We have heard it all before""the lies, lies, and more lies. These are the lies that killed my nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Johnson Comley. These are the lies that have resulted in the deaths of almost 2,250 American troops and over 100,000 Iraqis, many of them children.
'Stay the course,' the president said again. How many times do we have to hear this? We are not honoring our fallen by remaining in what CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour recently called a 'black hole.'
'There is no peace in retreat,' Bush poetically stated, but the truth is that there is no peace in war and there is no peace for the relatives of the dead.
Last night, while Bush's assault was about to be inflicted, I stood at Times Square with other speakers on a platform in front of a huge crowd at an event sponsored by The World Can't Wait. I was there to represent my club of losers, Gold Star Families for Peace, those who have lost a loved one in a war based on the lies that Bush continues to spew. While he was telling the electorate that the terrorists use fear to control us, I was telling the audience about my nephew.
I said, "My father used to say that grief is self-pity. He doesn't say this anymore. Grief is so much more than a shattered heart. It's an evisceration. The world can't wait for Bush to feel pain. He is incapable of compassion. The initiative rests with us."
I, unlike Bush, didn't need a Teleprompt. I spoke from my heart.
