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Those who wanted to make it right eventually prevailed, but not before nearly 60,000 American men and 2,000,000 Vietnamese died...mostly civilians, although who can tell when you are invading somebody else's homeland? In those circumstances, every man woman and child is "drafted" into the military by events! Today we have a chance...albeit slim...to stop the carnage before it starts.
Unfortunately we also have a new bunch of cowardly lions roaring for our men and women in uniform to "Kick some ass!" for freedom and democracy. Behind them are an equally cowardly group of Washington government pointy heads on a holy crusade. Their goal is to spread "democracy" through force, "moral clarity backed by immense military power."
But what kind of democracy are they promoting? The democracy of leaders on "missions from God" who feel no need to listen to voices of dissent? The democracy of self-proclaimed patriots who see no contradiction between spying on and scaring the hell out of Americans in the name of "homeland security" while calling for the overthrow of governments who keep their people in line with fear and intimidation? The kind of democracy that locks more people in prison than all the rest of the world combined for crimes no more serious than putting banned substances into their own bodies? The kind of democracy which, through laws restricting democratic participation, gives us a choice of Tweedle Dumb or Tweedle Dumber to make life-and-death decisions not only for us, our children and grandchildren, but about the very continued existence of freedom and democracy?
Democracy is a funny thing. For thousands of years, when people's lives consisted mainly of scrambling day-to-day for food and shelter for themselves and their children, our ancestors were more than willing to let kings and autocrats and "educated" men...those who at least claimed special knowledge...make all these kinds of decisions for them. Even in ancient Greece, famous as the incubator of democracy, four out of every five persons were slaves! It is easy to self govern if others are taking care of the grim realities of life. Furthermore, the average person...who WAS a slave, by the way...had little information to help him or her on the quest for liberation and self governance. In truth, democracy, even our own, is still in its historical infancy. As we have become richer and more secure as a people, many more of us have both the time and the inclination to contribute to the regulation of our own governments, both local and national. At the very least, it is time to institute a national initiative and recall, so that when zealots like Bush overstep their bounds, we can swiftly remove them.
We like to remind our children, as they learn with horror about present and past misdeeds of our rulers, that as bad as it seems, countries without the limited freedom and democracy that we enjoy are far worse. Indeed, that is the very argument the neo-cons are using to promote war in Iraq. Each time someone like us tries to remind everybody that the truth about war isn't "liberation" or "security" or "peace" or even simple "regime change," but death and destruction and chaos, the crusaders shout "But Saddam is even worse." Why we should act LIKE Saddam to confront Saddam is seldom discussed.
This same simple minded reasoning, that calls for becoming evil to resist evil, has pushed us to the brink of catastrophe. While the war-heads like to compare Saddam Hussein and Iraq to the Germany under Hitler of the thirties, the truth is it is WE who are slowly becoming the new Nazis. Like Hitler, Bush is a messianic leader who believes that he has the sanction of God and history. Like Germany of the thirties, we are a superpower with enough force to wage "Blitzkrieg," a war of overwhelming power launched at a moment's notice. Like the people of Germany, we have allowed our leaders to slowly erode our freedom and democracy. Also like the people of Germany, we are allowing our leaders to make us the pariahs of humanity, hated everywhere. (If you think we are exaggerating here, read THIS!)
It is time to call a halt to this. As the man, Winston Churchill, the neo-cons like to hold up as a paradigm of wisdom in matters of preventative action liked to say, "The only cure for the faults of democracy is MORE democracy!"
So, if democracy and freedom are such wonderful ideas, how DO we spread them? How about by PRACTICING them? How about by enlarging our freedom in the face of adversity rather than limiting it? How about introducing new democratic forms that take advantage of our new fountain of information and communication, the Internet? How about simply practicing what we preach?
So, the best way, the most patriotic way you can support our brave men and women who risk their lives on our behalf, on behalf of freedom and democracy...is to say a loud and resounding collective "NO!" to war in Iraq. Don't allow them to die, once again, for nothing.
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