Good Morning, America, by Wayne Franics - Democratic Underground



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Good
Morning, AmericaApril 16,
2003By Wayne Francis
Good morning, America. Since your head is pounding, I'll
speak very softly. I know you enjoyed last night's mega
winning-the-Iraq-war orgy party. It was fun while it lasted,
no doubt. But like every party animal, you went too far this
time, and did some things you may end up regretting. What's
worse, those at the party who refrained from heavy drinking
remember most of your shenanigans and as a result have
absolutely no respect for you now. As if you cared, but still.

The state of the union is not good, and it's damn time you
noticed. The party's over, America. Sure it felt good to
celebrate winning the war, liberating the Iraqi people,
toppling Saddam, all those things FOX news has been repeating
over and over (just in case it ever became the slightest bit
unclear if you were right in supporting the war). But winning
this war was the easy part. To be quite honest, we really
haven't "won" anything just yet. Saddam is still on the loose,
and despite our military's best attempts to find weapons of
mass destruction, there appears to be no chemical or
biological weapons hidden in Iraq. Also, we haven't found any
Al-Qaeda terrorists, links to terrorist groups, weapons for
terrorists, or money for terrorists.
In case you missed it, those three reasons (finding WMD's,
Saddam, and terrorists) were Bush's rationale for fighting
this war. What about the one thousand Iraqi citizens
celebrating in the streets of Baghdad, dancing on the statue
of Saddam, you ask? Those were members of Ahmed Chalbi's "Free
Iraqi Forces Milita." They were all flown in by United States
C17 military transport planes to stage this event for the
media, which was staying in the hotel across the street. Ahmed
Chalabi, the leader of this group, was photographed at the
scene. The international press also tells us no more than one
hundred fifty were at the celebration; when looking at photos
from above, it appears there could have been no more than this
amount, probably less.
After operation Desert Storm in 1991, Barbara Bush appeared
on several television shows to guarantee that the world was
much safer because of the war. Two years later, terrorists
bombed the World Trade Center, then some of our embassies,
then the USS Cole, and then came 9/11. We can expect the same
retaliation from this war, if the Iraqi people have anything
to do with it. Thousands of Iraqi citizens have seen their
loved ones killed or wounded by US bombings, and just today
the Los Angeles Times reported many Iraqi bystanders present
at the now terribly overplayed Baghdad square celebration were
cursing the United States. Several Iraqis were heard shouting "Screw America, screw Bush."
Furthermore, Baghdad's population is five million people. If
only one thousand people - less than one percent - of the city
showed up to welcome US forces, then we can hardly label this
a warm reception. Just yesterday in my hometown, 12,000 people
attended the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, and our population is
only one million. And people here don't even like jazz.
It's ugly outside, America, but it's time you faced some
dreadful realities. Congress has just passed the largest
budget in the history of the United States, with a record $385
billion deficit. This is a remarkable achievement considering
Republicans have been preaching against deficit spending for
decades; I guess it only applies when a Democrat is president.
Consequently, if you're still happy about getting rid of "tax
and spend" president Clinton, then it should irk you to know
Bush's budget is much greater and expands into many more areas
than any of Clinton's budgets. (By the way, it's the
president's job to tax the population and spend the money,
just in case you still thought that was an insult.)
According to recent reports by Al-Jazeera, the Al-Queada
terrorist network is continuing to recruit new members.
Despite promises by the Bush administration that we would find
and prosecute him, Osama bin Laden is enjoying unprecedented
freedom as evidenced by the audio tapes released on the eve of the
attacks on Baghdad. Moreover, the war in Iraq has turned the
Egypt elite against the United States, something even the Bush
administration admits is unfortunate. Tensions are also rising between the United States and Syria,
and the Palestinians are threatening more terrorist attacks on
Israel.
It gets worse. Iraq's neighbor, Iran, is continuing to
oppose Bush at each turn; apparently nobody likes being
included in Bush's axis of evil, especially innocent
civilians. The world's population is also apparently unmoved
by our "victory" in Iraq; polls still indicate that over 90%
of the world opposes Bush's war and wants the United States
removed from Iraq as soon as possible.
India is now considering nuking Pakistan. The phrase
"pre-emptive" strike was used in statements released by Indian
leadership. You know whom to thank for this. You should also
know whom to thank for our dismal failure to establish a
peaceful democracy in Afghanistan. Currently the United States
controls just one city, and the Taliban is strengthening its command structure in
places like Kandahar and Kabul.
Each time a US Marine accidentally kills an innocent Iraqi
at one of the newly installed "checkpoints" in Iraq, our
enemies multiply, and new terrorists are born. We most
certainly do not live in a safer or better world because of
Bush's war in Iraq. At home, unemployment is rising, and the
stock market continues to nosedive. It appears our children
will be paying interest on Bush's budget deficits long after
we are gone.
America, I know you can't take much more of this, but in
reality, it's just the beginning. It is terribly disheartening
to learn that our media has been given a free pass by you, the
American citizen, to report just enough facts to make you feel
good about this war. There is little responsible journalism
going on nowadays, and to find it, you have to search very
hard, most often on the internet. Nietzche once remarked,
"Against war one can say: It makes the victor stupid, the
vanquished malignant, and man emerges from it stronger for
good or for evil." Following advertising dollars, our media
has sensationalized this war, showing as few casualties as
possible, in order to take advantage of your sincere desire to
know you're on the right side of things. I plead with you to
wake up, look outside, and confront the grim realities facing
our once proud and great nation. The party is most definitely
over, America. It's damn time you realized it.














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