July 03, 2003
Stan Goff, former Special Forces soldier, on our fearless leader:
Yesterday, when I read that US Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush, in a moment of blustering arm-chair machismo, sent a message to the 'non-existent' Iraqi guerrillas to "bring 'em on," the first image in my mind was a 20-year-old soldier in an ever-more-fragile marriage, who'd been away from home for 8 months. He participated in the initial invasion, and was told he'd be home for the 4th of July. He has a newfound familiarity with corpses, and everything he thought he knew last year is now under revision. He is sent out into the streets of Fallujah (or some other city), where he has already been shot at once or twice with automatic weapons or an RPG, and his nerves are raw. He is wearing Kevlar and ceramic body armor, a Kevlar helmet, a load carrying harness with ammunition, grenades, flex-cuffs, first-aid gear, water, and assorted other paraphernalia. His weapon weighs seven pounds, ten with a double magazine. His boots are bloused, and his long-sleeve shirt is buttoned at the wrist. It is between 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit at midday. He's been eating MRE's three times a day, when he has an appetite in this heat, and even his urine is beginning to smell like preservatives. Mosquitoes and sand flies plague him in the evenings, and he probably pulls a guard shift every night, never sleeping straight through. He and his comrades are beginning to get on each others' nerves. The rumors of 'going-home, not-going-home' are keeping him on an emotional roller coaster. Directives from on high are contradictory, confusing, and often stupid. The whole population seems hostile to him and he is developing a deep animosity for Iraq and all its people--as well as for official narratives.
This is the lad who will hear from someone that George W. Bush, dressed in a suit with a belly full of rich food, just hurled a manly taunt from a 72-degree studio at the 'non-existent' Iraqi resistance.
Posted by Norwood at July 3, 2003 02:14 PMFor Stan Goff: I thought you might enjoy an article I just had published...
Let`s Play Pretend
Posted on: 1/4/2004 1:01:00 PM - Columnist
by Ward Reilly
Okay. Let's pretend that there was no misrepresentation as to why we had to
go to war with Iraq. Let's pretend the $200,000,000,000 we just spent, was
spent well, for our "safety." Two hundred billion dollars in one year. Let's
pretend that we were told that the war and occupation in Iraq were going to
unfold exactly as it is unfolding, and that our soldiers have been placed in
a strange land and are now being worshipped by the locals. Let's pretend our
children aren't acting as policemen against a people that do not want us to
be occupying their country. Let's pretend our troops are not "sitting ducks"
in effect, targets for about 900,000 Iraqi citizens who were previously
soldiers in Hussein's army, now doing what they consider to be "defending
their country".
Let's pretend all that. So what have we got? And what are we going to do
with Iraq? Why did we do what we have done? Lets pretend that we have
"liberated" Iraq and "democracy" is on the way.
Lets pretend that Saddam DID have direct ties to al Qaida...let's pretend
that we found military bases all over Iraq with nuclear missiles armed and
programmed, ready to fly, as we, and our congressional leaders, were told by
the president and his cabinet. Let's pretend we found stealth jets rigged to
spray anthrax all over our east coast.
Now let's pretend they are all gone. Let's pretend we captured huge
stores of WMDs but now we have destroyed them. Now what? Do you feel better?
Do you feel justified? Vindicated? Let's pretend like we do.
So what is the plan? Re- paint the schools? Re-establish utilities? Open the
country to capitalism? Hold elections? Put the people back to work? Farm?
Cook? Make Iraq our 51st state? EXACTLY what is the plan, and why don't
those of us that want to know the plan, know where we can read the plan?
Let's pretend it's a secret. Why does it take a military army to paint
schools? Why does it take an army to repair utilities? Why does it take an
army to establish free markets? To farm? To cook? Those are all civilian and
business projects. Legal functions. Civilian functions. Let's pretend we
don't have to have a military army in Iraq to protect the oil fields and oil
pipelines.
Why do we still need a 130,000 of our troops there? Exactly when are they
leaving? Let's pretend Curious George Bush did not say we would not become
occupiers. Let's pretend Curious George Bush did not say that ousting
Hussien was the mission.
Let's imagine what Saddam Hussein ordered his 900,000 man army to do, as
they waited for the imminent U.S. invasion. Let's pretend Saddam DID NOT
tell his army to take their uniforms off, to run and to hide themselves and
their weapons, to cross the borders, and to wait until the U.S. troops were
in place, then to attack using only guerilla tactics. Let's pretend guerilla
attacks are defendable.
Let's pretend that the Pentagon did not report this week that 12,000 of our
children have been medivaced out of Iraq for one reason or another in only 8
months. 12,000. Let's pretend that most Iraqi families do not proudly own
weapons just as U.S. citizens do. Free countries are allowed to have
weapons, right? Let's pretend that 12,000 dead or hurt U.S. children aren't
very many. Let's pretend we haven't killed 10 times more innocent Iraqi
civilians than were killed on 9-11. Let's pretend they don't care about
civilian deaths like we do. Let's pretend the attackers of 9-11 were Iraqi.
Let's pretend that Saddam Hussein's soldiers have less pride in their
country than our citizens and soldiers do, and that they have no intention
of defending Iraq if invaded. Let's pretend that W Bush has not flaunted his
Christianity to a Muslim nation that believes that Allah grants them instant
passage to heaven for killing invaders of THEIR land, Christian or
otherwise. Let's pretend Iraq is not in the heart of the Islamic world.
Let's pretend that the Iraqi's understand why our troops have now surrounded
entire cities with barbed wire, and that they don't mind proving they aren't
the enemy in their own country at U.S. "checkpoints", and that it doesn't
bother them to have their doors kicked in even if they have done nothing to
warrant search. Let's pretend they think it is all right to have to have
permission from foreigners that don't even speak their language, to go from
one city to another. Let's pretend that imposing curfews on their general
population is OK with the Iraqi's, and that they don't mind being forced to
stay inside their homes when we tell them to. Let's pretend we are not
humiliating a proud civilization. Let's pretend that what we are doing is
the best way to show them our true intentions, what democracy is all about.
Let's pretend that Iraq actually did something to the United States. Let's
pretend that we had to attack Iraq because they violated United Nations
resolution 1441. Let's pretend that the same United Nations told us we could
not attack. Let's pretend we used U.N. resolution violations as an excuse to
attack, but the U.N. does not have any authority if they say we can't attack
anybody we want. Let's pretend that we are right about what we have done,
and what we are going to be doing for the next decade if we do not stop it
now. Hell, let's pretend that Iraq has a tropical climate.
Let's pretend we will not have to commit genocide to get rid of those that
do not want to live by the rules we tell them they have to live by. Let's
pretend we wont have to kill a 900,000 man army to "liberate" the Iraqi's,
PLUS many non-military civilians that now hate us. Every one of them has one
rifle, at least.
Let's pretend they don't want us to leave. Let's pretend that billions of
our dollars aren't being stolen by the worst kind of white-collar criminals.
Let's pretend we know where the money is going. Let's pretend that millions
have not lost their jobs here, that veterans benefits are not being slashed
as the White House continues to "support our troops".
I am going to pretend I wasn't in the infantry for 1095 days during the
Vietnam era. I'm going to pretend that our troops aren't suffering and
having their lives ruined. I'm going to pretend I am not hurting inside, and
I'm not humiliated by the actions taking place in my name. I'm going to
pretend that this job in Iraq couldn't have been done peacefully.
I love this country. The land of make believe. Thank goodness we can pretend
in our free country. Let's pretend the Iraqi's like our gift of "democracy
and freedom". How long are we going to pretend? Let's pretend that it is not
time to remove Curious George Bush from the White House in order for us to
REALLY fight terrorism.
Let's NOT pretend there will be peace in 2004.
Ward Reilly is a member of Veterans For Peace,
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Coalition Against War & Injustice
in Baton Rouge. He spent 3 years as a gunner in the famed 1st &
16th(Rangers) of the First Infantry Division from 1971 to 1974
Cool Site. Wish there were more like this one on the Net.
Posted by: reality based porn at July 28, 2004 06:34 AM