Democratic Underground - My fellow Americans -- 'We The People .... Have No Clothes'

Let us probe why many Americans, including several whom I've asked the direct question, do not want to confront the reality of Bush meeting with Cindy Sheehan and telling her the truth regarding the 'noble cause' that Casey Sheehan died serving.

I think, deep down, most realize the fact that it was not a 'noble cause.' It was what I diagnosis as a malignant disease infecting many Americans -- 'remorseless consumeritis.'

Bush and the neoconsters know that 42,636 Americans were killed in motor-vehicle related accidents in 2004.

They also know that most other Americans don't give a flip.

Thus, to most Americans, what's a thousand or two Americans killed in Iraq in over two years if it ensures that millions of remorseless American consumers can drive vehicles big enough to sleep four or more in luxury, compared to the shelter 100s of millions elsewhere on the planet call 'home.'

You wonder if I'm being cynical or inaccurate.

Well, for starters, check this and ask yourself why would most of those Americans want to avoid having to confront even hearing about a news item like the following:

US Deploying Paratroopers at Iraq Prisons

By REUTERS

Filed at 6:57 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military will send 700 Army paratroopers to Iraq to help provide security at detention centers, officials said on Wednesday, as it prepares to open a fourth major prison and eventually leave the Abu Ghraib jail, the site of last year's prisoner abuse scandal.

An infantry battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will go to Iraq over the next two months on an open-ended deployment to help provide security at the U.S.-run detention facilities, defense officials said.

"There's an expansion in the detention operations going on," said Air Force Lt. Col. John Skinner, a Pentagon spokesman on detainee issues.

<clip>

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-iraq-usa-prisons.html?pagewanted=print

Obviously, the media is doing its part to make sure that most Americans are not aware of this tidbit.

And, for those Americans who are aware of it, no one in the media is going to deconstruct this stupid bit of bull shit propaganda about the reason for sending an elite paratrooper rapid strike force into Iraq.

Are you beginning to get why I ask the question, do most Americans really want Bush to tell Cindy the truth.

Today, the same day we read of an elite paratrooper group being sent to guard prisoners (that's like asking a major league pitcher with a 20 and 0 record to throw batting practice, everyone), we also find the following bit of news (though I am sure very few of our fellow Americans even saw or heard it):

State Department experts warned CENTCOM
before Iraq war about lack of plans for post-war Iraq security

Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 163

Posted - August 17, 2005

If you go to page 6 of this .pdf file you will see the timeline that verifies the claim that State had engaged in planning for "post-Saddam" Iraq in October of 2001.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB163/iraq-state-02.pdf

However, what I am focused is the obvious disregard that the Pentagon had for all the planning that State was doing.

Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

In a February 7, 2003, memo to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, three senior Department officials noted CENTCOM's "focus on its primary military objectives and its reluctance to take on 'policing' roles," but warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally." The memo adds "We have raised these issues with top CENTCOM officials."

Link:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB163/iraq-state-03.pdf

To whom it may concern:

What would happen if Mr Bush answered Cindy Sheehan honestly.

What would happen if in response to her question - "What noble cause did Casey give his life to serve?" Mr Bush spoke of the three strategic reasons he launched a war of aggression and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

How would each American respond to Mr Bush informing them, honestly, that Iraq's oil reserves must be controlled by America?

How would each American respond to the reality that Iraq has the largest fresh water system in the Middle East and that America now controls access to that life essential resource?

How would each American respond to the reality that the air bases America now controls in Iraq provide rapid strike capability anywhere in the Middle East and Central Asia?

Are we all prepared to receive from Mr Bush what we are requesting -- that he meet with Cindy Sheehan and speak the truth about why Casey died in Iraq?

Are you, my fellow Americans, prepared for the truth or would you prefer to not have Mr Bush stop the flowery rhetoric of 'noble cause' and 'spreading democracy'?

Be sure you really want the truth about the critical strategic reasons Mr Bush and his neoconster buddies entered the White House in January, 2001 knowing that they intended to achieve in Iraq, shortly thereafter.

The burden of that truth is profound, as some now realize.

If only the war were more entertaining. Less of a downer. Perhaps then we could meet the people who are suffering and dying in it.

For all the talk of supporting the troops, they are a low priority for most Americans. If the nation really cared, the president would not be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.

Instead, Mr. Bush is bicycling as soldiers and marines are dying. Dozens have been killed since he went off on his vacation.

As for the rest of the nation, it's not doing much for the troops, either. There was a time, long ago, when war required sacrifices that were shared by most of the population. That's over.

From Blood Runs Red, Not Blue by BOB HERBERT on August 18, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/opinion/18herbert.html?pagewanted=print

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