(sung to "The Halls of Montezuma")

When someone makes a move

of which we disapprove.

Who is it that always intervenes?

UN and OAS

they have their place, I guess.

But when in doubt

Send the Marines!

We'll send them all we've got

John Wayne and Randolph Scott.

Remember those exciting fighting scenes?

So from the shores of Tripoli

but not to Mississopli

whaddwe do?

We send the Marines.

'Cause might makes right

until they've seen the light

They must be protected

all their rights respected

until somebody we like

can be elected.

and so on....

--Tom Lerher, 1965

It has been going on for a while, Glenn.

Right On! This is about the children and those who had no hand in this.

HELL YES! You need (and I mean EVERYONE of you) to call your senators and congressmen and tell them: NO MORE.

You need to work against John McCain. He is condemning YOUR SOUL to hell. He is a mouth-breathing fucking moron warmonger profitteer. The best thing I've read here recently was whoever pointed out that you can make "A STONG CASE THAT HIS WHOLE POLITICAL EXISTENCE CAN BE CHALKED UP TO THE FACT THAT HE WAS TORTURED!

One more thing: I'm a damned veteran. I have a 23 year-old son. HE WILL NEVER SERVE. HE HATES W worse than I do, AND THAT IS A REAL STRETCH TO REACH THAT POINT.

They can all die tomorrow morning and it won't be soon enough to suit me. They are liars and I have a strong suspicion that Cheney IS THE ANTI-CHRIST INCARNATE.

this war is a stain on every American's soul

might I add:

To any American that disagrees, there is something wrong with you, something callous and dead.

as your quotes from adam smith show, and the quotes for lawrence, and for god's sake quotes from Thucydides. And the wars are usually good for them, these elites, ranging from the media guys who got it wrong and got promotions to the politicos to the corporations who grew even richer. And the only elites who suffer who those who speak against it, like Shineski (and they don't suffer that much). It makes you want to rage and rage until you puke your guts out. And then get up and rage again. Or be all quiet and rational, if that will help. But keep trying. Who knows what will happen? Awareness of human limits is the key. I don't know everything. Maybe if we all keep on trying something good will come about. The worst thing to do would be to give in, because then when it came your time to die you would die ashamed of who you are. Can't imagine a worse thought than that.

In Nineteen-Eight Four George Orwell warned against a future when there would be perpetual war against an ill-defined and every changing enemy for the purpose of maintaining the ruling party in perpetual control and keeping the proles docile.

Orwell intended his book as a warning, but the Republican Party strategists have used it as a how-to manual.

It is that simple. It really is.

What thoughtful, minimally-educated person could possibly cheer on a war? Every time I stop and really think about what has happened over the past several years in this country, I am astonished. Haven't our journalists and leading foreign policy thinkers read Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"? I read it in high school. It's almost unspeakably depressing to think that someone has to have skin in the game, e.g., a loved one in the military, to oppose a war.

It's almost unspeakably depressing to think that someone has to have skin in the game, e.g., a loved one in the military, to oppose a war.

To a big extent it was people in the military who were the biggest cheerleaders..

http://www.blackfive.net/

Not so much now, but at the beginning a large portion of the military was chomping at the bit to kill people and break shit.

In addition to ignoring the amount of suffering these sadistic conscience-free chicken hawks have wrought, the current reflection on this invasion-destruction-occupation, otherwise known as a "war, has another even more baffling aspect. The inspections that found nothing PRIOR to the invasion. Hans Blix was leading the UN team (and I believe an International Atomic Energy organization had another team in Iraq led by Mohammed al Baradi (sp?) ) and they went to HUNDREDS of sites based on US "leads", the same nonsense that the Bush regime was using in testifying as fact to the United Nations and the world that Iraq had WMDs. And yet, the inspectors looking prior to the invasion found the same thing inspectors found after the invasion. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I read a quote from one of the inspectors that had gone on the hundreds of fruitless searches based on US "intelligence" and he referred to the US information as garbage.

At the same time the Bush Regime claimed with 100% surety that Iraq had WMDs, inspectors in Iraq found nothing based on the same location information. And yet, both before and after the "war", the press remained and remains silent about the fact that the "evidence of WMDs" was shown to be a pack of lies before a single person died.

The Adams Smith quote should be rote memorized.

And Jeffery P. Harrison @ 1:26 makes it impossible.

thanks Glenn.

a yes or a no?

I think Orwell's book was a parable about the perennial human condition, like Plato's cave: each generation has to wake up and see their chains anew. Orwell wrote about how the elites in any time rule the masses. And now we are waking up to our chains (people always waking up to this at various stages and degrees). And can we break the cycle? I don't know. Because I don't know, I think we need to try to get everyone to see this that we can. Its why I became a teacher, to try to aid in this. We all have to try something. Since we are not masters of the universe and knowers of all reality, it might be that those who say we cannot change this perennial human condition are wrong. Maybe we can. But it won't be through the tools and methods (the violence) of the elites. Because then we become the new elites, etc. I don't know if there is hope or not. Because I don't know, then, I hope.