Why the heck are we there?

Oh, yeah... because of ...

such a sad existence............but 'rethink afghanistan' is a good site.

Mr. Obama is a weak man who is not up to being president. He should have enough insight to know this by now, and resign from office.

Cozy reunions in Normandy, VFW parades,

hackneyed Memorial Day Speeches, launchings of

battleships with full champagne bottle, etc. all

make war seem pretty harmless.

Since I’m always lifting heavy sentences from

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, it’s clear

I need to lighten up and join Maureen Dowd in

commending the Obama family on the fun things

they do and smile wistfully at the tale of the ancient

American veteran of Normandy who died peacefully

in his sleep during his recent reunion there.

Examples of stuff, by contrast, from Stephen Crane:

.”It was not well to drive men into final corners; at

those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.

.”Yeh infernal fool, don’t yeh know enough t’quit

when there ain’t anything t’shoot at? Good Gawd!”

.”Occasional bullets buzzed in the air and spanged into

tree trunks.”

.” The general reined strongly at his charger’s opened and

foamy mouth and guided it with dexterous horsemanship

past the man. The latter scrambled in wild and torturing

haste. His strength evidently failed him as he reached

a place of safety. One of his arms suddenly weakened,

and he fell, sliding over upon his back. He lay stretched

out, breathing gently.”

On the light side again: When I applied for editorship of The

Front Royal News in Virginia, I had a lunchtime interview

with Elizabeth Coulton, editor of The Loudon Times, flagship

of the Arthur Arundel newspaper chain.

I told her the story of how, when Winston Churchill came to

Cherbourg, France, he asked personally for my father, Second

Lieutenant John Escher, Sr., a Navy man assigned to the Army.

The reason was that my father and Churchill shared a fascination

with buzzbombs, and Churchill wanted to see some of the launching

sites my father knew about.

So they set out together at the head of a long column of soldiers

determined to stay as close to Churchill as possible for

reasons of security, but Churchill waved them back.

He and my father proceeded on foot to a launch site.

Churchill then asked where my father was from—

Englewood, New Jersey. Since Churchill’s mother

was from Englewood, he was especially interested in

this, and they agreed they would prefer to have

a drink of whiskey together.

When I told Elizabeth Coulton this story, she denied

that my father was the head of Allied Press Headquarters

in Cherbourg with three jeeps and headquarters in a bordello.

She was seeing, I suppose, how I would react

when someone challenged my facts.

I for my part was so shocked by her questioning of a story

I had heard my entire life that I could say nothing and

failed the test .

She gave the editorship to somebody else, who was better

qualified “to hit the ground running,” she said, but within

two months he ran The Front Royal News into the ground--

it doesn't exist.

And Liz Coulton herself, at the end of Desert Storm, went

to Iraq, where an entire Iraqi regiment discovered her standing

alone as it came over a dune and surrendered to her personally.

Some time after that she was relieved of her command at the

Arundel chain, which had always been a tough place for any person

of spirit to remain for long, anyway.

So, dear reader, wouldn’t you say that on the basis of this tale

alone, war can be pretty grand? But I could just as well tell

you about the French child my father saw briefly playing

with a land mine on the beach, or relate today’s headline with

film at Common Dreams website: AIR RAID VICTIM TELLS

OBAMA TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN AT ONCE, or yesterday’s

letter at the same website in which the writer described his father,

a vet with failing memory who rather than go to Normandy remained

at home, where he stated unequivocally: “War is for stupid people” and

“What war’s good for is transforming people into red snot.”

There are at least three related videos from bravenewfilms, maker of Rethink Afghanistan, if people check at the Youtube page for this above video.

NOTE: People who don't yet realise this can easily get the Youtube link by right-clicking anywhere on the embedded video and selecting to watch it at Youtube. I only learned about this easy-of-use feature over the past couple of months.

Back to what I was saying, related titles I saw and will view are:

"You won't see THIS on FOX News: Starving Afghan Family Displaced by US Airstrike (Clip 2)"

"You won't see THIS on FOX: Afghan Children Left to Die After US Bombings (Clip 3)"

"You won't see THIS on CNN: Afghan Refugee Describes Horror of US Bombings (Clip 4)"

All of those and the video this CD page was created for were originally posted at Youtube on June 9th, so yesterday.

EDIT:

I'll add some comments on these three latter clips, now that I've viewed them.

Clip 2 is one to definitely view. It's certainly something the U.S. "elites" wouldn't want the world to see and hear! It's only 1:24, so very short, but it's powerful for message to the U.S., west, whole world.

Clips 3 and 4 are also very important, and 3 is passionate, as 2 also is, but while I found 2 to be a little more emotionally moving or intense, say. 4 is just as good, but the elderly (enough) Afghan man who's interviewed speaks so calmly that the clip is not emotionally intense at all. 4 is easy to listen to, while the man nonetheless says like the people interviewed in 2 and 3, that the U.S. brought death to and destruction of Afghanistan; many deaths and many more badly wounded Afghans.

Bubba Clinton outsourced our industrial base to China causing
a major depression in this country. The hell with Globalization
We are interested in our survival...not the Global Corporatists. Down with Bush and Clinton.