US Won All The Battles - Lost the War, Iraq only a sad epilogue

US Won Every Battle - Lost the War

Iraq only a sad epilogue

Hill Kemp

June 29, 2007

We have now lost to war the most precious possession any nation – or for that matter any person – can have. We have lost ourselves, our spirit – yes – even our soul. America will never again be held by the world in such high esteem. The city on the hill.

You, dear reader, can at least salvage this. If you were born before 1985 you can brag that you lived through the American zenith. The highest reach of a bold dream. The brag isn’t much, but at least it’s something.

Perhaps, during the decades of the Cold War, we defined ourselves too much as the force holding back the dark threat of the Soviet Union. Since the full Soviet collapse as the 1990’s dawned we have been a power looking for a purpose. With eight years in office, if Bill Clinton had turned his considerable talent to the task things might be different. But he threw away his hopeful possibility on Lewinsky.

Now Bush/Cheney/Rove have turned us toward domination, pettiness and paranoia. The attacks in Spain and England haven’t changed their souls like we have changed ours. The tragic re-election of that group in 2004 notified the world that this great nation is now defined by our fears, not the hopes and dreams that have carried us for over two hundred years.

The nearly complete absence of statesmanship and vision in the crowd of 2008 presidential candidates sadly confirms this dark assessment.

“OH, SAY DOES THAT STAR SPANGLED BANNER YET WAVE,

O’RE THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE?”

No. Rather we are the spied on, the fearful, the xenophobic, the suspicious, the divided. We are trapped in voluntary terror at the behest of our leadership. In one sense, Bin Laden put in a nickel and is getting the Five Dollar Show.

Happy Birthday America.