Let's get out of here......
Well, the US is poised for two new hurricanes. No..... not Wilma and Alpha. The potentially far more potent "Fitzgerald" is predicted to come ashore in Washington, D.C. as early as this Wednesday. Expected landfall is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House. All the talk about Plame, Wilson, Novak, and Miller suddenly switched this past week to Libby, Rove, Cheney, and even Bush.
While the speculation has swirled about who would be indicted for what, the War in Iraq is the eal story here. The larger question is how did the lies concocted among all these players find their way into the fraud that became the case Bush made
for the war. It's serious, maybe even treasonous. Whether indictments or convictions are brought or succeed is really immaterial. The American public is now discussing the War in Iraq as not only a blundering disaster leaving thousands of lives, Iraqi and American alike, in its wake.......but also as a travesty, indeed a crime.
The second hurricane is barreling it's way into America's "heart" land. That is 2000, not a named storm (although
it will have a name), but a number marking another milestone in the Iraq War, the death of the 2000th soldier. As the millenium held us in its thrall of anticipation of a new beginning, this 2000 holds us in dread of another bitter ending.
With an average of two lives lost forever each day, and the toll standing as I write on Sunday at 1996, that terrible goal
will be reality by the time readers see this ink.
Cindy Sheehan's plans to go to see George again at the People's House will have made news, and peace vigils planned in
cities around the nation will have left candle light's waxy residue on cement, along with tears, broken hearts, and frustration. The internet video, "What does 2000 look like", shows a blink by blink look at what 2000 faces of lost soldiers look like, moving through your sight so fast that they become a blur, and ending long minutes later with the statement "you've just seen 500. In order to understand 2000, you would have to watch this video three more times". Everyone should see it. George Bush should see it.
Many families have created websites in memorial to their fallen loved ones lost in Iraq, including the family of Lt. Ken Ballard. The photos of Ken as a child and then as a soldier make you wish you could know him. He was a hero. He is dead. The website invites comments from people who have visited it. 11,000 people have written their heart-felt thanks
and sympathy.
When George Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003, the death toll stood at 139. Obviously the war has
escalated since then. The death throes of the insurgency have become another Cheney lie, and a nightmare of reality. Cold statistics show that of those lost in Iraq, 49% are Army soldiers, 25% Marines, and 15% Army National Guard. Over 1/2 are from only10 states:California, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Florida, Illinois,Georgia, Michigan, and Virginia. 80% were Staff Sargents or below. 28% were killed by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), including 40 in August, a record, and 35 so far in October.
Despite Bus and Blair declaring success after success in the face of failure after failure, the UK Ministry of Defense commissioned a poll, reported in this Sunday Telegraph, which lays bare the collapse of the "hearts and minds" policy they said was essential for victory. 45% of Iraqis support attacks against coalition troops, 65% in the British occupied sectors. Less than 1% think that US/UK military involvement is helping improve security in their country. 82% are strongly opposed to the presence of coalition troops, and 67% feel less secure because of the occupation. Their personal lives don't get favorable marks either. 71% rarely get safe drinking water. 47% never have enough electricity. 70% say their sewage system rarely works. Iraqis have waited day after day, already over a week, to finally learn their election results. So far, fraud has been ruled but...... one can't help but wonder if by the same methods used in Ohio in 2004.
Distraction and diversion seem to be favorite tactics of the Bush administration. In late December Gary Berntsen,
the CIA field commander at Tora Bora, will say in his book, which the CIA has tried to keep from publication for over two years, that he and other U.S. commanders had definitive intelligence that Osama bin Laden was there. He had been tracked, and could have bee caught. It would appear that bin Laden wasn't the goal, that Saddam was. The war shifted to Iraq, the original plan anyway, and bin Laden slipped out of grasp. Bush didn't finish one war before he began another. Now,
we have a $25,000,000 bounty on al-Zakari, who started as a local terrorist based in Jordan, fomenting insurgency
in Iraq.
Since we launched these twin wars against terrorism, Al Queda has spread to 40 countries, with Iraq now its epicenter. These two murderous thugs must be smiling at their success at our expense. It seems now that Syria may become our next household name. Bush and Blair are pushing a UN investigation into the killing of Lebanese leader, Hariri, and coalition troops are plying and penetrating the Syria/Iraq border searching for insurgents, all reminiscent of the run-up to the Iraq war. Sec. of State Rice has launched unspecific but aggressive threats against Syria, while British Foreign Secretary Straw has pointed out "false testimony being given by senior people" in Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Hmmmmmm.......................
While America squares off this week with these two hurricanes, one carrying winds of truth, the other of death, the
war machine drones on and on, 2000 and counting. While death and failure are tolled in numbers, so is the hope and demand for peace as it spreads across America. We must bring stronger, louder voices forward to demand both
truth and peace. While we are so often distracted by one scandal or another or incompetence we can't ignore, we must
keep focused. We either get the leadership we insist on.......or deserve. If we don't demand peace, we're sure to get war and more war. Barbara Carr New Harbor, Maine
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