Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Losing limbs in Iraq -- at our President's request

The United States of America has required tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children, to lose a limb or two, be otherwise horribly disfigured, or die, so that we can pursue our agenda, whatever it is. George Bush never asked them what they thought about this sacrifice. He just imposed it upon them.

This same should be required of every American who supports or supported the so-called war. Nothing could be more fair. How many hawks would have remained hawks if this suffering had been guaranteed for them? If the question had been put to them, "Would you support attacking Iraq if it means many Iraqi children will be killed and maimed? " Clearly the answer was a resounding "yes", because everyone knew this would happen.

"Would you support the attack if it means you must be maimed or die?" Of course we know the answer in their hearts would be "no." Suddenly many mitigating circumstances would cloud the path to war and it would be abandoned. Interesting difference, that.

Dick Cheney said the day he shot his bird-shooting buddy in the face was the worst day of his life. One has to wonder what it was that bothered him so. Certainly not the carnage, as every day people are blown apart and shot to pieces with his blessing. More likely it was the bad press he got, or the bird he missed on the other side of his friend's head. It's the little things, really, that we find annoying.

Death tally show whom America has really attacked

America attacked not Saddam Hussein, not repression and certainly not Osama bin Laden. Those three are alive and well. But, according to independent tallies, somewhere between thirty and one hundred thousand people have died from the American invasion of Iraq. Clearly that is who the mighty America attacked, because that is who is dead. The United States has achieved at least ten times the toll from the Twin Towers, and in the wrong country.

When all other justifications failed, our country offered, with one-hand democracy, a gift the Iraqi people never solicited. With the other hand our country delivered chaos, misery and death. Why Iraqis don't revel in these boons and thank us, Allah only knows. Still the United States hunts down and kills those Iraqis with the courage and fortitude to resist our generosity.

But hey - that's the government for you. Dadgum, dadgum gov'mint. Governments are by nature oppresive. Whadda you gonna do?

The American public is the part that gets me. The so-called "pro-lifers" who decry abortion in America have approved with their silence the American rescue of thousands of Iraqi women, children and pregnant women from the travails and joys of life. Of course another huge number of people have been relieved of some of their limbs, a clear rescue from the joys of life but a multiplication of the travails. Politicians never mention the dead and maimed Iraqis, and politicians are our best barometer of public interest; so I have to believe they are a non-issue in our largely Christian society. We Americans have selective courage. We are afraid of being blown up, yet we are unafraid to inflict explosion on others.

We have a president who is publicly repulsed by the sacrilege of using stem cells from a dead fetus, yet he initiated this Iraqi massacre with no good reason, and there is no outrage, no overwhelming rejection of him. Isn't murder a violation of the Ten Commandments? Doesn't God reserve the right of retribution? Aren't we cowardly to allow helpless, inoffensive people to pay the price for our security?

The Attorney General excuses the administration's wire-tap program as worth it, if by chance one important phone call is intercepted. This pathetic mindset projects that anything is alright as long as there is an infinitesimal chance that it will save our sorry butts. I submit that placing such a high value on our sorry butts renders them not worth saving. We no longer breathe the rarefied air of a society striving toward the ideal.

Since we are not a nation of unkind people, as revealed in times of domestic duress, I can see only one explanation: except that we bleed, cry and die in the same way, Iraqis are not like us. We never could terrorize a Christian country of European looking people in this way, because we could relate to them as humans. That would be unconscionable.

Dolphins are sentient

Here's a letter to the editor I wanted to share:

Maybe the general public doesn't grasp the idea that orcas and dolphins are sentient, conscious beings, probably more "intelligent" than we techno-chimps. And maybe most people didn't know that "Shamu" (and trust me, that's not his real name) and the rest of them have families and lives in the sea that they'd like to get on with. And probably most of us don't realize that after their life sentence in an aquarium, kidnapped from their families, these mammals die a premature, unimaginably lonely death.

But when Sea World presents a radio ad depicting these captives as being excited about their new show and all the video screens they have to entertain the tourists with, because, really, they're just so jazzed about their job; well, let's hope their marketing department has severely overestimated the gullibility of today's children.