Arrested Development
Why are we seeing elderly citizens arrested for outbursts and loud conversations? There was a story reported tonight by channel 4 news, an NBC affiliate, about a woman arrested in New Jersey for disturbing the peace. How far does this law go? How is it defined? Are we not allowed to contest our dissatisfaction in a public and semi-public space? Is this law easily accessible to most Americans, so they know when they are breaking the “rules” of our “free” society? Is Bush revoking our 1st Amendment? This particular older woman (64), a mother of a son killed in Iraq, shouted questions to Laura Bush, asking her why her daughters were not fighting in Iraq. In a public space, outside from where Ms. Bush was speaking, she was immediately hand cuffed and taken away. Meanwhile, bystanders gasped in shock of her forfeited rights. There is a simple answer to her question, though: their daddy has influence, money and a generational history of avoiding war. For a “president” who wants war and taunts it like a renegade cowboy regardless of others, he has never faced war…and it is now being investigated that he even shirked his post in the National Guard.
The Vietnam War may not be current, but it is relevant. Our nations lost 54,000 lives in an unwanted war, in which Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert McNamara fanned the flame, despite international and national dispute. We had one of the biggest governments in history, with the exception of our current administration, which takes top billing. Our morale was low and we faced the darkest sentiments across the nation. Articles were written calling Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara “fascists.” In the recent documentary, named appropriately Fog of War, Robert McNamara, our former Secretary of Defense, admits he and Johnson lied to the American public and instigated a war with N. Vietnam. Through not understanding the enemy, they lodged a full-scale attack on Vietnam, which was having a civil war, NOT partnering with communist China, as we originally feared. Our Red Scare ideology after World War II was so thickly ingrained that we couldn’t grasp other nations having different political doctrines than democracy. Joseph McCarthy made an embarrassment of himself by accusing actors, musicians, artists, writers, and other politicians of being Communists. It was the second major witch-hunt in America. Bush & his administration are using similar inflammatory language today. There are no hard facts to back up his claim of WMDs, nor have we gone on a full-scale attack on Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden. We are at war for what reason? It certainly isn’t for political and religious differences, because Afghanistan has more bizarre politics (than Iraq) and aggrandized religious fanaticsm.
I encourage you to watch Fog of War. It will amaze you how our nation is replaying history. It will open your mind to hindsight, directly given by our former Secretary of Defense. It provides the 11 lessons of war that Robert McNamara learned, still regrets today and is trying desperately to forget. Will Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, and George Bush feel ashamed and haunted in 40 years, like McNamara? Will their impetuous actions and misguided fanaticism be their down fall? I certainly hope so. But it will be us that pay immediately. If we live through this undesired war (as most of us will, let’s work for the election of John Kerry), this administration and their weasel counselors will have to deal with the undignified and unwarranted deaths of our soldiers. But, I’ve given Bush and his “have mores/ elite” a little too much credit. For they haven’t apologized, even after 1,000 deaths, and will fail to do so, reasoning that their decisiveness and “leadership” could never be regrettable. Their dishonest conscious is strong, leading them to New York to stand among the dead, while praising their “Mission Accomplished” on the War on Terror. Yes, this is their debauched consciousness; exploiting their fatuous photo-op and harnessing lies. Are they bearing true responsibility and displaying leadership when we are fighting the war on terror in Iraq and not against Bin Laden? Is this not paradoxical to most of America? Where is Jiminy Cricket when you need him? - Johanna
“Unlike the president, the young men and women trying to stay alive in the unraveling chaos of Iraq can't count on their daddies to get them out of the line of fire.”- Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September 16, 2004.
The Vietnam War may not be current, but it is relevant. Our nations lost 54,000 lives in an unwanted war, in which Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert McNamara fanned the flame, despite international and national dispute. We had one of the biggest governments in history, with the exception of our current administration, which takes top billing. Our morale was low and we faced the darkest sentiments across the nation. Articles were written calling Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara “fascists.” In the recent documentary, named appropriately Fog of War, Robert McNamara, our former Secretary of Defense, admits he and Johnson lied to the American public and instigated a war with N. Vietnam. Through not understanding the enemy, they lodged a full-scale attack on Vietnam, which was having a civil war, NOT partnering with communist China, as we originally feared. Our Red Scare ideology after World War II was so thickly ingrained that we couldn’t grasp other nations having different political doctrines than democracy. Joseph McCarthy made an embarrassment of himself by accusing actors, musicians, artists, writers, and other politicians of being Communists. It was the second major witch-hunt in America. Bush & his administration are using similar inflammatory language today. There are no hard facts to back up his claim of WMDs, nor have we gone on a full-scale attack on Al Queda and Osama Bin Laden. We are at war for what reason? It certainly isn’t for political and religious differences, because Afghanistan has more bizarre politics (than Iraq) and aggrandized religious fanaticsm.
I encourage you to watch Fog of War. It will amaze you how our nation is replaying history. It will open your mind to hindsight, directly given by our former Secretary of Defense. It provides the 11 lessons of war that Robert McNamara learned, still regrets today and is trying desperately to forget. Will Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, and George Bush feel ashamed and haunted in 40 years, like McNamara? Will their impetuous actions and misguided fanaticism be their down fall? I certainly hope so. But it will be us that pay immediately. If we live through this undesired war (as most of us will, let’s work for the election of John Kerry), this administration and their weasel counselors will have to deal with the undignified and unwarranted deaths of our soldiers. But, I’ve given Bush and his “have mores/ elite” a little too much credit. For they haven’t apologized, even after 1,000 deaths, and will fail to do so, reasoning that their decisiveness and “leadership” could never be regrettable. Their dishonest conscious is strong, leading them to New York to stand among the dead, while praising their “Mission Accomplished” on the War on Terror. Yes, this is their debauched consciousness; exploiting their fatuous photo-op and harnessing lies. Are they bearing true responsibility and displaying leadership when we are fighting the war on terror in Iraq and not against Bin Laden? Is this not paradoxical to most of America? Where is Jiminy Cricket when you need him? - Johanna
“Unlike the president, the young men and women trying to stay alive in the unraveling chaos of Iraq can't count on their daddies to get them out of the line of fire.”- Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September 16, 2004.
posted by Only The Lonely @ 2:50 PM
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