April 14, 2007
by Steve Osborn

I recently received an email that was trying to convince readers that opposition to Bush's illegal wars had nothing to do with actual failure, but rather, that we're all being duped by the "liberal media" into a never-ending spiral of negativism.  This paragraph sums it up well:

Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the "Media" told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

The email went on - urging all people to stop thinking so poorly of the "good job" the President's doing.  The way to achieve this?  Stop paying attention to the news - entirely.  In short, if we ignore what's happening, we'll be much more positive about it.   I couldn't resist giving my two cents, and the following is my response.

Dear M---,

I try to keep politics out of my postings, but here are some thoughts regarding your posting, for whatever they are worth.

Do you think perhaps the dissatisfaction might be due to the fact that our country is run by a "leader" who was never elected to the post, but was appointed by a narrow majority of a Supreme Court to cut off exposure of massive election fraud? And who was "elected" in 2006 due to still more, documented, massive election fraud in Ohio and several other states?

Do you think that, perhaps there are still people in the United States who have read and revered the Constitution of the United States and its first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, and are upset to see these documents shredded by the appointee and his minions?

Do you think that people might be a bit upset to see torture, gulags, disappearances and life in prison without trial or charge, done in their name by the appointee and his minions?

Do you think that people might be a tad suspicious when they know that their communications, their e-mail, their bank accounts, their credit cards, their telephone conversations, and their choice of friends may be monitored by the minions of the appointee? That their homes may be broken into, searched, and bugged without notice by the government?

Isn't it possible that people would be a bit miffed when they may find themselves on a no-fly list, with no way of finding out why, or of getting off it?

Perhaps people are tired of finding themselves on potential terrorist lists for exercising their first amendment rights of protest against government policy, and of finding themselves in jail for wearing an anti-war or anti-Bush/Cheney tee-shirt, or for refusing to be driven away to a protest zone several miles from the scene of protest.

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There may be some people who remember that the people of Iraq, though subject to surveillance and imprisonment for speaking out against Saddam's policies, lived a pretty good life. There were churches of all faiths there, and they had electricity, excellent hospitals, plentiful food raised locally, good water and sewage systems. There were good schools and colleges. They could go to market, sit in a coffee house, talk and read the paper. Their kids could play ball and tag, in the streets and in vacant lots, without fearing a bomb or machine gun fire. The people were well educated and worldly wise. The main hardship they faced was the embargoed foreign goods, medicines and foods from UN Sanctions. That, indeed, cost a lot of lives.

These same people may remember the "mushroom clouds" the WMD's, the non-existent plots with Al Qaeda that all turned out to be lies and cooked intelligence by the minions of the appointee, who had stated even before he was sworn into office that he wanted to go to war with Iraq to "finish the job" that his father didn't.

Perhaps the people might be a bit resentful at the billions of dollars of their tax money that has vanished without trace into the coffers of Halliburton and KBR and other favorites of the appointee and his minions. They might be a bit resentful that our kids are being thrown as cannon fodder into a civil war which we exacerbate to maintain a reason for occupying Iraq.

It might also be a cause of resentment that the families of those kids have to live on food stamps and even those allocations have been cut back, not to mention our wounded rotting in pest holes, the management of which is awarded to such parasites as Halliburton and KBR.

They may be a bit wary of Halliburton getting a huge no-bid contract for concentration camps in the United States which ostensibly are for bird flu, immigrants, or "such other programs as the executive may direct."

They might question the waste of monies allocated for the rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina. They might wonder at the continually increasing budget of the Pentagon and the war machine, all to the enrichment of the Carlisle Group and other arms manufacturing cartels with close ties to the appointee and his minions, while funding for education, medical care, housing and the environment goes into the toilet.

Perhaps there are enough people who remember the enabling act of Hitler that suspended the civil rights of the German People, for "national security" of course, and have read the Patriot Act and its amendments and see the close parallels.

There might be people who remember Mussolini's Corporate State, aka Fascism, and how all was subordinate to the government/business interests, to the detriment of the working people, unions, civil rights, etc. They may remember that Mussolini's Black Shirt"s greatest amusement was to force intellectuals, teachers, thinkers, to drink a quart of castor oil, then stand in the street until they soiled themselves to great laughter. What is often forgotten is that that was the administration of a slow acting poison that would lead to the eventual death of the victim of the "prank."

I am sure that the people are grateful for the fact that we still have the amenities of life, and probably will, until the appointee and his minions' reckless spending bankrupts the nation. At that point, our power, food, water and sewage may go the way of Iraq's. Those that see it coming may disapprove of our current course. They may be very disappointed that the new Congress, which they elected to reverse this greedy insanity, doesn't have the balls to affect change, or that they seem too busy courting the same corporations and lobbyists the Republicans did, for funds to conduct the next elections to bother with such things as war, theft, lies and proposed new wars.

I, and I think millions of other Americans, would like to see a United States of America in which the Constitution and Bill of Rights was restored to the Halls of Government, intact and functioning; where the rule of law, tempered with compassion and common sense still prevailed; where We the People could feel safe and secure in our homes, free from arbitrary harassment by the government. We would like to see a government that acts openly, not one which classifies everything secret so its actions cannot be exposed to public view or critique, where scientists are allowed to publish their findings without having them edited or distorted to meet the party line. That was supposed to have gone out with the demise of Soviet Russia.. We the People would like to live in a nation where a chance remark, possibly misheard or misread, could not interfere with our ability to travel, and would not put our names into countless databases with no possibility of correction.

In short, yes, We the People of the United States are dissatisfied! We would like our country back. One King George was more than enough.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.