Ok, lie to me again. It's what politicians do.
When the US invaded Afghanistan, our leader(s) assured us that they knew exactly where Osama Bin Laden was, but couldn't tell us without "compromising sources". So many of us believed, Afghanistan was invaded, and Bin Laden is as dead as Elvis. And we have another country to run.
That's once.
Then we invade Iraq. Even though Colin Powell's evidence didn't convince many countries, Americans believed. He had evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction; he just couldn't tell us more without compromising "sources". And we have yet another country to run.
That's twice.
And now Elvis, Bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein are alive.
We apparently never had much evidence against the Taliban, or much evidence that they ran the whole country of Afghanistan anyway. And we never knew where Bin Laden was. Or is.
We also apparently never had much evidence of Saddam having weapons of mass destruction. We could still find something, but obviously there was nothing ready to use.
So what excuse will we use to invade Syria? Or Iran? Or? Whatever it is, I won't believe it.
Some of the D's will oppose this shit, as that's what opposition parties do. But why couldn't the R's see through the lies, when the French could?
Leaving me with the following: I will never vote for an R or a D again. I will support the military, which is composed of many good men and women who do their job. Including the fact that I will support invasion after our leaders have left them in tents in sandstorms long enough.
But I will not believe the lies. Nor will I believe that our freedoms were removed by Osama Bin Laden when our President took them away.
If you want to protest a war, and think it might do some good, do it now. It sounds like our next target is Syria, but that might change. Don't say I didn't warn you, now is the time for protest if you think you can change our "system". When our troops move in, that is the time to shut up and admit defeat, just like in an election.
To protest after a war starts is obviously too late, and serves to undermine the actions of our soldiers. The question of patriotism is drowned out by the question of whether you care more for the welfare of your friends and neighbors and their children, or more for the welfare of people on the other side of the world whom you've probably never met. The middle view, respect everyone, gets soldiers killed.
But you'll have to make new signs, "no blood for oil" probably won't work next time.
In the long run, my take on the whole mess is that nothing will work except regime change HERE, and I don't mean substituting one street gang for another. I will never again vote for any member of the D gang or any member of the R gang, or any other person who will "vote with his gang" instead of being a PERSON who will respect the Constitution and represent his constituents instead of voting according to the letter tattooed on his forehead.
My personal assessment is that war protest is unlikely to be successful. Regime change is unlikely to be successful. Of the two, I find regime change more likely. Which means that anyone who wants to stop this shit would be most effective by 1) political action to get more choices on the ballot, hard when the system has been set up to exclude all but R's and D's, 2)Taking the pledge never to vote for an R or D again, 3) pass the message on.
Meanwhile, if you meet a returning soldier, the only thing to say is THANK YOU. If you don't like what happened, the blood is on your hands, if you voted for any R or D last time, at any level, didn't vote at all, or didn't work hard enough to change the system to get rid of the R's and D's..
New words I learned from TV. Mainly Foxnews.
Kashay--Used not only by media, but by soldiers on the ground in interviews. I think they mean Cache, as in arms cache.
Calvary--I thought that meant the hill Jesus was crucified on, so why do we have a third armored calvary in our army?
Attrit--like its synonym, "soften up". One general was honest enough to say that both of these mean "kill"
At least we don't have a Marine Corpse yet, I'm waiting..
In all the news coverage of the war on Iraq, and the protests of it, virtually no one mentions the War on Americans. Where are the protesters in the streets? Where is the fair and balanced news broadcast which even mentions this war? Does no one even care that American freedom is being destroyed, and that Americans will forever be subjected to carrying their "papers", and being stopped at "checkpoints" where they must be "commanded" like slaves while staring down the barrels of loaded guns?
This current War on Americans goes far beyond "terrorism"; the laws such as Patriot I and II which are supposed to combat terrorism are being used for many other purposes. But few protest, and few news media cover it.
I sometimes wonder who is really more free, we or the Iraqis. Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime have killed many people, while we "humanely" imprison more people than any other country in the world. I wonder whether I would rather be shot on the spot for smoking a joint, or whether I would rather spend a period of time in one of our "humane" prisons, after having my door battered down in a no knock search, and facing masked men with assault rifles who might shoot me.
The US congress passed an appropriation today, for the war in Iraq. That same bill included 4.2 billion for the war on us. The States want much more for "first responders", and sadly they'll probably get it.
The states and cities have always had first responders. They maintain forces for earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, major fires, epidemics, car wrecks, etc. etc. etc. The national government is not a money tree which refills automatically. Your choice as a citizen (slave) is to pay $1.00 in taxes for these "services", or eventually pay $2.00 to have the same money filtered through Washington, D.C.
Life is not "safe". Never was, never will be. California for instance has known for years that they might have an earthquake with much more damage than 9/11. And they have hopefully maintained "first responders" up to that task.
So why does one terrorist attack require that we spend additional billions? With a B. The only new item is more opression and slavery. More guns to point at the citizens. (slaves).