said:
You can’t stop war.
How are you ever going to stop war?
I had never thought through that question, so I said my first thought:
I think it might help if we took the profit out of it.
He said:
You’re right about that, and turned around and left.
So is the P-I right about that.
How much money have the following folks made from the war?
Bush family
Cheney family
Clinton family
Pelosi family
Rumsfeld family
Wolfowitz family
etc etc
Berkeley’s resident cyber-pundit and street musician, Mike Masley, Artist General of the United States, has been trying to get someone to ask this recusal question for 5 years now. Kudos to the P-I and Commondreams for giving this idea a rightful hearing.
Every journalist in this country ought to put this one at the top of the list for 2008 office seekers and begin warming up by making it a lead question at every major press conference from here until then. Shut down the military industrial lobby, shut down the resource wars for empire. If interested, more can be read about this piece at my blog. The revolving door between congress and the corporate world must stop spinning so freely across the board and stopping this war is a great place to start a public interest trend. War is never in the public interest. Bob Dylan said it best in 1963’s Masters of War. It’s even worse today. We owe it to all the victims of this current war to act now.
One last bit-
War is never in the public interest. Bob Dylan said it best in 1963’s Masters of War. It’s even worse today. We owe it to all the victims of this current war to act now. I think the first comment here speaks volumes.
1-20-09 stays on my mind. Damn this whole puppet show and it’s unconstitutional nature and consequences. I submit that Cheneyburton has to go first, but let’s pose the recusal question all the while because it makes them breath funny. Who would’ve thought that Eisenhower would be a prophet of the M/I complex we are smothered by? 43’s allies are being trounced and removed from power one by one. Remember that “don’t forget Poland!” remark from 2004? Guess what; forget Poland because they too are pulling out their 900 (of 2000 total coalition forces) troops, having turned the corner themselves. Excuse me, I need to create something with the fine speeches founf in Goodnight And Good Luck. Peace to all during these ridiculous times…. TMcD
This horse left the barn years ago. Cheney has refused to divest himself of his interests in Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR, arguably the worst of the Iraq war profiteers. And asking Bush to foreswear war profits is tantamount to asking him to renounce his inheritance … George H W Bush has banked enormous war profits by way of his interest in Carlyle Group alone.
The Bushes and Cheney are the most cynical and dishonest politicians in the history of the now-destroyed Republic. Support impeachment, or expect more of the same.
A SLIPPERY $LOPE (PAYLOADED) QUESTION
FOR OUR SEEDCORNFED FREE-RANGE MULTIMILLIONAIRE CHICKENHAWKS?
WHOA! Takin’ us to WAR?~You ForGOT to “ReCU$E” Yourselves!
“Artist General’s Warning:
“Recu$al question could be bad for Bush’s political health…
The question is this:
Will you agree never to accept any personal profits flowing from any military action you authorize or promote?
…Masley has been harassing journalists all over the country, trying to get them to ask it of Bush and the rest of his war cabinet…”
–Steven T. Jones, San Francisco Bay Guardian
reposted @: http://www.kyndmusic.com/2006/07/01/artist-general-warning-recusal-question-bad-for-bush/
SLACKER MEDIA, SUCKER NATION?
That was THEN…YEARS of so much Blood & Treasure later, the Seattle PI plants the same Flag, but bigger & higher…is it enough to finally “force the issue”? We’ll see.
A FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF RIGHT & WRONG NOW WAITING…
LIKE AN ELEPHANT IN THE CHENEY-BUSH-ESTATE FORTUNE$-O’-WAR ROOM
MORAL ARGUMENT(S) AGAINST ASKING IT?~NONE.
WATCHIN’ ‘EM SQUIRM? Priceless…
Re: Skull-duggered Boner$
“ANYBODY-WANT-SOME-WOOD?”
–W, aka OC (”Ol’ Coffers”) Bush “nervously”, in debate with Kerry
Re: Presidential Portfolia, Conflict of interest question…
PROPOSAL FROM PATRIOTS FOR A FAIR CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
AS WORDED FOR PRESENTATION ON THE FLOOR OF HOUSE AND SENATE FOR RESOLUTION OF ENDORSEMENT:
WE THE PEOPLE DO HENCEFORTH EXPECT
of Public Servants
Exercising Fatal Authority In Our Name A Formal
“DECLARATION OF DISOWNERSHIP”
–A For-the-Record Concession That
NO ENTITLEMENT EXISTS*
to Present or Future Personal Profit ‘Demonstrably Connected’ to Any War (or Bloodshed) Authorized, Promoted, Advanced or Otherwise “Engaged on Your Watch” :
WE THE PEOPLE Hold Ourselves Deserving of “An Explanation”
Should the Answer to This “Recu$al-for-Life” Question be “No”.
If the Answer is “Yes”, Then Be It Understood:
Martial Planner Agrees to Surrender-on-Demand Said Profit–
(Deliberate or “Unintentional”, Exposed or “Discovered”)
to Veteran Benefit Groups, College Funds For Children of the Fallen, etc…
*Disagree? i.e., ‘infringement of rights as a public servant in a “free market” economy? too much, or “unfair” $acrifice? –elaborate
POETIC GISTICE:
Political Art of the Week : “PAPERTRAIL FIGHTERS”
http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2007/08/political_art_of_the_week.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYe7D6hJtRU
Truman came to national attention due to his actions against excessive war-profiteering, but the press was not as corporate-owned then. Now, they can ignore genocide, election fraud, and multi-leveled subversion of the Constitution very well indeed. It’s government of the immortal “corporate persons”, by the corporate financed, and for the corporate proffits. Something can be done about this, see http;///www.reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/
drholmquist, we need to lose these speed-bumping failures of imagination! it’s political performance artistry–the achille’s deel of ‘hedge-funded blind ‘trusted’ fortune’s o’ WAR…IT’S ABOUT FORCING PUBLIC ‘EXPLANATIONS’ OF THEIR ENTITLEMENT!! And, Geez, for their own sake: Blowin’ their “Chance” to SET A WILLING EXAMPLE OF (PO$$IBLE $ACRIFICE)…we need to HELP them help their own SOULS…seriously, you really believe Cheney wouldn’t be livid to have to “respond” for the “record”? think about it. A QUESTION OF HONOR IN A MEASURE OF CHARACTER…
Imagine what his ‘financial councel’ might say: “Dick, you’re going out of office soon–bite whatever bullet there is in saying “NO” to this “recu$al-for-life” crap, take the political heat & fall-out NOW…& put it behind you…or else some blogger’ll come outta the woodwork & ruin your quail-hunt down the road a few years, and you’ll think back to this opportunity to just say in effect “Go F’ yourself!” Right?” and let’s not forget W, with his itchin’ to kill the estate tax no doubt still “troublin’” his sleep…how much of the Bush Family Fortune (estimated a few years ago to be a billion plus) has a Green-Thumbs-Up Red-handed WAR room in it? Think he’d give it up? of course not. But put its “Rock” on the other side of that Hard Place, and ‘trap’ ‘em ALL in the glaring middle, with the whole country awaiting their “answer”…THEREIN lies the ‘political utility’ for anti-war progressives: NO MATTER THEIR RESPONSE– whatever they say short of “yes” can and will be turned against them: BIGtime. Is it worth putting these seed-corn fed ‘free-range’ multi-millionaire chickenhawks…on the spot? what, is it too “untoward” or “impolite”? less Miss Manners already, more TOM PAINE! THINK OF IT AS AN “Oath” of MARTIAL OFFICE. A Trojan Horse from our side of the issue. We needn’t keep looking its ‘gift’ in the mouth, as it were. Because of their profound sense of entitlement, (recall Vice Precedent Cheney: it’s …their “DUE”…because, well, Public Service is already there manifest $acrifice, isn’t it?) they’re exquisitely exposed, deeply vulnerable. The question asked, and ITS POINT PRESSED? –could, truly, draw blood. Take up this Spear, brace to Press the (politically poison) point. The $louching GOPeezur BEA$T, with a bloody, spineless sprinkle of DemGoons in tow, draws near. With its own, and our Better Angels’, Moment of National Truth.
It seems it would be reasonable to request that Bush and Co be willing to give up all profits.
Unless you are living in reality and see how Bush and Co have long ago thrown out any sense of acting with any moral or ethical compass. They go in only one direction, the money. And the more money the better, regardless of who suffers. US Soldier, Iraq civilian, no difference, both are treated with the same level of non-concern. They don’t care.
I think it would have been more reasonable for the paper to voice their support for Kucinich or Mike Gravel instead of writing this make-belief absurd editorial. Maybe it allows them to feel better about themselves while this world is going down and we are all just standing by.
Some of us standing by write comments, but in the end, we as a society are standing by while we are slowly losing the little rights to a fair and just society that we had.
peace,
One frog, slowly cooked to order, adding another meaningless comment.
www.NotOneMore.US
“Bush is said to believe history will look more kindly than contemporaries on the war, an idea that may not be entirely fanciful.”
Clearly both the object of this article and the writer are both delusional. The aggressive attack and subsequent occupation of Iraq is a criminal act. A war crime, a crime against humanity.
Who would look on such a thing as kindly? If this sordid period in the history of the USA is noted it will be noted with disgust, contempt and ill will. A plague on all who joined in on this crime.
War is and has always been a FOR PROFIT enterprise. How do we stop it? Defund Wall Street. Sell your stocks. Quit financing corporate Amerika. Give up being a WAR PROFITEER. War profiteers are war criminals in my book. If you work for or own stock in Exxon-Mobil, Lockheed, Halliburton, or hundreds of others….YOU are a WAR CRIMINAL. Plain and simple. Quit participating!!!!!! The best thing that could happen to the USA at this point in time is a financial collapse…a full-blown depression… I can’t wait to see corporate CEOs standing in breadlines. Then and only then will the bombs cease to fall. Then and only then will social programs resume funding.
“WAR is a racket.
It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC [Retired]
Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
John R. Hall: WELL SAID.We have a list of the richest people in America; why not a list of the richest war profiters in America, not the corporations but the greedy,individuals? War profiteering is blood money!
Jeez, come on, People: can’t we all just GET it?! the point isn’t wheather or not these ‘martial planners’ will per se agree or not agree to ever give up a bloody PENNY: the point is, if they dare say “no” we make of that “no” a Perfect Firestorm!
The “unleashed” Move-On Ad might go like this: their refusal, huffy dismissal, hesitation or evasion(s) appear visibly and/or audibly over a somber dirge punctuated by the cane-tap of War-blinded Vets; then glide the wheelchairs, the severely disfigured, the multi-crippled, the deafened, the speechless, the lost-minded souls rocking and staring, and, finally the flagged coffins…cut to Bake-Sales & Yellow Ribbons, and weary National Guard, rummaging in Iraq for Hillbilly Armor…then to Bush & Cheney, at their Ba$e-Elite liesure, the former on the Golf Course, the latter Blasting Quail…freeze on the Vice Precedent’s (sic) mug, fade-to-black. Final voiceover? –”Their DUE”? THEY believe it. How About YOU?”
from PATRIOTS FOR A FAIR CONTRACT WITH AMERICA–asked of those who exercise fatal authority in our Name…
Would they say no to taking the “oath” of OFFICE? WHY would we let ‘em get away anymore without taking in effect an ‘oath’ of MARTIAL office? are we finally such overweening WUSSES!? MAKE THEM EXPLAIN THEIR “ENTITLEMENT” TO “WARFALL”! EXPLAIN JUST WHY: such $acrifice should be seen as “unfair” or “too much” to ask of these pampered “Deciders” whose $ticky Finger$ caress, then suddenly PUSH the Red Buttons of War CHOSEN. THAT’S THE POINT–it cuts to a now-gaping “exposure” of moral Achille’s heel. At the very least, it puts ‘em on ‘defensive’ NOTICE. And further “oils” an already slippery-slope between here &: Bombing Iran.
Besides, “forcing” a one-by-one, up-close-&-personal response from the whole (long-overindulged indeed!) Bush-Cheney War-Cabinet-PLUS (Rice, Libby, Bremer, Wolfowitz, Rove, Rumsfeld, etc) could prove as comically telling as Stephen Colbert or John Stewart. Who knows how long the Writers’ Strike will keep us in re-runs! The deep of winter before us. And a beckoning entertainment of asserted Democracy–for the ASKING! Come on, people!
Artist General’s Warning: Rubber Questions Won’t Fell Big Game Lies
–LOAD for BEAR!
WORTH-REMEMBERING POETIC GISTICE INDEED:
“this left-wing, left-coast idea actually reaches into the heartland and history of the country…”
—Seattle PI Editorial
Gimme a break, the puppet master media will never allow a question like that to be asked of their puppets. And if it did, the majority of americans would never hear about it. Only the ones like us, who use the internet, and already know that these a-holes are war criminals. It’s a waste of time. Spend your energy on something that will actually make a difference, like taking on media reform to prevent them from influencing future votes with unverifiable “poll” numbers so that everybody makes a completely unbiased vote.
Scaredhippie–
We have received your request for “a break”. Your request is important to us, and will be answered in the order received…
Our Office will notify you when a decision has been reached.
Meanwhile, we have in the P-I editorial a “start”. A paper of definite significance has presented a carefully considered take on the concept in the Sunday issue, (a metro daily’s primetime showcase). So now the ‘truth is OUT there’ as never before, weaving through websites, blogs, email-lists, and finally settling in retrievably-sustained archival retirement for years.
Now IF in the coming days, weeks, months, another editorial or more commentary appears (in fact I’m told another is imminent from a regional paper in Virginia–say weeks then) there’ll be a few more splashes & ripples, then ultimately (maybe someone as unexpected as Andy Rooney! for example) a national T-head or A-list columnist weighs in with his/her public musings on it (okay, with Rose-colored glasses sliding-down-my-nose but still “ON \, say, oh I don’t know: Frank Rich…) Then, at any rate, People Talk. Curse, Chuckle, Scowl. Remember, the “Our DUE” Blind-Trusted War-folio Posterboys are now politically AND morally bankrupt–major-league, multi-millionaire chickenhawks. They look bad on paper and are even worse in person–can’t you picture Cheney cocking into his response, locked & loaded with a point-blank he thinks he can poker-face into real lead & rob the moment of its truth yet again-? –as with the Dick-&-Dubya “unsworn, off-the-record, behind-closed-doors” 9/11 Testimony Show. They put getting away with it in our FACE. Easy, No NeoConsequence. Who’d a thunk they could foist that one on us? Can you imagine Clinton & Gore so “over-accomodated”? I do involuntarily feel your jaded pain, then. But there’s an equally real moral flash-point in following so much Money through so much Blood, isn’t there?
So even Bluff Quitzer, interviewing the Vice Precedent, instead of that fawning loss of bladder control we saw, could instead say, because the “truth is out there” and he’s only observing it(staying “covered” by lateral as opposed to “direct” approach)
“Mr. Vice Precedent, I assume you’ve seen this so-called “recu$al-for-life” proposition, asking those in any War Cabinet from now on, [Red-handed, thus-far unrecu$ed-for-life, $ticky-fingered War-Buttoneers: any & all “martial planners” / product launchers] to “surrender on demand” any “personal profit traceable to any bloodshed they’ve taken America into (ect)”…so you’re passingly familiar with the notion then? …What are your thoughts on it? afterall, no one blinks at the Oath of Office; we understand that the Iraq War, and in case Iran needs to be attacked, then likewise THAT war, wouldn’t have anything to do with “personal” profit. But, we don’t know what the FUTURE holds in terms of War Cabinets–why not then start with this one, for the very reason that it remains so “unimpeachably” as it were above such “con$iderations”…?” [here’s gaping irony–Cheney is so grotesquely Halliburtonated, so in-character as neoconpromised–so $eptically self-innoculated: that he & even or especially hardcore GOPeezus might at first blush actually FAULT Quitzer for being “SARCASTIC”! –all the more reason to confront these Playa$!].
Notwithstanding the outrages of recent history, we need to stop assuming that their borne-to-be-reviled mendacity always slam-dunks their carried Day, always routs us, always demoralizes us, always turns us, issue by lost issue, against the hope we need to re-mix the metapor to our triumphant advantage finally–to start the cold wheezing engine of their political destruction, to nurse the stalling sputter of it as needed, to turn the key again, as needed, to warm it up in this deep winter, and then rev it up–roaring on all cylinders very possibly and suddenly: sooner than we thought. We start somewhere. This is as good a time and place as any. There IS, crucially, “Juice” in the Battery. The engine IS turning over. And if they notice, visible moisture should be gathering on the brow of Cheney-Bush “martial planners”…if they don’t yet “notice”, that too works in our final favor…
I can’t believe it has taken so long for this recusal question to finally be aired nationally. ArtistGeneral Masley has been hammering on this for years, it’s about time someone from the national media returned to the business of the Fourth Estate. Everyone knows Bush and Cheney are up to their chickenhawk eyebrows in war profits, but that doesn’t mean the question shouldn’t be asked. It might create an awkward moment, it might make them feel uncomfortable, it might mean you have to sit in the back of the press room and not get called on, but someone has to rock the boat. Sacrifice is a part of leadership, and leaders who can’t leave war profits on the table have no business asking the public to make sacrifices. This question should be asked of ALL candidates for President. Are you willing to forego profits from wars fomented under your watch, and if not, why not? Why are you entitled to profit even as you squander our nation’s blood and treasure?
While we’re at it, lets take the profit out of peace! Anyone profitting from our militarily protected liberties should return the money…to me…I’ll give you my address…
right on white rose, I bet the author is reconsidering his words. there is a WHOLE LOT of complicity out there.
Turk–
Got it!
GOPetered Principull Gawn$outh
MARTIAL WANKERS UNLTD
2CLEVER by .666
–Reality Chex in the mail!
Siverspoond $ugarfrost,
Underbelly $ecretary
Hou$e Bushelzebub
SILverspoond, sorry.
[”SIVer spoon” would be that Special “Soup-Extender SPUNE” favored by the Republican “Ba$e Elite*” as a Tuff-luv measure of “school-lunch aid” to the working Poor.
*YOU know, the God-&-Country-Club-(Devil-’n-the-DEtale$)-Kill-the-Estate-Tax-!-(Ketchup-is-a-vegetable!)-, “We’re”-@WAR folks…and WARSELL!
We should be raising this issue in tandem with the clear propaganda campaign to attack Iran. Wars profit few and destroy the rest of us, if not physically, then morally and economically. We have it all to lose if once again we stand aside in horror while the dogs of war crush the innocent and bleed our nation’s life and resources. The world’s patience is running thin, and with the crackpots inhaling Armageddon fumes in total domination mode over our broken system of checks and balances, it is only a matter of time before this house of cards rediscovers gravity and the faith-based reality-zombies get to play their Apocalyptic end-game scenarios with our lives. History has volumes to teach us: our silence will haunt future generations if we do not demand effective responses from ourselves, from our communities, from our representatives.
I’ve supported the recusal idea since it was presented to me by the Artist General many years ago. Patriots for a FAIR Contract With America, where are you? Demand leadership, not corporate overlords who directly profit when innocent blood is spilled. Anyone seriously wishing to lead our country should be able to honestly say that no profit from war-related activities is acceptable in the Executive circle. Democrat, Republican, Green, or Gray, we should all be able to agree on this fundamental concept that can begin to address one of the current failures of our leadership.
JUST FOR THE RECORD:
THE P-I EDITORIAL above deftly presents the ‘Good Cop’ version of the “Recu$al for Life” question–
I’ve posted the ‘Bad Cop’ version herein.
Either/or: in-between–America would be well served to have it asked, one by one, of each: whose fingerprints remain, or WILL remain, on the ‘hot’ buttons of bloodshed,
of each: as “up-close-&-personal” as war itself to those whom they sent, and continue to send…
if these ‘martial planners’, or their successors, believe they’re entitled to even a semblence of personal profit, in-our-face or “unintentional”, hedge-funded or “happy-accident”, blind trusted or—-full-on Turd-blo$$omed—-then let them “explain” said “entitlement”…they OWE it to us. In whatever detail we decide is satisfactory. That’s OUR call…
beginning with why such potential “$acrifice”…is…”too much”…
…to ask…or otherwi$e: …”unfair”…
if they’re fearful of making their case in public, let them don, in the greenrooms of M$M, hillbilly armor…
Too often when words are minced, so are principles.
Just who–or what–are these “Martial Planners” to whom this “Recu$al-for-Life” question should be asked?
SNAFU PIKER$—OOP$EE–
(I.E.,) THE WEALTHIEST WAR CABINET ON THE MOST CHICKENHAWKED WARPATH IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Think about it.
–A Patriot For a Fair Contract With America
THE OFFICIAL RECU$AL-FOR-LIFE
VERSION 2.0 / REVISED / W/ PROLOGUE
‘Seattle P-I’:
Stop Bush, Cheney From Profiting Off Iraq War
~By E&P Staff
“…force Bush to promise not to profit
from military actions he authorized.”
–Editor and Publisher
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677411
AN ‘OATH’ OF MARTIAL OFFICE
from PATRIOTS FOR A FAIR CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
As worded for a ‘Resolution of Endorsement’
to be brought to the Floor of House & Senate for a Vote–like the ‘condemn move-on’ fiasco
WE HOLD ITS MORAL TRUTH TO BE SELF-EVIDENT,
ITS ULTIMATE WORTH IN ASKING NOT SOLELY TO SECURE AGREEMENT
BUT TO OBLIGATE AND REMIND POWER OF ALL DUE COMMONWEALTH
BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
BY THOSE IN THE WHEELHOUSE OF WAR,
THERE CAN BE NO HONORABLE RECEPTION
OR ACCEPTABLE INHERITANCE
OF PRIVATE TREASURE FROM PUBLIC BLOODSHED
THAT THIS QUESTION BE POSED AND ITS POINT PRESSED AS NEEDED
FRAMING A MEASURE OF CHARACTER
IN THE WILLINGNESS OF MARTIAL LEADERSHIP
TO PERSONALLY SHARE IN POSSIBLE SACRIFICE–
ALL THE MORE APPROPRIATE IN BEING SO MUCH LESS
THAN LIFE & LIMB LOST BY THOSE SENT TO FIGHT AND DIE
THAT THERE CAN BE NO “OTHER PRIORITIE$” ,
NO BLESSING$ TO COUNT OR COURT
IN THE RUTHLESS CURSE OF WAR
AND NO OUTCOME TO MORE OBTAIN
THAN THE SOONEST POSSIBLE PEACE
THAT ANY COLLATERAL IMPULSE TO FREE MARKET OR FAMILY FORTUNE
BE PURGED FROM THE MEANS TO THAT END AS A VIVIDLY-BINDING MATTER OF PERSONAL HONOR,
COME WHATEVER ELSE MAY:
WE THE PEOPLE
DO HENCEFORTH EXPECT
of Public Servants Exercising
Fatal Authority In Our Name
A Formal “Declaration of Disownership”
A FOR-THE-RECORD CONCESSION
THAT NO ENTITLEMENT EXISTS
to Present or Future Personal Profit ‘Demonstrably Connected’ to Any War (or Bloodshed) Authorized, Promoted, Advanced or Otherwise
“Engaged on Your Watch”:
WE THE PEOPLE HOLD OURSELVES
DESERVING OF AN EXPLANATION
Should the Answer to This “Recu$al-for-Life” Question be “NO”.
If the Answer is “YES”,
Then Be It Understood: Martial Planner Agrees to Surrender-on-Demand Said Profit–(deliberate or unintentional, exposed or “discovered”) to Veteran Benefit Groups, College Funds For Children of the Fallen, etc…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks Artist General,
I am so happy that this idea has been seeping into our reality.
From one Folk Performer to another, you are on the front lines of the good fight for Peace and Justice.
Keep Hammering,
Jimglover@verizon.net