It took nearly three years, and it came from a Presidential wannabe rather than President Bush, but Cindy Sheehan finally got an answer to her question: “What is the noble cause?” It’s oil.
Senator McCain, speaking at a campaign stop, said, “I will have an energy policy …which will eliminate our dependency on oil from the Middle East that will then prevent us… from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.” The Senator subsequently attempted to cover up his Freudian slip (or “senior moment”) by claiming that he was referring to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, not the current conflict. Sorry, Senator, but that cat’s just not going back.
What sort of mental and moral gymnastics does McCain perform in order to justify his ongoing support for a war he claims to want to prevent in the future? Is it the same floor routine that he uses when refusing to endorse various bills, such as the G.I. Bill and equal dwell time, which would benefit veterans and military families, while professing his patriotism and support for the troops?
I understand quite well that the Senator served and was badly injured in Vietnam and endured years of torture as a P.O.W. I get it. I also get that the Senator says he wants to avert another war for oil in the coming years. But our troops and their families are fighting, dying, and dealing with the fallout from the Iraq war at this specific juncture in the time-space continuum. Senator “Marty McFly” McCain needs to park the time travel machine and address the Iraq debacle in the “fierce urgency of now.”
The Senator said that he “regret[s] sincerely the additional sacrifices imposed on the brave Americans who defend us…But let us honor them by doing all we can to ensure their sacrifices were not made in vain.” (April 11, 2007)
If, as the Senator insinuated, the war in Iraq is a war for oil, which he purports he would “prevent” with the fuzzy energy policy of his hoped-for Presidency, yet he continues to support the current war for oil, it begs the question: If not then, why now?
The rinse and redeploy cycle that keeps sending our loved ones to fight and die in a war for oil does not honor the sacrifice of the fallen. It is an unconscionable violation of the legitimate purposes and constitutional laws governing the use of the military. Every additional deployment adds moral insult to psychic injury and bodily harm. Each day that the war continues perpetuates the blatant disregard for the bravery and commitment of our troops and reduces the cost of their lives to mere pennies.
The average American adult male human body contains approximately 1.5 gallons of blood. In 2004, when Cindy’s son, Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq, the price of a gallon of gas was $1.85, and crude oil accounted for 47% of the cost, according to the Energy Information Administration. Casey’s blood, traded for a gallon and a half of gasoline, retailed for $2.78, the cost of the crude oil - 47% - was valued at $1.31.
Given that, it’s not surprising that Cindy sat down in a ditch in Crawford, Texas, waiting for President Bush to tell her what her son’s sacrifice had been for. What’s surprising is that Ms. Sheehan ever got up again.
What is appalling is that Senator McCain and Congress is considering a package deal supplemental to ensure that our troops remain engaged in a war for oil while Americans complain about the price they’re paying at the pump. Crude doesn’t begin to describe it.
Stacy Bannerman is the author of When the War Came Home: The Inside Story of Reservists and the Families They Leave Behind, (Continuum Publishing, 2006). She is longtime member of Military Families Speak Out www.mfso.org. Her husband is preparing for his second deployment to Iraq with the 81st Brigade. She can be contacted at her website www.stacybannerman.com.
Why are the men of America volunteering for the military? Didn’t we learn anything from the Vietnam war? No country will ever invade and attack the U.S..That is why 911 had to be “arranged”. Without the new Pearl Harbor, as desired by PNAC, the war could never have been launched. We problably will never have a legitimate investigation of 911 and the military budget will only grow bigger. The resources of this country are being funneled to slected industries which benefit corporations who lobby the congress.Only an economic depression will wake up the sheeple in America.
toubibcal - “Why are the men of America volunteering for the military?” I think despair, faith and hope are part of the reason. “Only an economic depression will wake up the sheeple in America.” Or make even more people feel like a military career is the only likely way to feed their families.
The Vietnamese should have finished the job they started with this nut case McCain. Now we have another war-mongering murderer who is willing to blow up another million people in a heartbeat.
Men and Women volunteer for a variety of reasons. for Casey it was college money. College is so prohibitively expensive that only children of the elite can afford it. There are no good jobs in our communities; really no jobs that don’t involve selling “super-sizes.” Casey joined in May, 2000…I don’t think at this point he would join. I hope not.
Now, some people here on Common Dreams are very strident against our military, and that’s okay, I am VERY against anyone joining the US military or going to Iraq once they are in. But, what do we do? Do we offer a college education to these people? Do we offer to pay their ways to Canada (which I have done.)? We can’t just tell our young people notM to not join and not give them an alternative.
Some people say we should have a draft and that would get people out in the streets: that’s true, it would and these illegal occupations would end—that’s why there will never be a draft, my friends.
Love
Cindy
(Great piece, Stacy)
BIG MONEY…..said “or make even more people feel like a military career is the only likely way to feed their families ” BIG MONEY ….i agree with you 150%….you struck a nerve…..i remember when my brother joined the navy back in 1986….he was 26 and i was 20……i sat next to him and watched my brother cry (sobbed) after he told our mom and dad,that he did not want to be a burden on them anymore….and that they should be helping me go to college….I CRIED THAT DAY TOO……but it took me over 5 years to really understand why he cried….he cried because joining the military was the only way he could make a freash strart and get out on his own as a 26 year old man…he was tired of being broke and struggling….i’ll never forget that day….(sorry guys for the said story)
The eighth and ninth paragraphs are powerful. Truly awesome piece…
Thanks for your input Cindy. Every powerful country needs a military, it is just the nature of the beast. We are not going to change our nature anytime soon. I am grateful to the young men and women who decide to serve. It is up to us to see to it that our leaders act responsibly. We somehow let these souless animals come into power. I don’t even really blame them, there have always been people capable of great evil who think they are doing the right thing. WE were asleep at the wheel.
The men and women who join the military are party to the genocide taking place in Iraq. Iraqis are no threat to Americans. To go into a foreign country, gun in hand, is an act of aggression. There is no honor and no heroism and no pride in such an action. Social pressures can explain why people join the military, just as social pressures can explain why poor young people join gangs and deal drugs. But it does not excuse the soldiers’ responsibility for their actions, any more than soldiers in Nazi Germany may be excused for their actions.
Every soldier owes the people of Iraq a heartfelt apology for his/her role in America’s imperialist project. Ignorance about America’s brutalities abroad, money for college or wanting to be with one’s buddies are not excuses for aggression and genocide. Money for college cannot be bought with the blood of people in a Third World country. The terrorists in Pakistan are also poor boys who have no exposure to anything but an Islamic education. Are they also heroes? Wait a minute - their people think they ARE.
Hm.
“…I understand quite well that the Senator served and was badly injured in Vietnam and endured years of torture as a P.O.W?????”
John McCain’s character should be examined, very carefully before claiming War Hero Status!!!
or Myth as the case may be…
“What is the real story behind his days as a POW? The U.S. Veteran Dispatch had an article in June of 1996 entitled “POW Songbird McCain Wrongly Described As A Hero.” It recounted numerous instances where John McCain violated the Military Coda of Conduct, which specifically orders American personnel to give the enemy no information other than name, rank, serial number, and date of birth. It requires that they accept no favors from the enemy, and to make no written or oral statement disloyal to the United States.
The fact is, in exchange for better medical treatment, McCain violated this code four days after being captured on Oct. 26, 1967. In a U.S. News and World Report interview dated May 14, 1973, two months after he was released, McCain admitted that he exchanged military information in exchange for spending six weeks in a hospital normally reserve for North Vietnamese Military officers.
U.S. government records show that less than two weeks after he was taken to the hospital, Hanoi’s press began quoting specific military information, including the name of the aircraft carrier on which McCain had been based, information about the location of rescue ships and the order of which his attack was supposed to take place. The records demonstrate, according to the Dispatch article that McCain continued to collaborate with the Communists after he recovered from his injuries. He did a number of propaganda broadcasts that were aimed at destroying the moral of American servicemen fighting in the jungles of South Vietnam, On June 4, 1969, a U.S. Wire Service story reported one of McCain’s broadcasts.
The service reported “Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of the U.S. Commander in the Pacific, Adm. John McCain purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praised medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.”
McCain committed other breaches of the Code of Conduct by meeting with and giving interviews to foreign news reporters and anti American delegations.
McCain admits to talking with numerous high-ranking North Vietnamese leaders, including General Vo Nguyen Giap, their Minister of Defense.
He also did a cozy interview over coffee, oranges, and cake wish a Cuban psychiatrist, which took place in the Hanoi office of the Committee for Foreign Cultural Relations.
He failed to “evade answering questions to the utmost of his ability;” by actually conversing with his interviewer in Spanish.
Perhaps these are some of the reasons why John McCain hip been so instrumental in discounting any suggestion that live prisoners of war still languish in Southeast Asia. It certainly does explain to me why he traveled to Hanoi in May of 1993 with soon-to-be Ambassador to Vietnam Pete Peterson, and convinced the Communist leadership to agree that they would NEVER MAKE PUBLIC THEIR INTERROGATION FILES OF AMERICAN POWs.
“It should have made him ineligible to sit in judgment of those men who still wait for freedom. I believe it clearly makes him morally unfit to ever lead this nation, to be the Commander of all our armed forces someday.”
Paul E. Ritenberg of Granger
http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm
I don’t necessarily fault McCain for joining the military and carrying out war crimes in Vietnam. After all, it could be blamed on the fact that he was an unquestioning youth who didn’t have to personally witness the horror and injustice he was causing. Of course, when he got shot dowm it all caught up with him.
What I fault him for is that after all this time he has no problem being called a war hero. And with all the information that he has, he is allowing new soldiers to commit war crimes soley for the purpose of corporate greed and political positioning.
And Obama and Hillary are fighting over the gas tax instead of when and how we should be getting out of this war.
“Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” — Barry Goldwater (written by Karl Hess)
Several of the above comments point out quite clearly why the youth of our country opt for the military. During the 60’s, my experience was that people of color and poor whites were my ‘Brothers’. All those from families of money and/or influence got deferments. Anyone wanting a clear picture of the ‘why’ could do worse than read Joe Bageant’s ‘Deer Hunting with Jesus’. Even having ‘been through it’ myself, his book explained our national situation better than anything I have read before or since. Contrast our educational system with Ireland’s, all education until the first college degree is free.
Veteran ‘66-68
We could end this war right now if we would all stop driving. It’s that freaking easy. Your bumper sticker against war is hypocracy.
No Jeanette, we have to drive more and buy bigger cars suck up all that oil before China and lndia does. Let’s use up all the worlds supply now and save ours for when the rest is gone, then they will come crawling to us on their Vespas and we can say “start walking it will be good exercise.” Yes will will have it all, we will rule the world. Ours, ours all ours. Oh wait a minute we already do that.
So, if we mash McCain’s “mis-speaking” together, we get:
“Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.”
And:
“I will have an energy policy …which will eliminate our dependency on oil from the Middle East that will then prevent us… from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”
Equals:
Americans are frustrated because Cheneybush wasted hundreds of thousands of American lives for oil profits.
First time I think I agree with the loon, except I’d substitute f**king enraged, sickened and ashamed for “frustrated.”
We have made everything in the world, every object, every vertebrate, every drop of fluid, every piece of time, every idea, every DNA configuration into a commodity. You can take this to the bank. When a commodity deemed critical to our survival or even to our way of life, becomes scarce, we will fight competitors over it, and they will fight us. Find a recipe for world peace that does not ignore that basic rule of survival, known to every pond amoeba, and I will listen.
I joined the military 40 years ago because I was part of dysfunctional family where I wasn’t welcome, and because I could not find any work that would allow me to live independently on my own. But I was lucky. I survived with my life. And after serving, companies were willing to hire me. It’s as if serving in the military was a rite of passage for me to have a normal place or purpose in this country. But then eventually all the jobs were shipped overseas and once again I am unable to live independently on my own. Only this time I’m too old to join the military. Thank you America for all your lies.
cindysheehan May 4th, 2008 1:26 pm
Great comment Cindy. I don’t agree with your positions sometimes as I don’t with those here who are so strident against the military or equate military service to war crimes or service in Iraq to Nazi service to their shame. The military is an absolute need for any country that wants to remain free. Thats reality.
The problem comes when its misused as it was in Iraq. And has been before as you are well aware. There is nothing wrong at all in suggesting that kids don’t join up and WHY don’t we have at least free jr. college? Two years at least for anyone that qualified. We seem to have money for everything else….I sure wish you’d work on that.
If there were a draft, I don’t believe that the streets would fill with the protests of millions and millions of people. I think most people and kids would do what we all did, our civic duty if that were the law.
That said….we MUST NEVER…NEVER allow such a law again. We must never allow rich kids to skate by on deferments or comfortable seats in the Guard while poor whites and blacks fight. There were also plenty of middle class kids in the last war with a draft. You’ll notice there are no veterans directing this one.
If you have seen war thats the last thing you want to do, you’ll avoid it in any way possible if you can. And you’d never want to send those kids out to die if you could do things any other way or it was in a VERY good cause. Stopping genocide in Darfur would be a good cause. Iraq is not.
jlover May 4th, 2008 1:48 pm
John Freeman May 4th, 2008 4:04 pm
Nice comments.
Ms. Sheehan
For what its worth, I don’t believe Casey would join now, but I wish to God he was here to make the choice. He and the other 4000+ wasted in this needless adventure. God bless and keep them.
Toubibcal and Big_Money: Good points and reasons.
John Freeman: Thanks for the information. This is one item among many we should be taking to the streets for, besides bringing Stacy’s husband and all our people home.
Cindy Sheehan: What you and other Gold Star Mothers have gone through was unnecessary. Because of a dereliction of duty by the United States Congress, and contempt for the oaths of office which most haven’t adhered to, our loved ones were and still are being sacrificed for all the wrong reasons. Our (we’re Californians) two US Senators have done nothing meaningful to stop commiting crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially the senior Senator, Diane Feinstein, and the treacherous Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who turned her back not only on her San Francisco constituents, but on the people of all 50 States, as she protects GWB and his band of racketeers.
Wake up America! Don’t you have any self-respect left? Until ALL OUR military people are back home from Iraq and Afghanistan, and until citizens are given free quality health care when they need it, until every one of OUR youngsters with an aptitude for college or specialized trade schools can go for free, and I’ll stop there, we should be angry and active! Joining the military for these benefits should be “off the table!” If we can spend trillions for the Pentagon and war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can better spend that same money for health care and education.
Last Thursday, May Day, the 1st, should have been the impetus to get OUR movement going. Wait too much longer and it ain’t gonna happen, folks. Ask any surviving members of the 5-6 million people in Germany (the master race folks) that died for Hitler, if being docile, apathetic and uncaring, was worth it.
It’s time for a peaceful insurrection of OUR men and women in uniform. Why should they be held to a higher standard than the coward-in-chief, the five time vice-coward-in-chief, and their friends in Congress for war profiteering and empire. We are not at war.
Cindy, you are an inspiration for so many people at home and abroad and I’m proud to have met you at the ILWU rally on Thursday. As always, I was touched by your compassionate speech. (Wish I brought the camera along.)
Peace, Harmony, and Understanding to you all.
LITT–WM: I agree with you. Good post.
WORDS ARE IMPORTANT: Excellent insight on McCain. It’s like someone who was an accessory to a criminal act not learning a thing and acting to encourage others to repeat the crime. The guy has a 100% spirituality deficit! America can’t afford such a one at this time!
American soldiers in Iraq kill civilians as a matter of course. Just listen to Winter Soldier. American soldiers routinely use racist terms for Iraqis, barge into their homes, arrest their family members without cause, push them around in their own land. Soldiers take photos of themselves with their “kills”: burned out vehicles and dead Iraqis. This is not rare; it is common. Whether they do it out of fear, or by mistake, is not the issue. Iraqis are dying. Please do not go and kill innocent people in a foreign country and then say you were obeying orders. Also, I think the Iraqi people are “ours” too, just as the armed forces are - they are our fellow human beings. As long as we keep talking of “our boys and girls” and think of them as “other” we will continue to be part of this murderous war. You cannot get money for college by killing people poorer than yourself. Have mercy on Iraqis. American leaders are murderers - please don’t act as their instruments. It is well known across the world that American armies don’t go to foreign countries to liberate or help, but to occupy and bully. They have done it in country afer country, again and again and again. It seems that everyone other than Americans themselves know this, and it is hard to excuse ignorance and naivete of this magnitude on the part of Americans.Especially since there is no apology from these soldiers for the lives they take. The American armed forces don’t really serve their own country - they attack and brutaalize other, smaller nations. Americans should no know this by now, and pretending we don’t is not an excuse. “Obeying orders” seems to make it all right - unfortunate for the Iraqis, but all right just the same. It is NOT all right to go into another country and try to bring them “democracy” at gunpoint. While the commanders deserve severe punishment for their crimes, soldiers too owe Iraqis an apology on bended knee for the hell their actions have made of a country that was once called the cradle of civilization. Of course, Americans are not accustomed to bend the knee before anyone, no matter how heinous their crimes - arrogance always trumps humility - but the time will come when historical circumstances will put us in the place we have richly deserved. Head down, arms folded, eyes downcast.
Saying we’re sorry. And trying to make amends.
McCain has been hail as a hero for his Vietnam service, but it was anything but. The Vietnam adventure, like Afghanistan and Iraq, was a terrorist attack by the USA. Though not for oil, it mainly was for rubber ie, good year/firestone corp.
The heros of the Vietnam war was those who refused as Muhammed Ali and those who fled to Canada, with the exception of those who had inside help as Bush and Cheney.
There is nothing heroic about committing cold blooded crimes whether under orders or not.
McCain deserves respect for his heroism in Vietnam four decades ago, but that doesn’t qualify him to be president. There are plenty of Vietnam war heroes in jail, homeless or living quiet, ordinary lives. They obviously don’t get a free ticket to the top, and why should he? He’s eager to cash in, but wants to deny his fellow heroes even basic benefits. Furthermore, he’s as intellectually crippled as the current president, a man whose every policy he has embraced. He has less comprehension of the issues than a high school kid who reads the newspaper. If 71% of the American public disapproves of Bush’s performance, why are so many people supporting a man who vows to continue the same failed policies? It’s all based on the cult of the war hero, and all made with smoke and mirrors.
Litt_Wmn 8:31pm Very good comments. Thanks.
Tsunami: I’ve got to agree with you and I’m a Vietnam Vet!
I don’t think the neo-con plan that Bush signed up for and McCain supports of spreading Democracy throughout the Middle East is going as foreseen. That is what happens when you only have yes men sitting at the planning table, those with the money now own the government.
It is MONEY against our soldier’s, the middle class, and our civil liberties. Time to pull up the rock and really identify who pulls the strings in this country. WHO OWNS US?
Democrats are the reason we’re in Iraq.
They gave Bush the authorization to invade and have kept the funding for 5 years.
I have nothing but disgust and contempt for the types of idiots on Democratic Underground who are too stupid and blind to see through the Democrat’s deceit and manipulation.
VOTE NADER. VOTE SHEEHAN
cindysheehan said: “Men and Women volunteer for a variety of reasons. for Casey it was college money. College is so prohibitively expensive that only children of the elite can afford it. …some people here on Common Dreams are very strident against our military, and that’s okay, I am VERY against anyone joining the US military or going to Iraq once they are in. But, what do we do? ”
My niece went to West Point on a scholarship, it was the only option for her: she’d be flipping burgers right now if that hadn’t worked out. She’s flying a helicopter in Iraq right now. I’m proud of her, but here’s the sadness. Because she knows I’m against the war (and frankly, against our overfunded military in general), she considers me (and my children) as second class citizens, at least irrelevant or, at most, traitorous. The military does a good job in propagandizing its own, at least. Of course, partly, it must, but partly its sad cuz its just not reality.
What do we do? In part, we live through this. We take this government down. We recharge our military to actually act in OUR defense, rather than those of corporations/business interests. And we never stop thanking those who answered the nations call to service, however ill-served they were by their nation in that call.
WordsAreImp — “After all, it could be blamed on the fact that he was an unquestioning youth who didn’t have to personally witness the horror and injustice he was causing”
How much leeway are we allowed to give our youth. Are our youth so completely repugnant that they cannot make ANY moral choices ? So they shoot up Iraqis or Vietnamese or whoever the victims are, bomb them to pieces, commit murder and we just pass it off as ‘unquestioning youth’ who are doing what they are told ?!! Sorry im not buying …
These ‘youth’ (marines) are murderers and should be treated as such. They are not so completely dumb that they do not know what they are signing up for.
DIED FOR OIL. It was 16:37 on an Arab afternoon that my spirit split for heaven as my body bit the dune, and a shallow crimson puddle quickly sank in sandy soil as some blood from Alabama dried for oil. ♦ Are the babes in Baghdad sleeping without bombers in their ears? Are the widows done with weeping? Are the deserts dry from tears? And the victors at their throttles, are they grateful for the spoil - and the gallons spilled in battles over oil? ♦ Mail me home to Uncle Sam, a bag of bones across the sea, to where woods of Alabama meet the hills of Tennessee. Cut a pine and plane a coffin, dig six feet of native soil, for a neighbor who went off and died for oil. ♦ Up above my bones and marrow, if the county law allows, place a life-size granite barrel where the daisies meet the cows: “Here, apart from cars and money, rests this rusting mortal coil, that on Arab sands at twenty died for oil.” ╬ ALABAMA LADY LEFT BEHIND. “I’m not old or wisely traveled, but these Alabama skies never showed me stars or springtimes any cleaner than his eyes. And, I doubt it, but museums may preserve a page, or part, of some history half as honest as his heart. ♦ A mile of mountain up from town, beneath a pine, a stone, with no other stones around, all weathers all alone, holds up two names to heaven that held a world for me, and two dates that my misfortune lived to see.
With the crushing power of the boot this President has laid waste to Congressional checks and balances, and a vigilant media. He has vividly exposed their weakness, cowardice, and corruption. Bush has become an archetype of evil, yet he prevails with every step. Those of us who oppose his actions have written emails to congress and the media, spoken out, marched, petitioned, and modified our lifeways to weaken the engine that feeds him, yet he continues as if unopposed. The wealthy live in splendor and the common man cannot stretch his pay to include food, medicine, health insurance, and gasoline, yet he remains muddled in ignorance and supports McCain.
This begs the question, is it time to surrender? I say no. The Bush policies are the last hard battle of 20th Century centralization and control engineered to benefit the few. That centralized model cannot sustain itself in a world of hyper change. The inputs of the few are inadequate to steer the ship in continuous chaotic waters. In the new world of decentralization, it takes the wisdom of all of us to keep the ship afloat. In Chaos theory, one small event can have serious effects across the globe. Our continuing efforts to build a 21st Century vision is that small event. There is a new dawn coming, but there is a lot of dark turf to cross before realizing it. When we speak of sustainability we must not lose sight of the idea of a sustainable vision of a better future. That sustainability rests in your hearts, minds, and souls.
Ubrew,
I disagree, she would have been better served flipping burgers. You don’t “take down the government” by taking orders from same.
It is now the 21st century. A new millenium. We have allowed 8 long years to slip by and still support the Empire with our money and sacrificial lambs.
It is time to evolve beyond militarism. It is time to mothball weaponry. We have too many other non violent tools to bring balance to this world.
Those who say we need a military are still buying into the Empire. It’s a hard habit to break. More addictive than heroin.
You cannot know Earth community if you still cling to the ways of Empire. Killing children in the name of freedom is a lie. Killing others to obtain their resources is shameful.
There is nothing left to do but either wait for teh wasteland to be visited upon us which is already in progress or stand up to be counted.
Exactly when does the revolution for earth community begin or are the people simply too used to Empire?
DAVID FARRELLY: Powerfully moving poem! If you are its author, bravo! I’d love to see it read when congress begins instead of the usual “God bless America” stuff, given that ‘god’ has more and more morphed into a hybrid of mammon and militarism.
DOOM & GLOOM: Hopeful post on this new moon (Taurus, sign of earth mother and all the gifts we humans draw from her earthly temples) morning.
CIVIL BEHAVIOR: Good post, too. In a sense the revolution IS happening in that all of the disenfranchised groups are slowing breaking apart, and that may explain why a heightened strategy to make use of domestic prison camps, domestic spying, and that disgusting “answerableto no one” Blackwater equivalent on our own compromised soil.
George Lucas wrote the MYTH for our times in Star Wars… it will be the unlikely coalition of the various rebel “castes” who bring Darth’s death ship down! And Mother Nature is ON our side for She recognizes that which sustains her enormous works at community through the myriad ecosystems… all of which are made into instantaneous spoils by the well-financed ways and means to DEATH and DESTRUCTION, the code of Mars.
Some people (military and civilian) who come back from Iraq say that ‘it’s horrible the way these people live’! ‘They live like animal’s!’ ‘They need us their to improve their culture!’ That seems to be a justification in some American’s mind for the mindless slaughter and occupation of a country that was no threat to us. It’s a mind set that our current Administration has tried to instill in a lot of people who go over there! ‘We are civilized you are subhuman garbage!’ and they really wonder why these people hate us????? And will continue to fight this illegal occupation to the last man standing.
I say who cares what way they choose to live! Where do people in this come off thinking our way of life is better than someone else’s????? I don’t see where our lifestyle is so great anymore. This is the way their culture lives we should be adult enough to respect that! Who is to say they don’t have a better culture than ours? But, unfortunately we have a government of infantile warmongers who don’t care about much of anything but themselves.
“What sort of mental and moral gymnastics does McCain perform in order to justify his ongoing support for a war he claims to want to prevent in the future?”
It’s simple. By staying in Iraq for the indefinite future and (here’s the delusional thought)controlling the vast, mostly untapped Iraqi oilfields, he hopes to solve the energy crisis and our dependence on other countries.
Doom n Gloom: 9:44 am posting is Excellent! You nailed it!
civil behavior: I second what you said to Ubrew, and your commentary as well. You echo my sentiments these past forty years.. Nothing complicated about the truth of the matter.
Ubrew: Several thoughts on your niece, and this applies to everyone else’s niece or nephew. If she had the capability and academic credentials to qualify for West Point, and couldn’t find a job besides “flipping burgers”, it goes without saying that the capitalist system has failed the average person looking for honest employment. Quite possibly, your niece may have jumped on the scholarship to the military academy instead of looking for a job in the civillian community. Or perhaps, she is a Bush supporter?
But after what this administration has done, or not done, people are still willing to risk life, limb, and mental health for the most morally and ethically corrupt government in US history, you begin to wonder.
And yes, the US armed forces have become a closed society within society. Not a healthy thing for a democracy.
People have been selling their souls for “thirty pieces of silver” far too long, always with a ready rationale.
I’m glad some of you know why we were in Viet Nam. Most of us still don’t. But often I guess the people involved are the last to know.
I am also astounded by the expertise of people that have never been involved, never been there, never saw a foreign national cry because the Americans came. Some with joy, some with anger.
But using the absolutes that some employ to bolster their own agendas is just not fair.
Without America the world would be worse off. America is no Rome nor Nazi Germany nor any of the other suggestions that are made sometimes.
One day in anothers skin in another country would enlighten you as to what you have and what you so lightly disregard.
Great article and discussion. My response is too long to print here but people on this site may find it worthwhile:
http://tinyurl.com/3v33fp
Litt_Wmn “The men and women who join the military are party to the genocide taking place in Iraq. Iraqis are no threat to Americans. To go into a foreign country, gun in hand, is an act of aggression. There is no honor and no heroism and no pride in such an action. Social pressures can explain why people join the military, just as social pressures can explain why poor young people join gangs and deal drugs. But it does not excuse the soldiers’ responsibility for their actions, any more than soldiers in Nazi Germany may be excused for their actions.”
You are so right, but as Barack Obama says, it is not enough to end the war, one has to end the mind set that creates the war.
Our country’s economy is predicated on war. War is profitable. We need a truly major change of our whole system.
A very unique person who’s single mother was once on food stamps, who shares the two major races peopled in this country, who is extreamly smart, as is his wife, a family man, one with true Christian Values, and most of all excellant judgement.
Who better to make this drastic change than Barack Obama!