In an earlier post on my blog, I detailed my belief that the real way to support American soldiers would be to bring them home. I denounced the idea that we must "finish the job" in order to make their sacrifices worthwhile.
Unfortunately, this kind of thinking still saturates the country, as evidenced by president Bush's speech today at the Arlington National Cemetery.
In the midst of all the proper honoring of the men and women who have served our country now and in the past, Bush couldn't help but insert a political message. "Those who serve are not fatalists or cynics," he said. "They know that one day this war will end, as all wars do. Our duty is to make sure this war was worth the sacrifice."
No, Mr. Bush. Your duty, and the duty of the government that you are a part of, is to refrain from using war as an instrument of foreign policy except where it is absolutely necessary. Your duty is to make it so that the only causes that you will send the young men and women of this country to die for are ones that are inherently "worth the sacrifice."
And, Mr. Bush, your duty most certainly is not to start an invasion of a sovereign nation on false pretenses, only later changing your justification to this pursuit of freedom and democracy that so many of the people blindly rally behind you on. Your duty is to tell the full, unabridged truth when the lives of this nation's young people are on the line.
"This is our country's calling," Bush said. "It's our country's destiny."
Mr. Bush, never reduce the destiny of America, as defined by the founding fathers as well as every man, woman, and child who has ever lived here, to being a massive industrial-military machine that invades sovereign nations without international support, and pushes entire regions of the world into total chaos. Never reduce the 'great experiment' of freedom and democracy to being a monster that feeds on the spirit of the world - the very spirit that made it possible. Never reduce the land of the free and the home of the brave to being the land of the aggressor and the home of the fearful. That is not our destiny. That is not America.
Bush said that this nation's freedoms "came at a great cost and they will surive only so long as there are those who are willing to protect them." At last, Mr. Bush, you speak some truth. But you are not one who has been known to protect our freedoms, Mr. Bush. Your PATRIOT Act makes it possible for entire sections of the Bill of Rights to be tossed aside if investigators think it will help them. Of 814,073 people charged in immigration courts under your Department of Homeland Security in the past three years, only 12 faced terrorism charges, and only 114 were charged with national security violations. That means that only one and a half hundredths of a percent of those 'dangerous' people being processed through the sketchy methods of the DHS are actually a concern at all.
I am ashamed of our country if we accept and embrace Bush's mantra. America has always been dedicated to freedom and democracy, and everyone agrees that the men and women who have died serving our nation throughout its history are noble. But now Bush, quite possibly the biggest internal threat to freedom, democracy, and our men and women in uniform in the history of America, is able to use his 'support' of those things to make himself and his war look good. What has America come to, if he can do that?
Perhaps there is still a small glimmer of hope for our country in this debacle: As Bush's motorcade passed over the Potomac River, it went by a lone man holding a sign that said "Bring our troops home." Amen. Amen.
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7 comments:
And let me throw in one more Amen!
I'm waiting eagerly to see you give the keynote address to the Democratic convention in about 2016 or 2020!
Nice revisions to your MySpace page, by the way. But wow! I've hardly ever seen a guy go through such a huge morph in such a short time! :p No wonder you diagnosed yourself as having a split personality.... :-0
It would take a tremendous fundamental change in the political system to put someone like me in such a position. I'd be too genuine. I'd refuse strategizing and cheap political ploys that degrade the integrity of the government and nation. That just wouldn't work.
I'm not sure I know what you mean about the morph. =/
You're probably right, unfortunately. I think even the most honest politicians, by the time they're at the national level, have to be partly used car salesmen. I sure couldn't do it. But I really just meant you had the fiery, persuasive rhetoric to be a good keynote speaker, even if you never actually went near a convention.
Forget the "morph" comment -- not sure how to explain what I meant, especially on your blog, so I won't. :p (But it wasn't an insult, at all -- just had to do with changes in the way you're presenting yourself on MySpace.)
Hmmm. Well yes, I changed the layout. And I guess there were a few things that showed up or disappeared in that transition. It's a whole different feel, as well. I'm still not sure what you're talking about in particular, though. Oh well. :P
Poor Bush. It's so hard to have a nice old fashioned war in Iraq, where he can be written about in the history books as another Roosevelt or Truman, when he was the one who started the war. And when he can't figure out who the "enemy" is, or who our "friends" are, and when it seem like both our "friends" and the "enemy" just want us to go away. But we can't do that, of course, because then we'd be surrendering or defeated ... by someone or something or whatever.
Anyway, Zach, it's great that you (and hopefully lots of your friends who'll be voting for the first time in 2008) see through all of this stupidity, and realize the danger it poses.
And on an infinitely more superficial level of commentary -- nice selection of new photos for both your blogs. :)
Why thank you, sir.
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