Thursday, May 6

long time coming?

Unfortunately, I've been opting for the cheap beer/fancy pot kind of afternoon, rather than the thoughtful, opinionated (read: slightly left) blog post-ee afternoon these days. Not anymore, kids... First things first....all anyone can talk about are the abused prisoners that were being held at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. It fucking sucked, but it's fucking over and done with. We are there as an occupying force and I hate it. I hate the fact that our forces are there on false premises, I hate that people are dying, and I hate the near canonization of Pat Tillman. *sigh* "War atrocities" happen. These particular low-life soldiers were called out waaaaaayyyy back in January, but the media didn't get ahold of the digi-shots until last week. America was shocked. How could our boys be capable of something so horrible, so sadistic??! People on the left were screaming out for apologies. I'm as left as they come, but I don't think GW Bush should have been the one apologizing. I think it makes us look weak. The actions of this tiny faction of young, redneck US soldiers that did this are not the actions of the majority. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. THEY need to be punished, THEY need to apologize, NOT their commander-in-chief. Let's face it, he hasn't really commanded anything aside from this pointless war. Also, as part of the Genva Convention, the US may have to pay the abused prisoners to compensate for the public humiliation. Wha!!!!? Wasn't it just last month when those 4 people were dragged through the streets of Fallujah? Burned, beaten, and dismembered bodies were all over internet news sites, television stations and our daily papers. The people who started that mess were never captured, no one was asked for an apology, and the Iraqi people weren't forced to pay reparations for our DEAD (not nekkid and hooded) soldiers. It's ridiculous. The men in the photos are pissed off because they were humiliated and made to "feel like women." Hm. For some reason, I can't quite grasp that, so I'll just be " all American" about the situation, hope the troops are forced to apologize, and hope that next time something like this happens, soldiers wont be stupid enough to keep a photo-memento. They're alive, I'm alive, you're alive. It's cool. Get over it. It's a war and OUR president got us into it. Making the conscience choice to hate him, and hate the military simply for being there is a tired excuse. The fact is, we're there, and hundreds of us are dying. (I say "us" because like it or not, we're all part of it....we're all....dare I say it...Americans) I watched "The Fallen" on Nightline last week, and it seemed like half of the soldiers that died were younger than me. Again....ridiculous. Please, oh please register to vote, and please, oh please get the right out of the way, and make room for a Democratic leader, no matter how rich and flip-floppy he may be. Anyone but Bush, has become our battle cry for a reason, folks. 9-11 is a day most of us wont soon forget, but the flag-waving, blind Patriotism that followed that horrible day left a lot of us a little jaded. Just because I think Bush is the sorriest excuse for a leader EVER, and just because I'm a non-practicing Catholic, pro-choice feminist doesn't mean I don't care....I just can't figure out who I'm supposed to care for.

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