Shane Fox
Joined: 27 Feb 2008 02:51 pm
Posts: 9
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Posted: 22 Jun 2008 08:00 am
Post Subject: There's more to patriotism than lapel pins Read Article
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This former Marine would like to add his voice to this issue.
History, one believes, will cast the Bush administration in very poor light regarding our disastrous military adventure in Iraq. We already know that Saddam's Iraq presented utterly no threat to the United States. Two-thirds of its air space was under our control, the country was hard strapped for food and medical supplies because of international sanctions, it had no weapons of mass destruction, it had not been involved in even the remotest way in the heinous and cowardly attacks of September 11, and it was not supportive of Osama Bin Ladin.
But, taking advantage of a panicked and hysterical nation, a compliant corporate media acting as cheer leaders with "brand name" war coverage, and a cowed congress this administration sent our military off to war which we quickly won. No duh! That was a given. It is the continuing occupation of a country at war with its self that is the disaster.
To criticize or question that is not unpatriotic, it is our duty as citizens! And to investigate and review the process which brought our country to this terrible point in our history is to effectively use the tools given us by our founders and retained by brave men and women down through our history.
It is meant for authority to be questioned and leadership reviewed. That process is neither unpatriotic nor disrespectful. It is a basic difference between living in a democracy and a fascist dictatorship. It would be a dereliction of our duties as citizens to do otherwise. Certainly politics will enter into it--it is our responsibilities as citizens to keep informed and filter through that part.
But, back to history. We're now seeing emerge the proof that Bush lied in order to take us to war. Those lies have been documented by Clarke, McConnell, McClellan, the Senate Intelligence Committee in a majority vote with two Republicans in favor, and an exhaustive study by the Center for Public Integrity, which earlier documented 935 lies from this administration, with some 200 coming from the president's own mouth.
One has to ask why, since Iraq posed no imminent threat.
Last week it was very quietly announced that several major oil companies have completed negotiations with Iraq to take over its oil production. Remember your history?...is was Saddam who ended their oil concessions and booted them out of the country a little more than three decades ago.
Here in Texas we send people to Death Row on less circumstantial evidence than this.
So, as we go into this election cycle we're presented with a presidential candidate who says he will continue the occupation of Iraq and a candidate who says he will work towards an expeditious end to our disastrous occupation of Iraq. More of the same or a change? For many of us, that is not a difficult choice.
I would heartily suggest that it is not be lapel pins, hands over the heart, or the rhyming of names that will determine the next chapter of our history. And, as a former Marine, I abhor and denounce the practice of some in linking our troops and patriotism to the honest and real concerns of citizens doing what our democracy, and patriotism, require of them---Questioning Authority and Reviewing Leadership.
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We all warm our hands at fires built by others and drink from wells dug by those who came before us. We have a moral obligation to keep those fires burning brightly and the wells flowing sweetly
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