This was my response to comments made on today's "Truth Laid Bear" blog.
*See the discussion in question here*.

Here's what started it:

LT Smash said this:

'It really all boils down to this:
Just about everyone here would rather be at home right now—but nobody wants to go home a loser.
If we gave in to the snivelers and peaceniks who cry, “Bring our troops home now!” Iraq would undoubtedly descend into a bloody civil war, and God only knows who would come out on top. Saddam might even emerge from hiding, claiming to have driven the “infidels” out of his country. The United States would have suffered another black eye, and our enemies would be further emboldened to attack us again. We would have lost the war, and all of the brave Americans and British who gave their lives in this operation would have died in vain.
I am not willing to accept that scenario. You shouldn’t be, either.
What can I possibly add to that?'

My reply:

"This is an extremely interesting discussion.

Here's what it all boils down to:

We never, never, I repeat, NEVER should have
been hasty in going in to Iraq with the coalition for which we wound up "settling".

Clearly, it was inadequate.
Recent history is SCREAMING that it was inadequate.

Clearly, we needed an international peacekeeping force and a wider international effort... and our leader, GW Bush, and his administration did not see fit to do this thing right (since they were so determined to do it).They were prideful, hungry...wrong.

They didn't do it right.
They have made so many errors.
They were wrong in ignoring the concerns of the international community.
It was disrespectful and shameful towards the international community. It was ignorant of the basic rule of law.

We've made a mess of things.
Is it any wonder these nations aren't jumping at the chance to hop in and join the US effort in Iraq?


Now....today..we are at a point of no immediate return in Iraq.
We have to do whatever we have to do to see this thing through.
But all it truly amounts to is this dreadful feeling of "saving face" because so many of our courageous men and women have been brutally slain. We can't just drop all and say "so long". The Russians did that in Afghanistan. We did that in the last Gulf War. It doesn't work. It creates terrorism.

The Neo-Con ideals are not practicable when seen in real-time Iraq. They have not translated well at all. This nation, this America...what is to become of it? She's been brutally wounded by right-wing fanaticists. These are not your average Conservatives with a healthy respect for the true meaning of democracy (small-d). They are empire-driven.

No, we cannot be in denial about what we face in Iraq today.

At the same time, let us NOT forget WHY we are facing it..how it came to pass. And let us not forget all the lies, doublespeak, and exaggeration.

If we fail to learn that lesson, we are doomed to repeating it.

**Can you say Viet Nam?
When will we ever learn?

Jude"

Congratulations to Bill Keller!
New York Times names new executive editor

Posted: Monday, July 14, 1:01pm EDT

"Bill Keller, a columnist for The New York Times who previously served as the newspaper's managing editor and foreign editor and as its bureau chief in Moscow and Johannesburg, has been chosen as its executive editor, reports The New York Times.
Mr. Keller's appointment to the highest-ranking position in the newsroom was announced today by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The Times and chairman of The New York Times Company. It is effective July 30. "

America Under Threat

Read this.
.. think about it.
Your American democracy may be dying.



"....The events in Iraq are not over; they're just getting started. In forcing Hussein's regime out of Baghdad, the allies
have rendered Iraq ungovernable. The democratic alternative for Iraq that they talk about at press conferences was never more than propaganda.
As a result, Washington and London don't have much of a choice about how to proceed. They can run the country as an occupying regime, risking increasing guerrilla activity in the cities, civil war and resistance from Hussein's clan, which has far from lost its political and military capabilities.
Or they can make a deal with Hussein's people..."

"...Since G.W. Bush came to power, we are witnessing the most dramatic attack on American democracy ever since the Revolution.
We, outside the US are astonished, shocked, angry and, honestly, somewhat scared..."

"...Different people write that America repeats the Rome way, from the Republic to the Empire.
With all the consequences for the democracy that follows it...." (See my own comments from a prior blog entry)

"....the devastation of Iraq can become the beginning of an end to the American civil society.
Neoliberal admirers of "American model" outside the US dismiss all these warnings reminding us that, unlike Saddam Hussein,
G.W. Bush was elected legally, democratically and in full accord with the Constitution. So was Julius Caesar in Ancient Rome.
And so was Hitler in Weimar Germany...."


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My contribution to the poetry contest

Dave Barry had a great suggestion..why not enter a poetry contest?
So inspiring was his suggestion that I became a Freemont and entered immediately.
My literary contribution:

He Really Did It Not Me

"the night..the night was filled with dread
a bounty placed upon my head

i run..i run- to God knows where
too numb to feel, too tired to care

the crime- the crime i did not do
yet they would kill him if they knew

the dog..the dog ate mother's toes
the proof's in the fur in her torn pantyhose

i sha'nt..i sha'nt let the poor ol' puppance
take the cruel and harsh comeuppance

o yes--o yes i'll take the blame
and let them chase me down til i'm lame"

Freemont Road
Copyright ©2003 Freemont Road


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get yourselves over to the poetry contest and add your very own "the dog ate mother's toes" Freemont masterpiece.
:)
From your friend ,
Freemont