Congress and the pandering corporate media had to appear united behind the military in response to their perceived need to seem authoritative and patriotic in the face of “wartime” crisis. The ones who spoke out were brave and few. Out of 529 state representatives and congressional leaders, 156 voted against giving Bush the power to invade Iraq, but the usual jingoistic, hyper-patriotic sound bite bullshit won out over the voices of wisdom and compassion. Propaganda trumped reason and diplomacy. In the blink of an eye they had the country radically divided while the government, the military, and the media had us speeding recklessly toward war. Since then the most pathetically sanitized and insidious war coverage in recent history has allowed the nation to follow like lobotomized sheep into the idiocracies of war. Nearly 5550 Coalition soldiers killed and no more than six or seven photographs of dead American Soldiers or their caskets have been published.
     Those of us who lived through the 1960s and ‘70s and saw what happened in Vietnam were swept into a state of perpetual déjà vu. Only the most militaristic and moronic were unable to recognize the awful similarities in the way the Iraqi operation was carried forth. Those who have seen the results of America’s military interventions over the past generations are aware that the results have been a mixed bag of atrocities. Some of what America has done in the past bloody century was truly done with the noblest intentions, but war of any kind is always, by definition, disastrous… never what anyone sane or smart needs or wants. It’s a classic indicator of insanity or stupidity to do something disastrous over and over expecting a positive result. Why then in this generation are so many young men and women still so easily convinced of the romance, nobility, and necessity of war? War is none of those things. It is savage and horrific. Innocent people die. Women and children are brutally slaughtered. Future generations of enemies are spawned. And the cycle repeats itself in perpetuity….
     So here we are, eight very long, blood-soaked years later, with the treasury looted and the American dollar being used as gum wrappers and toilet paper in Europe…. The land of the free is considering changing its tagline to the land of the foreclosed.
     Yep, we’ve been royally fucked by expert fuckers…. But if you think about it, America is now uniquely poised to benefit tremendously from simply having the Bush monkeys off our backs. No matter how inept the next President might be he’ll seem spectacular by comparison. Let’s hope he’s clever enough to understand the need for a thorough spiritual renovation of the White House and the country it symbolizes…. Then, when the Shaman have chased out the bad energy and evil spirits and we finally have our national house in order, we can get to the serious business of leading the country, saving the world and channeling energies to the critical task of solving our 4EH crisis of energy, environment, economy, education, and healthcare. And let’s not forget remodeling Air Force One! You don’t even want to guess what the Skull and Bones boys did in there.