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birthday girl .....
The rockets red glare,
Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that
Star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave.
‘When I look at the star-spangled
banner I think of my son who began wearing a uniform with the flag on it from
the time he went into scouting at the age of 6. I also think of one of the last
pictures taken of Casey when he was awaiting deployment to Iraq from Kuwait. He
was standing in a tent holding a bottle of water, wearing his desert cammies
with an American flag patch on the chest. When we buried him a few weeks after
that picture was taken, I was handed a folded flag that reminded me of the
swaddling blanket that I wrapped him in to bring him home from the hospital
almost 25 years before.
The star-spangled banner, which I
can now see whipping in the wind outside of an airport terminal where I am
writing this from does not fill me with pride: it fills me with shame and that
flag symbolizes sorrow and corruption to me right now. The flag represents so
much lying, fixed elections, profiting by the war machine, high gas prices,
spying on Americans, rapid erosion of our freedoms while BushCo literally gets
away with murder, torture and extreme rendition, contaminating the world with
depleted uranium, and illegal and immoral wars that are responsible for killing
so many. A symbol which used to represent hope to so many around the world now
fills so many with disgust.
When I look at that rectangular
piece of cloth that has red and white stripes and white stars on a blue field,
I wonder what the Iraqi people think when they see American tanks and other
vehicles rumbling through their streets carrying doom with that symbol
emblazoned upon them. Or, what could our flag possibly represent to them when their women are being
raped and burned to conceal crimes and entire families are being killed by
soldiers whose uniforms carry that symbol? I am sure that the flag symbolizes
death and destruction to them which I hope they are not confusing with freedom
and democracy.’
- By John Richardson at 4 Jul 2006 - 8:36pm
- John Richardson's blog
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The US adminsitration ties a few knots...
From the Washington Post
Signs of Detainees' Planning Alleged
Messages Found On Legal Papers
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 8, 2006; Page A01
Three suicides at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have been part of a broader plot by detainees who were using confidential lawyer-client papers and envelopes to pass handwritten notes their guards could not intercept, according to documents that government lawyers filed yesterday in federal court.
Detainees could apparently hide documents in their cells -- including instructions on how to tie knots ...
read the whole thing at the Washington Post
amerikan hubris .....
‘The International Relations
Center has announced the publication of a new special report, Rise and Demise
of the “New American Century.” It is the most extensive treatment of the rise
of the neoconservatives and their Project for the New American Century.
In addition to examining the rise
and decline of the Project for the New American Century, Barry describes the
emergence of new neoconservative groups, such as the Foundation for the Defense
of Democracies and the Committee on the Present Danger, that remain dedicated
to shaping U.S. foreign policy in line with neoconservative ideology and policy
agenda.
Barry writes, “The
neoconservatives together with their Religious Right and military-industrial
complex allies remain prominent actors in shaping the directions of U.S.
foreign and military policy—some within government and others from a wide array
of neocon-led think tanks, front groups, and policy institutes.
“The tragedy and moral depravity
of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and throughout the Middle East,” notes Barry,
“should awaken America from delusions of grandeur and superiority—and the
global backlash against the imperial ambitions of PNAC and the Bush
administration signal that a U.S. imperium would have few subjects.”
He concludes, “The ideologues
will keep calling for military and 'democracy-building' intervention, and those
business sectors who stand to gain from an imperial policy of controlling
resources and making war will continue to justify U.S. interventionism with
'peace through strength' and pretentious talk of America’s moral mission.’
Rise & Demise of the
"New American Century"