I am ashamed. I'm ashamed of this President, this megalomaniac hellbent on leaving his assprint on the map of the Middle East, no matter how much destruction is wrought and no matter how much blood flows in the streets of lands that never threatened us. I'm ashamed that when I see the American flag waiving, images of flag-draped coffins flash in my mind. I'm ashamed of Freedom's March. Ashamed when I see villages reduced to rubble. Ashamed when I see the tiny little corpses. God, they're so painfully tiny--lined up in a row, little angels wrapped in colorful blankets that starkly contrast against their gray-tinged faces. Ashamed when I see wailing Iraqis slam their hands against plain, unvarnished coffins, over and over, asking "Why? Is this democracy? Why?" When I see those image of funerals, of broken families, I want to crawl into my TV, I want to go to them and grab their slumped shoulders and scream "I'm sorry, good god, I'm so sorry. I want to leave, I want us to leave, believe me. But they won't listen...No one listens anymore." I am ashamed. Ashamed that Justice is no longer blindfolded, but gagged. Ashamed that in America, in AMERICA, I can only protest in "free speech zones" the size of postage stamps. Ashamed that by the time I'll take my oath as an officer of the court to support the Constitution, I'll be swearing to uphold a tattered document that has managed to survive over 200 years only to be shredded by this President in less than eight. I am ashamed. Ashamed that in America, I see bearded men panhandling in the street, holding cardboard signs that read "U.S. Vet, can't work, need food. God bless." Ashamed that somewhere, in our America, a grandmother is sitting alone at her kitchen table, crumpled bills clutched in her thin hands, agonizing over the choice before her: medicine for her pain, or food to keep on living. Ashamed that there is a child who will go to sleep tonight on a cot in an orphanage, with no one to read him a story, no one to stroke his hair and kiss him goodnight, because the American Taliban thinks gay Americans can't love, can't parent, can't provide. I am ashamed of myself. For not having the courage or the strength to do anything else but sit here and blog. I write. I protest. I vote. And yet, I'm impotent. Stuck in a unrelenting cycle of hope and despair and hope and despair. This is not America. I refuse to accept it. America doesn't torture. America doesn't jail people incommunicado for years. America doesn't sit idly by as an entire people are exterminated in Darfur. America doesn't stifle science. America doesn't conduct massive, secret spying on innocent citizens. America doesn't believe the individual is an annoyance, an impediment to supreme government power. This isn't the greatest democracy on earth. This isn't the nation that pioneered human rights. This isn't the America that leads the world, that leads humanity towards a greater good. No, I refuse to accept this America of shame. This is not my America. It is an America perverted by Republican stewardship. A nation that under GOP rule has abandoned its founding ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. True Americans--coast to coast, young and old--now bow their heads silently in collective shame for a nation that has lost its way.
This is nothing new. Just google what was done to Japanese Americans during WW2. Small minority will always push around majority, otherwise its anarchy. Unfortunately we did not invent any better model yet.
it really is a very sad day indeed. i see chertoff and crew are ready to label dissenting american bloggers as terrorist that are aiding the enemy with propaganda. if this isnt the most brazen attempt on our god given right of free speech i dont know what is. they have gotten away with so much they are emboldened to push the envelope. meanwhile, you have these sucker "perma republicans" that are eager to hand over all sovereignty as quick as you can say 9/11.
What do SUV's have anything to do with anything? move to a more hospitable country, or wait till 2008 and your daily nightmare will be over a tad melodramatic are we? It's called the human-condition, get over it ...
As many Iraqis have said, life in Iraq now is many times better than living under Saddam's rule. Saddam has killed at least 40 of his own relatives. Saddam and his thugs have tortured, mutilated, raped, gassed, and murdered hundreds of thousands, some say a few million, of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Too many times in the 1980's and 1990's I read about Saddam's torture techniques. Just for fun apparantly, and to instill fear into the Iraqi people, Saddam and his thugs would kidnap an entire family and put them in separate jail cells within view of each other. First, the children would be tortured one by one while the parents watched in horror. Then they would kill the children one by one as the parents watched in horror. Then they would torture the parents for days and finally, if they survived, would release them. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have died of malnutrition and lack of health care, because Saddam diverted oil proceeds to suit his extremely expensive tastes. All of these atrocities and much, much more are the real reasons why the US is in Iraq. The United States has a history of trying to save the world from tryrants. Most of the time it works very well and rather quickly. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. Some of the Iraqis are killing each other, blowing up innocent women and children for sport apparently. Must be Saddam's thugs just can't stop liking the taste of blood. The Iraqi people wish the terrorists would stop doing that, so they can build a country based on democracy and freedom, not terror, and so the US can leave. The US media suppresses an illogical, unreasonable amount of positive news. Could it be political? February 26 is Liberation Day in Kuwait. I have seen the Kuwaitis celebrate for 24 hours while kissing and waving the US flag. I have seen the Iraqi people doing the same. This is why I am proud of my country. This is when I put my political views aside.
so we go in and murder a few hundred thousand iraqis and just recently pass a torture bill. YEEHAWWWWWWW... I FEEL SAFER ALREADY. never mind all the lies that they used to send in troops illegally, we did it because saddam was torturing people. yet now we torture innocent civilians... but wait, we put them on lear jets and fly them to syria for this. HUH???? why is that? oh nevermind, it is legal now in the US. whew i think someone has been watching some Fox news. he has his facts FOXED. you forgot about the babies in incubators story.. oh wait.. they admit that was a lie. PR firm in DC came up with that one. the sanctions killed those kids not some bullshit food for oil diversion... dumbass. no wmd's... no saddam/911 connection.... us army war college said the iranians gassed the kurds. thats 3 strikes and no balls.
Dude, get a freakin' grip. You're a dealer in a mother fuvcking CASINO!! You're a parasite who preys on the weak by facilitating a negative edge "game." You're as much the problem as the solution. How about looking in the mirror......
ratboy88, The US did not murder hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Some civilians were killed as often happens during a war. People do get killed fighting for freedom. The commoners, the Iraqis could never have fought Saddam alone without help. How else could Saddam and his thugs have been deposed? Negotiations? Some people deny that the Holocaust happened. Are you denying that Saddam commited all these atrocities and more? Would you have protested the war against Hitler and Tojo? I don't watch the fox news because the station won't come in and I seldom watch the other networks. I only seek the truth. Many don't want to know the truth. At least $22 billion dollars of the oil for food program was diverted by the UN, China, France, Germany, etc. , let alone what Saddam did. Someday you and others like you will become old enough and mature enough to see the truth. I used to be like you when I was a child.
This entire argument , is really stoopid. Brain dead half wit partisan hack phlegm. Puke, vomit retch. As if, there arent important things to be examining, right now.
And we let 1 million people in Rwandan be killed why based on your argument??? Iâll tell you why because it is not in the interest of our country what happens in Africa, who the hell cares (the mind set of most powerful people). Middle East is a totally different game, we have vested interest there. Your last 2 posts show that you are still a child if you think that our intention in invading Iraq are noble. It is always the same and always about MONEY and POWER.