bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2006-06-01 08:19 am
bigmacbear) wrote2006-06-01 08:19 am
While we still can...
As I said in a comment in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thezzyzx's journal yesterday, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in George II's office the day he was briefed on the Haditha incident:
"Haditha? Wasn't she the little girl on Bewitched?"
"That was Tabitha, Mr. President."
(yes, I know it isn't pronounced that way...)
The more I hear about this the more I think we are reliving the dark days of the Vietnam war. Haditha is for today what My Lai was for that war, as I'm sure you will hear from many sources.
And yes, I call these both wars as that is what they are, Congressional declaration or no. Incidentally, I think Congress has done itself a grave disservice by not insisting on their Constitutional prerogative to declare war but rather authorizing the President as Commander-in Chief to do as he sees fit.
But back to Iraq: If this were truly a necessary war to punish the likes of Osama bin Laden, there would be a military draft. That there isn't speaks to two issues which point to the inescapable conclusion that we shouldn't be there: one, it would put the sons and daughters of the elite in this country -- including George II himself, although I'm sure he'd find some way around it for his girls -- in harm's way, which Will Not Do; and two, it will focus the anger of the people back at the government in ways not seen since the peace rallies of the 1960's.
However, without a draft and with the number of distractions placed before the media, this has been a war fought out of sight and out of mind. The problem is that the people who have been asked to fight this war are not being given the support they need from the civilian government nor from their superiors, whether that be in the form of the proper tools to do the job, combat pay, body and vehicle armor, medical treatment, or even a definite term of service that isn't being extended over and over again. And the Veterans' Administration, part of the debt this country owes these folks for irretrievably fucking up their lives (whether through injury , physical illness, or mental anguish) is having its budget cut, which is arguably a war crime against our own military.
George W. Bush, you have too much blood on your hands. Get us the fuck out of Iraq, NOW. And listen to your father next time he has some advice for you.
thezzyzx's journal yesterday, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in George II's office the day he was briefed on the Haditha incident:"Haditha? Wasn't she the little girl on Bewitched?"
"That was Tabitha, Mr. President."
(yes, I know it isn't pronounced that way...)
The more I hear about this the more I think we are reliving the dark days of the Vietnam war. Haditha is for today what My Lai was for that war, as I'm sure you will hear from many sources.
And yes, I call these both wars as that is what they are, Congressional declaration or no. Incidentally, I think Congress has done itself a grave disservice by not insisting on their Constitutional prerogative to declare war but rather authorizing the President as Commander-in Chief to do as he sees fit.
But back to Iraq: If this were truly a necessary war to punish the likes of Osama bin Laden, there would be a military draft. That there isn't speaks to two issues which point to the inescapable conclusion that we shouldn't be there: one, it would put the sons and daughters of the elite in this country -- including George II himself, although I'm sure he'd find some way around it for his girls -- in harm's way, which Will Not Do; and two, it will focus the anger of the people back at the government in ways not seen since the peace rallies of the 1960's.
However, without a draft and with the number of distractions placed before the media, this has been a war fought out of sight and out of mind. The problem is that the people who have been asked to fight this war are not being given the support they need from the civilian government nor from their superiors, whether that be in the form of the proper tools to do the job, combat pay, body and vehicle armor, medical treatment, or even a definite term of service that isn't being extended over and over again. And the Veterans' Administration, part of the debt this country owes these folks for irretrievably fucking up their lives (whether through injury , physical illness, or mental anguish) is having its budget cut, which is arguably a war crime against our own military.
George W. Bush, you have too much blood on your hands. Get us the fuck out of Iraq, NOW. And listen to your father next time he has some advice for you.