I'd like to think a handful of elected officials and the Merchants of Evil who made up their cadre of co-conspirators drug America into an illegal ill-fated invasion and occupation of Iraq ten years ago. I'd like to think Americans opposed the rationale for the war at the time, rose up in mass protests from coast to coast, and that the people who sold us the war based upon manipulated intelligence have been tried for their crimes against humanity at the Hague.
I'd like to think we're that kind of country.
But the truth is a lot harder to face, which is why reality gets so little actual examination in America today.
People who were appointed to office by people who were appointed to the Supreme Court managed to sell the nation, the Congress, and the free world, on a pack of lies designed to facilitate their agenda in the middle east. People were captured, detained, flown to dark-op sites, and tortured in our name. Billions of dollars were made by the dogs of war who stood to gain by those efforts, and trillions in national treasure were thrown into a money pit that has no end in sight.
Four thousand American service members lost their lives. An unknown number of American service members have lost limbs, sight, hearing, and will be forever scarred, physically and mentally, for having been pawns in the game. Thousands of American "contractors" and "advisers" have been killed and injured, all "off the books" as part of our shadow army of hired mercenaries.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children, have been killed, and millions displaced. Regional stability has been changed in ways no thoughtful person could have wanted, with enemies of western civilization emboldened in the process. The balance of power has shifted to Iran, and now we have neocons beating war drums for yet another invasion, with all of the same threats and subterfuge at work to swing public opinion for war.
And today, the members of Congress who voted to give the Bush/Cheney administration the power to make all of that happen point fingers at the lies they were told, without the sense of shame that the truth should inspire: WE LET THEM START A WAR BECAUSE WE DIDN'T WANT TO LOOK UNPATRIOTIC.
So we put the yellow magnetic ribbon decals on our cars, trucks, and SUVs, turned the television channels away from those depressing images from Iraq, and called in to vote for our favorite American Idols. We cheered our favorite teams, went to see the summer blockbusters, grilled out with our friends, and made sure to keep a nice, healthy cushion of "stuff" between us and what was being done in our names overseas.
They're ginning up for another war, folks. The wheels are already spinning, and we're on the cusp of another propaganda campaign for the hearts and minds of America.
And we still haven't punished the people who took us into the last one.
God Bless America.
8 comments:
I for one will not be satisfied until I see Cheney and Chimpy frog marched up the steps of the Hague. Here's another point of view from a dying veteran: http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/
Some nice lady left the link as a comment over to One Fly's place .... it needs to be posted somewhere prominently.
Beej, I saw that letter on HuffnPuff yesterday, thought about giving it a link. Sort of had my head in my hands most of the day, though.
How 'bout Rumsfeld's happy anniversary tweet marking the anniversary? One guy responded by calling him a "blood gargler".
And Cheney's revisionist history tour continues unabated.
If there was any justice in this world those assholes would be hiding in spider holes like Sadaam's as the manhunt closes in on them.
"But vee verr just followink orders!"
Birth defects in Iraq from spent uranium laced munitions is greater than it was in Japan after they ingested two nukes.
My city library is full of books written by neo-cons trumpeting their great war. It's enough to make you wish there was a god.
Yellow Fringe, you mentioned the local library? Hey, over the hollerdaze I was invited by my sister and rightwing bro-in-law to help myself to their extensive book collection in the basement. There I found every Ann Coulter/O'Reilly/Hannity/Woodward Rush Limbaugh-esque book ever sold.
Hundreds of them. Memoirs by all of the war criminals themselves, in order of publication.
They had 'em all. A rightwingers survivalist library. Everything you ever wanted to know about bullshit but were afraid to ask.
Squatlo,
My thinking is thus: any Faux News cheerleader, any Koch-style manipulator, and especially any GOP chickenhawk legislator who wants to beat the drums for war with Iran can by God promise to lead the invasion IN PERSON. And Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, et al can lead the charge.
Mr. Ornery, that's about as likely to happen as me winning Saturday's Powerball drawing. The old white men who find these military adventures so alluring NEVER put themselves or their kids on the line when it's time to serve.
In fact, while they wrap themselves in the flag and sing the praises of our men and women in uniform, they're busy cutting and slashing benefits, holding up needed VA reforms, and basically doing everything in their power to ignore the hundreds of thousands of vets who are already scarred beyond recognition from their last adventure.
I don't know how they sleep at night. Or why we let them.
In the VERY conservative local paper here in Ala, they had a column in the editorial page by Pat Buchanan, who stated we were falsy led into war for WMD and other things. I about fell off the couch. This is a conservative saying the war was a sham.
Karen
Pt: What's next with these astute Republicans (with 10 years worth of 20/20 hindsight)? Are they going to acknowlege gravity, a round Earth, and evolution?
Zounds!
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