This really broke my heart to read, as it is yet another example of the collateral damage this compromise over the Iraq war funding has created. It confirms that as a people, we were too collectively fucked up at this point in our existence to do the right thing. This country chewed up Cindy Sheehan and spit her out. This outcome is a symptom of something that is historically significant, and in 100 years, if we made it out of this dark age better for the experience, I’m sure that the treatment of our military and Mrs. Sheehan will play a major role in that process. Politics aside…if you are ambivalent to the plight of these people or unwilling to take them seriously for one reason or another, THEN YOU ARE LACKING! As a human being, as an American…this storyline of Iraq and terrorism is barely B-movie plot worthy at this point, and on Memorial Day it’s a sad thing that the unbelievable bullshit won out over reason once again. We honored those who served, those who died, all across the country as my family did in our town today. How are we honoring those who have died in Iraq? How are we honoring those who are still there? How about the ones who have been cast aside and defecated upon by the system? Will the millions we blow on fireworks in a little over a month come at the expense of a hundred veterans out there, unable to get treatment for PTSD – or – at the expense of a hundred soldiers in Iraq patrolling streets driving in an IED’s dream?
Cindy Sheehan (link): …I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an “attention whore” then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither…The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.
I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions. Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people…
Posted by Al Swearengen in Al Swearengen, Military, politics