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Planet Waves | May 17, 2005

[For those of you who think I'm entirely too spiritual and "Pollyanna-ish" to breathe fire -- a rant...]

The last four-plus years have been hard on the American public -- they've been hard on our self-image. We used to have a notion about America as the "land of the free and the home of the brave." Well, we're brave, alright, some of us ... especially those kids we send into the desert without adequate equipment -- but we're not as free as we were ... not nearly. As a young country, both in years and wisdom, we've used our bravery much like an adolescent would ... lots of courage, lots of bluster, not much understanding of consequences. "The Ugly American" stereotype of culturally-challenged hick from decades back has been replaced by "The Bullying American." Not progress, friends ... not good.

When terrorism arrived on our shores, we couldn't ignore it anymore [despite our perpetual blind eye to it's effects in most every other nation of the world.] We quickly decided to strike back, return hurt for hurt, while asking the question, "Why do they hate us?" Let's get real, by the way -- that's a little kids question. We went with the standard "Mommy Answer." "They hate us because they're jealous ... we're free and they aren't. Yeah ... that's it." We were content to respond to a complex political inquiry with a simplistic little kid answer that made no sense. It was a sign of the times to come.

"They" were making a political statement, we were taking it personally. "They" didn't hate us, they hated the American policies that have systematically made us fatter, richer and more powerful than any other nation, most often by plunder and support of tyrannous governments that gave us favors. But like kids everywhere, taking responsibility for our errors asked for a maturity we hadn't yet assumed. "Allright," we said, strapping on our six-guns -- "Now we'll BLAST those ideas right out of their heads!" [Well, gosh -- it always worked in the cartoons!!]

Yes, we've had to rethink who we are in the last four years based on the reflection the world has given us -- not as brave, ultimately, as we thought we were; certainly not brave enough to want to know the truth about ourselves or we'd be insisting on answers to the questions so many are posing. We apparently want safety more than we want freedom, although we have no idea how to achieve it so we'll just continue to either ignore, threaten or kill everyone and everything that doesn't agree with us. And rather than do any real introspection, we're keeping ourselves busy attempting to turn the clock backwards on questions of personal morality without noting that real morality includes the larger questions of war, killing of innocents, poverty, profit and greed.

It's been disheartening to think of my nation as stuck in an adolescent loop ... it took me awhile to accept that we were actually as we appeared -- but Bush's re-election nailed it for me. Not that it wasn't close -- or that the numbers weren't messed with because they surely were -- but that at least half of this nation was too afraid to examine its own soul to make the changes that maturity called for. And today I read ... oh, woe ... that we're "apathetic." Yes, fiesty, cheerful, "can-do," tail-wagging-behind-it America is apathetic.

It turns out that we have, after two years of dedicated demand, a "smoking gun" on this administrations rush to war with Iraq. The Brits have outed a memo that proves Once And For All that Bush and Blair "fixed" intelligence to fit their intention to invade Iraq. The Brits are holding Blair's feet to the fire on this, as we speak -- and we're looking the other way.

Consider this snip from a TruthOut article [link below:]

Critics of the Bush administration have long argued that Bush appeared intent on invading Iraq long before Congress voted to authorize military action in October 2002 if Hussein didn't abandon his alleged illegal weapons programs.

Former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who was chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee when Democrats ruled, has written in his book, "Intelligence Matters," about his visit to MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command, on Feb. 19, 2002. He was going for a status report on Afghanistan, Graham wrote, but CENTCOM'S Gen. Tommy Franks called him aside to tell him, "Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan."

"Excuse me?"' Graham replied.

"Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq," Graham quoted Franks as saying.

Graham wrote: "I was stunned. This was the first time I had been informed that the decision to go to war with Iraq had not only been made but was being implemented, to the substantial disadvantage of the war in Afghanistan."

OK -- so lets be really REALLY clear on this. They lied to us. And they didn't just lie when it was expedient, they intended to lie to us. All the smoke-screen and rationalization we've been offered in the last two years was an all-too-adolescent refusal to take responsibility for their actions, a child-like ploy to "not be found out."

Too many of us WANTED to believe them, or more of us would have seen it for what it was. We're apathetic today because we STILL don't want to believe they lied ... if they lied about that, what else have they lied about? If the whole system is faulty, who will save us now? Don't rock the boat, what would happen then? Lets just ignore it and it'll go away.

That's our response to proof that the war was a fraud perpetrated on the American public? Have we become so overwhelmed and lethargic and distracted by the details and the denials that we will ignore the bottom line?

NONE OF THIS HAD TO HAPPEN!

Of all the possible responses to 9/11, a destabilizing war in Iraq was the darkest and most disasterous option -- and we weren't pushed into it by the facts on the ground, the facts were cherry-picked and polished and pushed on us by an administration that engaged our fears and patriotism for it's own purpose.

So here's your question for the day. Is it true? Are we just so damned apathetic that we will yawn and nod? Will we just shrug and say, "Well, too late now."

I know growing up ain't easy -- it's a long arduous experiment in discerning good sense from bad, and taking responsibility for our choices. This nation appears to be in the middle of that experiment. But the next step ... after the flush of overactive hormones and the obnoxious arrogance of early adolescence ... is rebellion against authority. If half of this nation can't shake off its emotional limitions, at least we can move it along to the next step. A lie of this magnitude is worthy of rebellion.

George Bush needs to be held responsible for his actions; he needs to "get some on him," this time. More than any other president in history [read his bio, maybe any human!] he's managed to shift blame for his every mis-step. If there was ever a sign of immaturity, that's it. Enough is enough! We need to go "parental" on him and demand the keys to the family car back before his illigitimate joy ride kills anyone else -- prove to the world that American's are attempting to control their impulsive and immature.

Think about Clintons lie ... the GOP rose up on it's hind legs and impeached. Think about Bush's lie, worse by any stretch of the imagination. We have been intentionally decieved and our lives forever changed by the national and political rubble left in the wake of Bush's war ... yes, HIS war. We know now that's exactly what it is.

And you and I also know that it must be us, the American public, who holds Bush accountable -- if we don't do it, it won't be done. The adults need to step up. We finally have what we need to turn the conversation ... it seems like we've waited an eternity to get it. If we sleep through this opportunity, then we really WILL deserve what we've got and have no one to blame but ourselves.

Write, fax, email, blog, scream, howl -- for the 1,622 American soldiers killed in Iraq and the 12,348 wounded ... for the uncounted dead Iraqi's and their children ... for a newly unstable world, and the wounded reputation of our nation ... for the billions in national treasure spent and misdirected ... and for the string of lies that this president continues to tell, with a wink and a grin.

Peace ~

Jude

British Memo Reopens War Claim http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051705Y.shtml

Smoking-Gun Context http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7867

Eric Francis is on holiday. Jude, the editor of Political Waves, is standing in for his daily blog this week. You can subscribe to Political Waves (our all-politics news distribution list) for free at the link below. You'll receive between five and 10 news articles each day. You may write to Jude with your responses to her commentaries at moderator@planetwaves.net.

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