Soapbox

First they came for the homosexuals. They tried to turn them into second-class citizens and put their bigotry into the Constitution. It didn’t seem right… but I’m not homosexual, so I didn’t said nothing.

Then they came for the poor, reducing taxes for the rich while hunger and rising poverty destroyed the future of more and more of them… but I have enough to eat, so I said nothing.

They came for the women and mothers, to require even those whose lives had already been violated once by rape or incest to endure government-forced pregnancies… but I’m not pregnant, so I said nothing.

They came for the Iraqis. They dragged them from their beds at night and threw them in prison, attached electrodes to their bodies and committed other unspeakable wrongs. It was horrible to see… but we’re at war, after all, so I said nothing.

They came for the scientists and professors and former advisors who disagreed with them, savaging their honor and accusing them of helping the terrorists.. .and it seemed unfair, but I said nothing.

They came for the ordinary ones who spoke up. They arrested them and branded them criminal for wearing the wrong T-shirt, the wrong buttons, for asking questions, and even for simply saying the word “No”… but I keep quiet, so I said nothing.

Then they came for a senator. They made commercials saying he hadn’t earned his war medals, an d ignored the Navy when they said he had. They made an hour-long info-sland-umentary that accused him of causing the deaths of POW’s in Vietnam, even though it had already been proven that he didn’t.. .but I wasn’t voting for him, so I said nothing.

They came for the Constitution itself: the right to speak, the checks and balances of government and the right not to learn about their religion in my science class; the right to vote, even if you are poor or black.. .and it made me frightened… but I said nothing.

And when they come for me, for something I do that isn’t patriotic enough for them, or isn’t fundamentalist enough for them… will there be anyone left one left to say anything?

After all the dishonesty from Bush and Cheney in the last week, some of it breath-takingly blatant, little wisps of the truth sometimes slip through. Don Rumsfeld accedently admitted that he has never seen any evidence that showed Sadaam Hussein was connected to 9/11, and Paul Bremmer of the Coalitional Provisional Authority told an audience that a costly mistake was made in not putting enough troops on the ground in Iraq.
I see from the pages of the Washington Post that the Bush administration, while spinning so fast on the Dufler report that they might turn to butter, has at last told the unvarnished truth about something.
Speaking about Bush’s vitriolic attacks on Kerry in the last few days, the Post said,

“A Bush adviser said the president hopes to change the dynamics of the race … The strategy is aimed at stoking public fears about terrorism, raising new concerns about Kerry’s ability to protect Americans and reinforcing Bush’s image as the steady anti-terrorism candidate, aides said.”

Wow! What a breath of fresh air! I applaud the White House’s brief brush with honesty and hope it may become a habit. At last they admit that they are trying to scare people into voting for the President with stunts like the recent school alert, set off because a civil engineer in Iraq had plans for several american schools- to use to rebuild schools destroyed by the Bush war.

The article also pointed out, to those lucky enought to read it:

Finally, Bush said Kerry would increase spending by $2 trillion or more. “That’s a lot of money — even for a senator from Massachusetts,” Bush said, to thunderous applause and laughter, repeating Cheney’s exact words from the night before. What he did not mention is that budget experts say the president has proposed even more additional spending, perhaps $3 trillion.

Isn’t it nice to hear the truth for a change?

Printed in today’s Columbus Dispatch

I respond to Bob Stumpo’s letter (9/21) saying comparing Iraq to Vietnam is “irresponsible”. In fact, we face the real danger that the mistakes of Vietnam are being repeated before our eyes. Don’t take my word for it: consider the following statements from U.S. military experts that the Bush administration would prefer you never heard. (from an article by Sidney Blumenthal at salon.com)

“I see no exit. We’ve been down that road before. It’s called Vietnamisation. The idea that we’re going to have an Iraqi force trained to defeat an enemy we can’t defeat stretches the imagination… In fact, we had more time and money (invested) in state building in Vietnam than in Iraq.”

~Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College

“This is far graver than Vietnam. There wasn’t as much at stake strategically, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the war that was not constructive for US aims. But now we’re in a region far more volatile, and we’re in much worse shape with our allies.”

~ Retired General William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and chillingly, that’s where we’re headed. The president is desperate to appear “consistent” but in this he is consistently wrong. Perhaps, if the leaders of this administration had actually been in Vietnam, they would see it for themselves.