There was a picture on the front page of the New York Times on Tuesday, July 8. It showed several American soldiers in Iraq sitting in utter dejection as they were informed by their battalion commander that none of them were going home anytime soon, and no one knew exactly when they were going home at all. PFC Harrison Grimes sat in the center of this photo with his chin in his hand, staring at ground that was thousands of miles from his family and friends. A soldier caught in the picture just over PFC Grimes' shoulder had a look on his face that could break rocks.
212 of PFC Grimes' fellow soldiers have died in Iraq, and 1,044 more have been wounded. The war created chaos in the cities, and it seems clear now that very little in the way of preparation was made to address the fact that invasion leads to social bedlam, not to mention a lot of shooting. Last Sunday, CNN's Judy Woodruff showed a clip of a Sergeant Charles Pollard, who said, "All we are here is potential people to be killed and sitting ducks." [more]
Yes, it's not exactly as if there's a fair fight going on there, is there? When your back is turned, somebody walks up to you on a bridge and shoots your brains out. You're standing in the unbelievable heat fantasizing about going home and somebody snipes you from afar. You become a victim of the classic drive-by while manning a checkpoint. You lay in the sand bleeding to death while somewhere, the unelected leader of your country, fresh from watching war movies and having never been in a war situation himself--in fact, after having been AWOL for a year from the frickin' National Guard in Texas--chest puffed up with two beady eyes peering out from behind a face which doesn't see many books, says, "Bring 'em on." Meaning the aforementioned hidden snipers, the driveby shooters and the while your back is turned gangster-style killers--that's who he's talking to. Not 'bring it on' within a ring, where there are rules. No, bring on the indefensible attacks. Bring on the indefensible slaughtering of American troops. 'Cuz there's more soldiers where they came from. But mostly because that unelected shit-for-brains doesn't know jack shit about the real world. His pampers are pampered.
And the DLC doesn't want to bring this type of shit up? FUCK THE DLC. Or, you put it into more of a poetic semblance. But that's the basic sentiment, right? The DLC likes frickin' Lieberman? The DLC says let's not make waves? The DLC says let's play nice to this man who stole the election and lies to the American public and the world like the rest of us process oxygen? "Bush Lied and People Died." Repeat. Memorize. Tell your friends.
Assure a free and fair election in '04 and send that son of a bitch back to Texas where he belongs. No, wait--that would be an offense to fine Texans like Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, Craig of BookNotes, Bruce Sterling and at least half of Austin, if not more . . . no, the only place Bush truly belongs is at the Hague. It's the follow-through swing: aim for unelection, then follow-through to Bush getting tried at the Hague. Imagine a just and better world, and then make it so!
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