To the editor:
“I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy (of Afghanistan) succeed. It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”
George Bush spoke these unbelievable words during one of his “fantasy soldier” moments this past week.
Ever since the Supreme Court anointed George Bush king seven years ago, our country has been going downhill at breakneck speed. Some people say, “get over it” but I for one can’t. How can we ignore the train wreck happening before our very eyes? How can this country survive another eight or nine months of Bush, Cheney and their partners in crime? How could the Republican Congress sit back and twiddle their thumbs all these years and allow these criminals in the White House to take away our power?
Congress has handed over our rights to privacy as U.S. citizens to this president on a silver platter. These people don’t even blink while they are destroying this great country’s laws of freedom and liberty. Bush and Cheney just say the word “terrorist” and the Congress says “okey-dokey.” There are other people in this country who go along with wiretapping “because they haven’t done anything wrong so they have nothing to hide”. I’m sure that the Jews felt the same way when Hitler was rising to power. As Ben Franklin said, “Those who would exchange freedom for security deserve neither”.
We have been taken into two wars based on lies and evidently Bush’s fantasies. What is romantic about nearly 4,000 of our soldiers being killed and for what? What is romantic about our thousands of injured soldiers who are not properly helped when they return home? How does this administration have the nerve to tell soldiers they need to return their sign-up bonus money if they are seriously injured and can’t fill out their contracts in the first few months of landing in Iraq? How can they be required to pay for equipment such as helmets if they are damaged or lost in an explosion?
What’s so fantastic about the thousands and perhaps over a million Iraqis killed in the war we started? How many dead children and pregnant women are hidden in these numbers? Bush never talks about this even though he’s against abortion and stem cell research in this country. What a strange Christianity he espouses!
I have watched Bush stand in front of the camera many times and say, “we don’t torture people”. If this government doesn’t torture people why do we need Guantanamo Bay? Why are we secretly sending prisoners to other countries to be tortured? What were all those pictures of naked prisoners at Abu Ghraib about? Why has habeas corpus been suspended? Are the President, the Justice Department and Congress afraid of the truth? Oh yes, they still haven’t figured out if waterboarding is torture! My goodness, it’s so hard to find that little line that divides torture from just having a good time.
This administration has ignored the 1.5 million Iraqis that have fled to Syria and other nations. They have ignored the displaced people that have fled sectarian violence in their own neighborhoods. (Displaced persons sounds so mild, like maybe we have displaced a sock.) We are told that the surge is working but what happens when the Sunnis and the Shiites want to return to their homes and find someone else living there from the other side? What happens when Shiite cleric al-Sadr decides to end the ceasefire? He extended the ceasefire in January 2008 but he could change his mind tomorrow.
At the beginning of this war, Bremer’s deBathification scattered Iraqi solders to the winds along with their guns and no income. Now they are defending their country and we wonder why? DeBathification caused a brain drain in Iraq almost from the start of the invasion. Professional people such as doctors, lawyers, bankers and university professors lost their jobs and fled the country. Prior to the war these people had no choice but to be members of the Bath Party. Now who is left to pick up the pieces once we leave this mess behind?
My question now is; are we ever going to leave Iraq? One would hardly think so since we have built permanent air bases there and are building the world’s largest embassy on 104 acres within the Green Zone. The over-run costs are huge and going higher by the day. A company named First Kuwaiti Trading and Contracting is using Filipino slave labor to construct this monster. After their passports were confiscated, these men thought they were flying to Dubai for construction jobs. They almost caused a riot on the plane when they realized they were heading north to Iraq. A guard with a submachine gun stood up and threatened them, so there was nothing else they could do but get off in Baghdad minus their passports. These people are working on the embassy without any safety equipment and some aren’t even wearing shoes. While the rest of Baghdad has sporadic electrical power if at all, there is power at the embassy 24 hours every day. Construction work continues day and night.
From the start of the war almost everything has been taken over by private companies such as Blackwater, Kellogg, Brown and Root, Halliburton, and Research Triangle Institute. The list of companies that have made billions of dollars goes on and on. This says volumes as to why we invaded Iraq. It wasn’t only for the oil but also so the many functions of government that could be privatized by American companies. It’s a hollow McIraq. Of course this means these companies are making a fortune on the backs of our military and the Iraqi people. Privatizing has been Bush’s favorite mantra ever since he got into office.
It seems there is an additional reason for the U.S. creating turmoil in the Middle East. We are at the behest of the powerful collective Israeli lobby in this country. They take attention away from Israel’s horrible treatment of the Palestinians and strife in the occupied territories. I don’t understand why our politicians cower before these lobbyists.
This war is being fought with borrowed money from China, Japan and India. Meanwhile our economy is suffering. We supposedly don’t have enough money to restore our infrastructure, provide universal health care, or invest in new forms of energy. Instead the government is sinking money into ethanol processing plants. Does anyone see how bizarre this is? We are using two or more gallons of diesel fuel to create one gallon of ethanol. Not only is that bizarre but also we are burning our food to propel our vehicles! No wonder food prices are going up.
Somehow we need to end these conflicts and the worship of war and power. Unfortunately there’s not much hope for this administration to change its ways. In fact, there’s just enough time for Bush and Cheney to lapse into their soldier fantasies and start another war, this time with Iran.
Yesterday, reporter Martha Raddatz spoke with Cheney about the two thirds of Americans against the war. Incredibly his response was: “so?” What arrogance and disregard for our opinions! As former senator and severely injured Vietnam vet (triple amputee) Max Cleland said, “we are the finger in the eye of Iraq!”
The new administration in 2009 will have so many wrongs to make right. It will have to pick up the pieces of our reputation in the world and try to put it back together. We desperately need a change and frankly it can’t come soon enough!
Marlene Hofstetter
Monticello
