Get Ready to Be Fuckin' Liberated!

Guest Commentary

I had been meaning to write something about the tragic events at Virginia Tech but hadn't got around to it. Then I recieved this email from my friend whose attending Grad. School out in New Mexico. He summed up my feelings exactly so I am reprinting his letter for you all.

What makes us so fucking special?

by: Ian Kleats

We've been reminded in the past days of the failure of American society to control its own weapons of destruction. The loss of 33 lives is certainly tragic, but do the same Americans who cry and pray for those 33 respond likewise to other, greater losses of life. This one act of violence will be in the news for two weeks or more, yet there is barely a passing mention of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed in the civil war we have facilitated. Moreover, the genocide of Darfur is practically invisible to the corporate media in this country. What makes us so special that 33 American lives are worth more than the people of Darfur or the citizens of Iraq? What makes 33 college students and faculty more deserving of sympathy than over 3000 soldiers we have needlessly sacrificed in an unjust war? As you reflect on the events at Virginia Tech remember that violence perpetrated against anyone, Iraqi or American, college student or serviceman, is an affront to everyone. Stop the violence and honor the lives of the Virginia Tech victims by ending this war.

My Latest Letter to the Editor

Here is a copy of my latest letter published in the Milwaukee Journal. It is a response to the following letter written by a husband and wife team who are constantly being published. Below is their letter and below that is my response.

Shame on these so-called leaders
By; Tom and Margie D’Amato

What war? Now that the liberals have Congress, the war is over. They want to stop funding and leave our troops out to dry and die. The memory of those who served and died will now be forever tarnished, and they will have died for nothing.
Whatever the reason we got in Iraq, we need to win; Sept. 11 will look like kids work if we pull out of Iraq now without winning. Maybe that’s what it’s going to take to wake up Democrats John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, Al Gore and "do nothing" former President Carter. However, the number who will die in another Sept. 11 will be tenfold that of 2001.
Our enemies are laughing and waiting and at the same time taking comfort in the words of some of our government’s so-called leaders.
It’s as though because of their hatred for President Bush, these lawmakers want America to lose. Some are calling this an illegal war. President Clinton went to Bosnia without Congress or the United Nations, and the liberal press said nothing.
We can win in Iraq. Simply turn the troops loose to go win this thing, and then get the heck out.

Lawmakers are serious about protecting U.S.
By; Justin Loper

The March 1 letter by Tom and Margie D'Amato was a prime example of low the discourse has gone ("Shame on these so-called leaders"). Decorated Vietnam veterans like Chuck Hagel, a conservative Republican, and Jack Murtha supposedly want to "leave our troops out to dry and die" in Iraq, or at least that is what the D'Amatos want people to believe.
It is ludicrous to believe that two men who love their country, enough to fight in a war, are not as serious when it comes to protecting the nation as two guys who supposedly love their country so much they refused to go to war when it was their time.
The D'Amatos also claimed we can win in Iraq. They wrote that we should "simply turn the troops loose to go win this thing, and then get the heck out." Turn our soldiers loose?
What the D'Amatos and so many others are unable to see is that winning means staying. We never had an exit strategy because we didn't plan on exiting. Winning means creating a regime that will let the United States stay in Iraq indefinitely. Winning means staying, not leaving.
And staying really means losing.

And we lose another good one.

Here's some of Vonnegut's thoughts about the situation we find ourselves in. He couldn't be more right on.

Those Poor Western Hostages

The Iranians released footage of the captured British soldiers playing chess and ping pong. It may very well have been a set up. For all we know, there could have been armed soldiers with their rifles trained on the sailors.

What I find comical is the reaction by the West. America and Britain both have zero legs to stand on. The Americans and the British area complaining about the treatment given to the captured sailors. Maybe they would have been better off in say, Gitmo, Bagram, Abu Ghraib or any other of the secret prisons set up around the world. I bet that the prisoners in Guatanamo would love access to ping pong and chess boards. Instead they get really loud offensive music blasted at them while they are forced to stand for days in freeezing conditions.
Here is what the British do to the Arabs today. Just imagine what they used to do to them when they were the imperial power, think poison gas.

In case you missed it here is what the Americans do to their prisoners.