Friday, August 22, 2003

St John of the Cross

"The soul lives by that which it loves rather than in the body which it animates.
For it has not its life in the body,
but rather gives it to the body and lives in that which it loves."

St. John of the Cross


Truth Is Not Partisan

Tell ALL The Truth


Tell all the truth but let it slant----
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise.



As lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind----

Emily Dickinson



Truth Is Not Partisan
Letter to the Editor
Published August 21, 2003
Syracuse Post Standard
by: This Very Blogstress-Iddybud

Note: This was in response to the usual insulting commentary about how we citizens are unpatriotic, unfair, and politically spiteful for questioning the Bush administration.


"It's a pity the war is nothing more than a partisan issue to so many people in this nation. This is a matter of life and death to our most precious resource in America-our soldiers with their lives on the line every moment they remain in harm's way.

We seem to have gravely erred on the side of rosy optimism in Iraq. It's time to admit that and come together, regardless of our individual political persuasions.
Our Congress failed to ask some hard questions before they gave our President authority to make pre-emptive attack. We now learn that it was very easy for the Bush administration to have had serious doubts about the intelligence they used, yet they made the conscious decision to relay it to us in the 2003 State of the Union speech. We now learn that the CIA had soundly warned the Bush administration of guerilla war long before Vice President Cheney was on national television assuring us that we'd be warmly greeted as "liberators". There hasn't been one shred of evidence that Iraq was the imminent threat we were told they were-except for some rusty parts buried under a rose bush.



"American troops are dying in real-time. Let's conduct an investigation for truth in real-time."



I am tired of hearing that American citizens are "desperate", "haters", and "misinformers" whenever they began to ask for truth from their elected leaders. If truth is, indeed, the "greatest of weapons" as Mr Snyder states, then he and others like him should not resort to base partisan-level and insult American citizens for their search for the truth. It is an unsophisticated affront to our collective sense of the very ideal of American freedom and decency.

If we all had the same crystal ball Mr. Snyder seems to possess in his averring that "the truth will soon be known", then perhaps we would have no need to ask questions. Until we are all clairvoyant, I see no ludicrousness in asking reasoned questions and I see no conflict with the timing of those questions. American troops are dying in real-time. Let's conduct an investigation for truth in real-time. Terror has existed since the dawn of mankind. There is no endgame in sight to our war on terror.
If we wait until war on terror is ended, we will never have had the right to know what was true. America is made of strong and resilient people with a brilliant Constitution to match. As a nation, we will surely not fall apart by looking at ourselves with a clear eye-here and now. We have nothing to lose except more American lives.

Mr. Snyder says he trusts that Americans are not "fickle to believe false assertions". He is absolutely correct. Free passes are only given to those leaders who are deemed trustworthy. Our trust has been shaken for clear reasons and it's time to see the reality of the situation without insulting those who ask the hardest questions. There are no double standards and there is no prematurity when we have already committed our service men and women to war and after-the fact revelations and naturally-resulting questions arise."