According to Bush and Co., well see some bloody days ahead, but Iraq is on its way to being a Disney-like paradise. Eventually, asserts Bush, well spread his vision that every man, woman, and child throughout the world is destined to havefreedom. Then, well have peace as we lay the foundations of this freedom. George W. Bush says hes making the world safe yet saner minds agree that his policies of imperialism are inspirations for more terrorism.
Check out Afghanistan, where George says weve won the battle against tyrants. Seems to me, the place is aflame. The screams of death to America may be insignificant background noise to be ignored by a president whose hallucinations reveal joyfully grateful women slinging off their burkas and children skipping playfully to their schools.
Never forget, too, that Bushs original reason for invading Iraq was bulletproof evidence of WMD. Never forget all the lies that have resulted in the deaths of more than 2,470 US troops, the thousands of injured, and the estimated half million Iraqi casualties. In fact, as the president grins and waves, never forget that his tenure has and continues to be a reign of chaos in our names.
I have a friend whose son is in Falluja. Hes asked her to send bottles of booze. She told him it might cloud his judgment. His judgment is already clouded by the weight of war, by the violence of seeing his buddies blown up, by the roadside bombs, the snipers, and the mutilations of ordinary Iraqi citizens, including women and children.
The Marines who perpetrated the killings in Haditha in reaction to the death of their comrade may be charged with murder. Who will determine if they should be held accountable? Frankly, they are casualties of this illegal, immoral, and obscene war. The real murderers reside in positions of power in Washington DC. Maybe, the masters of war never pulled a trigger but they did smell blood, blood that has spilled from the bodies of the young and the old. Our leaders are killers none the less, even more responsible for mass murder than the Marines who ran amok as the result of engulfing and agonizing loss. The pain of Bushs war is endless.
My hope is that the presidency of George W. Bush becomes a casualty of war. My hope is that war becomes a casualty of war, a lesson finally learned.