Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers (and
counting) and more than 2,500 U.S. wounded (and counting) and more
than 10,000 dead innocent Iraqi citizens (and counting) and countless
tens of thousands of hapless dead Iraqi soldiers (and counting).

And it'll only cost U.S. taxpayers at least a staggering $350 billion
along with the complete gutting of our foreign policy and our national
treasury and the appalling blood sacrifice of our national pride and
our international status and global sense of self-respect.

Oh, and the truth is, it turns out Saddam actually did have some old
stashes of weaponry, a bit of rusty, small-scale WMDs, after all --
because we sold them to him, 20 years ago. But they were never any
sort of direct danger to America -- or anyone else, for that matter --
and regardless all evidence points to the fact that the stash was
completely destroyed more than a decade ago.

Remember that time? Right about when the U.S. hushed up all those
sales of biological weapons and computer technology to Iraq? Right
about when all those American corporations, from Bechtel to Kodak to
AT&T, from Dow Chemical to Hewlett-Packard to IBM and at least 100
more, decided it might be best to begin shredding their records
detailing all their Iraq business deals? Hey, why is Donny Rumsfeld
shaking hands with Saddam and smiling in this photo? Shhh.

And now, long after his political usefulness to us has expired, we up
and invade his unhappy nation and lay waste to the entire region for
no justifiable reason, and we inflate his global stature into this
massive inhuman Hitler-esque monster when in fact he was really just
an old, tired, small-time thug, and now finally Saddam Hussein, the
brutal pip-squeak dictator/former beloved U.S. ally who had nothing
whatsoever to do with 9/11, has been captured alive. Yay yay go team.

It was a proud moment in American history. Almost as proud as when
Dubya secretly flew to Iraq a few weeks back to spend 2.5 hours
pretending to serve a fake, inedible plastic turkey to that handful of
carefully selected, prescreened soldiers for that Thanksgiving PR
stunt that will forever embarrass anyone with any sense of decency and
pride -- which is, according to Bush's instant surge in the polls
after the photo op, fewer and fewer of us.

As if this changes a single thing. As if Saddam's capture suddenly
means BushCo is some sort of nimble or subtly intelligent leader, and
that nine months of brutal ongoing gut-busting war was all worth it.

As if we are safer from terrorism. As if we are safer from Karl Rove
and John Ashcroft. As if the nation can now stand proud.

Think again. Even Bush himself is not quite so stupid as to go that
far. Note how just after Saddam's capture, his army of handlers rushed
in to make sure Americans don't expect any lessening of U.S.
casualties in Iraq, no slowdown in the number of dead American
soldiers or the killing of innocent Iraqis who just happen to be
trying to get some clean water or a gallon of fuel when U.S. forces
blow another building apart while they're looking for guerrilla
insurgents.

Oh yes, Saddam needed to be captured. Oh yes, his capture is a swell
thing for the world. Oh yes, Bush desperately needed the ratings
boost. But we as a nation have been utterly pulverized with the lie
that this war was the only way. We have been slammed for more than two
years with relentless hammer of fear and inflated terrorist threats
and bogus Orange Alerts, until we all just give in and our resistance
crumbles and we say, fine.

Fine, just get it over with, Dubya, go slaughter yet another nearly
defenseless nation and catch your impotent bad guy and eviscerate your
own country's economy and embarrass us the world over and protect your
oil cronies and your military portfolio. Get it over with.

By the way, from Bush Sr. forward (and, yes, that includes Clinton),
the U.S. has to date killed far, far more Iraqi civilians than Saddam
ever could. Along with the United Kingdom, we've been bombing Iraq
almost nonstop for the past decade. Not to mention the more than half
a million Iraqi children who've died from lack of medicine or decent
health care since the brutal, U.S.-backed U.N. sanctions were imposed
12 years ago. Shhh.

The capture does not justify the savagery, nor the humiliation. Not by
a long shot. The ends do not justify the means. Nor do they justify
the staggering, steaming pile of BushCo lies about why we went to war
in the first place.

Remember those? Remember how not one single motive BushCo gave for
launching this insane war has actually been proven true? Does this
even matter anymore, the string of falsehoods and treasonous
fabrications? Apparently not. This is America's biggest wonder, and
its ugliest flaw: a nasty short-term memory.


But whatever. Most lockstep Americans do not care that Saddam was
never a threat. Most do not care about how many Iraqi children have
died, or that in just the first days of the war, U.S. forces killed
far more innocent civilians than were killed by those non-Iraqi
terrorists in the WTC (4,300, to be more specific). Most do not care
that the other 25 despotic heads of state out there right now who are
far worse than Saddam are not, apparently, quaking in their
dictatorial boots.

Most Americans do not care that somewhere, Osama is probably cheering
(hey, he hated Saddam, too). They do not care that, what with our
outward display of savagery, new America-loathing terrorists are being
spawned faster than BushCo's war machine can possibly keep up with
them.

They care only for waving the bloody flag. They care only for the
jingoistic PR spin and the hollow sophomoric neocon punditry of Fox
News and enough oil to fuel the Expedition for another year. This is
what matters most. Kill 'em all, let Halliburton sort 'em out.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Saddam's capture really will mean an earlier
end to this tragic and painful war. Maybe it will mean we can get our
soldiers home sooner. Maybe it will mean we can get the U.N. and NATO
and our international allies involved in setting up a reasonably
stable, noncorrupt government in Iraq, one not so obviously in the
back pocket of ExxonMobil and Shell. Whoops, too late.

Maybe now that Saddam's captured, we can begin to focus on what's
really important: the mandatory and deliberate ouster of another truly
ruinous global threat, a shockingly disastrous political puppet.

After all, Saddam's not the only dreadful world leader who's abused
his allies, ravaged his economy, launched two blood-drenched wars in
as many years, authorized the bombing of tens of thousands, allowed
hundreds of U.S. soldiers to die, cut the benefits of war veterans,
poisoned the environment, invoked the name of God to justify it all
and smirked away every notion of his obvious ineptitude. Can we send
Special Forces to the Oval Office now?

"basskisser"

Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers

at least show some attribution when you cut-and-paste some rant

"John Gaquin" wrote in message ...
"basskisser"

Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers

at least show some attribution when you cut-and-paste some rant

Why? And why do you label it a "rant"? Oh, I know, because it isn't
goose-stepping to the Republican Guard, I mean party.

"basskisser" wrote in message
om...
"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...
"basskisser"

Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers

at least show some attribution when you cut-and-paste some rant

Why? And why do you label it a "rant"? Oh, I know, because it isn't
goose-stepping to the Republican Guard, I mean party.

So where's the attribution? Who wrote the piece?

"John Gaquin" wrote in message ...
"basskisser" wrote in message
om...
"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...
"basskisser"

Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers

at least show some attribution when you cut-and-paste some rant

Why? And why do you label it a "rant"? Oh, I know, because it isn't
goose-stepping to the Republican Guard, I mean party.

So where's the attribution? Who wrote the piece?

Again, I ask....why? Oh, I know. Because you are worried that the
person that wrote it isn't far left? You are correct!

On 17 Dec 2003 06:22:35 -0800, (basskisser) wrote:

Well gosh golly it took only upward of 500 dead U.S. soldiers (and
counting) and more than 2,500 U.S. wounded (and counting) and more
than 10,000 dead innocent Iraqi citizens (and counting) and countless
tens of thousands of hapless dead Iraqi soldiers (and counting).
Snipped

Plagiarism is one sure way to improve one's writing skills.

John
On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD