Crazed with righteous anger when we saw the towers come crashing down, and heard of thousands of lives lost, we allowed ourselves to be led astray. We eschewed and ignored the principles that have made us the great country we are. We fell into a rut of thinking we could trust an Administration to lord it over all of us, unchecked and unquestioned.
And we fell into the idea of pre-emptive wars as necessary for our well being.
Well, we've seen where that leads, haven't we? Thousands of war dead - soldier and civilian alike - and numerous reports and exposes later, we now know that the only argument for going into Iraq was to topple a murderous dictator. And if we wanted to do that, there were many other choices for humanitarian action, and much better ones to be had.
And there were much, much better ways to go forward in the War on Terror, too.
We should have been going full-steam after Al-Qaeda's quieter operations, and continued a full-strength mop-up of Afghanistan. We didn't, and it's going to bite us in the ass, one day. And we should have been putting undivided pressure on Iran, Syria and Iraq. But we didn't, and it's biting us in the ass, now.
So I am sorry - so very, very dearly sorry - for my part in this war.
Again, I wasn't the only useful idiot to be found. They're all on FOX News and other political talk show outlets, now - all trotting out crap arguments and apologias. And very few of them have had the honesty to admit that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the best idea in the world.
All the rest are spinning in their fumes, or urging us on to the next war after this.
Maybe that's all that separates people, in the end: the willingness to admit they were wrong about something of severe consequence, and try to make amends as best they can.
Me, I can't bring the dead back to life. I can't rewind time and unwrite those things I said. I can't take those stupid, short-sighted columns back or negate them, or even ask for them to be removed.
No, they're my statements, and I have to abide by their presence in my history.
All I can do is say that I've learned my lesson, and will encourage others to learn from it as well. And that lesson is simple: no more preemptive wars. No more Iraqs. No Iran or Syria "while we're there, anyway" - not unless they actually DO SOMETHING THAT WARRANTS IT.
And "might do" or "could do" is not good enough: it has to actually happen and be traced back to them, unquestionably, the way 9/11 was traced back to Al-Qaeda and their Taliban "hosts."
Otherwise, we're going to be fighting Iraq after Iraq, and propping up most of the Middle East in the process. And that is not something I'm prepared to do, any more than I'm prepared to go along with the "more rubble, less trouble" philosophy some neo-cons want to advocate, now. I can't see either course as anything but a recipe for disaster.
And I have eaten more than my share in the last few years, courtesy of being such a useful idiot.
J. Edward Tremlett is a lot of things, currently. He's back in the states after a seven-year stint in Dubai, UAE. He's been published in such diverse places as The American Partisan, the International American, The End is Nigh, Pyramid Magazine and Worlds of Cthulhu. He has a story in the "Echoes of Terror" horror anthology. He's also ready to get back in the saddle and kick some ass after too long of a radio silence.
You may well have learned your lesson to question everything, to research everything. With reckless unbiased pursuit of truth and never trust your emotions, which are wrong 90% of the time in most of us, but those in congress have not.
I found it hard to believe that anyone could have taken Bush seriously with his lies, I knew not to be true, but then I had researched his grandfather's Nazi ties in 1932-1951, lending money to Adolph Hitler to build "factories and other infrastructure" from 1932-1942 and holding in escrow through Brown Brothers Harriman and UBC Bank $3,000,000 in Nazi (Getaway?) cash until 1951.
The real hard thing to accept are the 60% who didn't bother to vote, too busy losing their jobs, screwing their neighbors husbands or wives, going to the mall, text-messaging and generally confirming their uselessness as human beings. We ought to stone non-voters or have them wear red signs around their necks saying,
"MY INDOLENCE IN NOT VOTING AGAINST THE F*CKING SONSOFABITCHES CAUSED ALL THE HELL WE NOW HAVE UNLEASHED UPON OTHERS OF GOD'S CREATURES AND IF THE BUSHITES GO TO HELL, I SHOULD BE THERE TOO CHAINED TO HIS ASS."
I, for one forgive you, as I hope to be forgiven by anyone I have done harm to, but I can tell you this that anyone who let's their congressperson off the hook after all the work we did to elect Dems, ought to be chained to Bush as well.
The other day my wife and I made a promise; we would donate the money we were going to give to the Democrats to having Nancy Pelosi beaten in 2009 by any sonofabitch who wants to run against her in SAN Francisco's district 8. Who wants to run against a traitor out there in San Francisco's District 8? (Which may become my adopted hometown from now until the 2009 election.)
by
Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1311 comments)
on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 11:20:21 AM
because there was no trial. By announcing it to be an act of war the Bushies circumvented the proper procedure as such committing Treason. Not for the first time. I advise to read the books and articles by Vincent Bugliosi on the Y2000 Supreme Court Coup and Mr. Bugliosi is the best jurist in the USA.
by
Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 250 diaries, 3597 comments)
on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 2:55:46 PM
the thing that bothers me about those that were for the war before they were against the war is that if things worked out differently they would be now saying, "I told you so". Now that things have turned for the worse they are turning as well from their initial belief, and that belief was in war as the answer. My initial response as I saw the towers come down was that violence will beget more violence and hatred will beget more hatred. That has always been the case and it will always be the case. I truly hope that these people will see the truth in this respect and not fall for vengence and false patriotism again, and yes, there will be more to come, now, thanks to Bush.
by
Bill Ehleben (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 30 comments)
on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 4:28:12 PM
"the thing that bothers me about those that were for the war before they were against the war is that if things worked out differently they would be now saying, "I told you so"."
Right. And that right there is why this confession has been so long in coming. One of the things I had to wrestle with was the question as to whether I'd be feeling the same regrets and anger with myself if Iraq HAD a working WMD program, and was in league with Al-Qaeda. Would that have made premptive war a legitimate strategy, or would it mean that this time we got lucky?
by
J. Edward Tremlett (17 articles, 0 quicklinks, 71 diaries, 105 comments)
on Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 7:38:06 AM
Probably is good for the soul. It takes a big person to put it out there when the scales have fallen from his eyes. Especially because the corporate media haven't done their service to the public. Instead, they led the cheerleading for pre-emptive war. Perhaps the assumption was that the administration would, given the power, behave with some diplomatic restraint, or that they would take advice from our allies, even from the UN.
I didn't believe Bush then, but I could sort of see why some normally sensible people might, even if I disagreed. I certainly don't believe Bush now, either--he only lies when his lips are moving.
The administration permitted OBL to escape from Afghanistan. The president went from "get him dead or alive" to "I don't spend much time on it". Now OBL's probably still in Pakistan, and Musharaff says he can stay there unmolested, as long as he doesn't do anything to scare the horses. What did over 3300 of our troops and over 600000 Iraqi civilians die for, anyway? (Answer: war profiteering & control of another state's resources--in this case, oil).
But many people in this country have changed their thinking about the occupation of Iraq, even with the ban on photos and videos of returning soldiers' coffins. Not equipping our soldiers with sufficient protective armor, not giving them adequate care at the V.A. hospitals--the impact of just these policies alone will bite us in the ass for years to come, possibly for more than a decade.
The impact of this administration's policies might be changing lots of people's minds about this and other issues. I sure hope so!
by
Laur (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 22 comments)
on Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 10:02:54 AM
6 comments
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