That’s alright, Mr. President, happy we could help. Just give us a call anytime. You’ll
probably need more troops in Iraq, and of course, Iran is coming up soon.
We learned all about patriotism in the second grade, when we learned to recite the pledge of allegiance and didn’t even know what the words meant. And we’ve remembered it just that way all these years. Those of us who, like Vice President Cheney, haven’t enlisted because we had more important things to do, will think about our troops and pray for them often during this sacred Memorial Day weekend while we are watching the games and NASCAR. (Just between the two of us, some of us even have tickets. I hope you were lucky enough to get one.)
That’s all right, Mr. President, any time. Just give us a call. And have a nice day.
5/23/07
3 weeks ago
12 comments:
Hi little bill you cashew you!
you did a good one this time. Very good! Yeah we learned all about Patriotism and these Draft Dodgers and liars have used that against us to the full extent.
This Memorial Day we have an awful lot to think about. sadly this misadinistration will take mind time but most of the time I will be thinking of my son Joe who will be flying Iraq support until the end of August. what will the fall bring, Iran?
AAP my prayers go with your son. While I'm retired I a cousin in the Air Force flying on a AC-130 along with plenty of buddies in the SC Guard with the 218th Combat Brigade in Afghanistan training their army.
Howabout the Prez giving us a nice day for a change? By shutting TFU? By resigning?
You, the Americans, do have a special, flashy way of showing your love for your country.
This is looking for some of us outsiders a bit exagerated and pompous, but it has traditionally been accepted with a good natured shrug and; "Oh, those Americans, heh heh!" But now, with all that has been going on with the vicousness in your foreign policies and that they have been sold to you as some sort of a nobel, America loving and patriotic acts, the good humored responses from us are fewer and farther apart. Actually, they do not only make some of us a bit worried but even scared stiff.
I might be totally out to lunch, but it seems today, that the more a person waves the stars and stripes, the more he talks about bringing the Jeffersonian democracy to others and the more he talks about his undieing love for America, the less this is the case in actuality. Like I said, I might be out to lunch with this one? I am sure to hear from you if this is the case.
What Pekka is saying, in so many words, is that we Americans have almost fully cooked ourselves (approaching the Cajun stage) and that it's time to put a fork in us. He does so, not so much as to eat us, (it would spoil his anti-imperialistic appetite) but to watch us squirm on its prongs. If some Americans deserve this fate, others do not. But when those latter of us get hostile at the morons who elected the morons, Pekka is the first one to tell us to chill, out, that it will soon be over (18 months? Hah!).
It will never be over. Bush will last and laugh forever. The stain on our national life and honor is a forever stain. It's indelible.
And Pekka tells us, "tut, tut", "mellow out" and "have a nice day".
I am indebted to my dear friend and a fellow revolutionary, Vigil, for him taking the time and the trouble in translating what my drivel is all about. Thanks! :)
Just for kicks, let me humbly offer some of my observations about my friend in return! Vigil is, in my estimation, a person who might have had a long journy from the person who bought fully the specialness of America and doing it without a shadow of doubt, and I make no judgment about whether it was/is right or not, to the person that he is today with a considerable and painfull doubts.
Those doubts were first awakened during the Vietnam War but they were still something that he was able to supress and he still believed in the future of his beloved America. He also believed, that the neccessary lessons were learned and since the country was surging ahead like no other, sky was the limit what could be achieved.
Come the "neocon revolution", starting relatively gently with Regan and ending with mouth foaming boys of the Bush-Chaney gang, it brought my friend in to the realization that America of his youth was there no more. He felt betrayed, cheated and violated (rightfully so) and with the time it started to consume him like a bad case of tuberculosis.
He started to blog about the American missadventures, about this regretable administration and about the direction his country had erroniously taken. He started to sleep, eat and dream about the immoral and futile occupation and he spent ever increasingly his time going over and over the wrongs that were commited in the name of America by the cynical ideologs in power. His conversations were all about the slime he saw and that was the subject of all those who have any meaningfull dialog with him. On and on, every day, never ending slime and dirt. Who would come through something like that smelling like lilacs?
Those who might think that this is a healthy sign of a man doing his best to inform others and doing what ever he can to right the wrongs his country is involved with. To the point, yes, this would be the case. However, Vigil is in the grips of the all consuming, inner compulsion that doesn't allow him let off for a minute. His inner pain dictates, that only more pain can dull the one that is there already. It's almost as if we were wittnessing an ultra religious person mutilating himself for the mercy of god. I sincerely hope, that Vigil will find peace for his soul, and he has the big one, but how can he, if he is never able to forget, forgive or move on? I like him a lot, because he is a mench with decency and righteousness, but I just wish there would be some way of him getting up from that stinking septictank that he feels responsible for fixing single handedly!
Sure hope, that I didn't lose a friend!
My apologies for the lenght of this! I had no idea when I started that this would happen. :[
Maybe I'm missing something here, but in a way I think both Pekka and Vigilante are on the same page. I will say that the Canadians may not really get a full sense of the great and growing anger in this country about the war, and between the members of the two parties which has been fostered and encouraged by the men in the White House. What is gnawing at people like Vigilante (and me) is that we feel helpless to do anything about it--and a year and a half are a long way away.
Lil'Bill, I think (as I read between his lines) what Pekka is saying in so many words that we Bushaters should just chill out and wait until September when everything will be ok and the rough edges shall be made smooth. What he does not acknowledge, of course, is that far from withdrawing from Iraq, we will be bombing Iran.
Oh for crying out loud, LittleBill and Vigil, I am on the same page with you both! I have wasted so much space here already without getting my point accross. All I am really saying is, that you can and you should fight for your causes but stop short of strapping bombs under your kilts!
I still love you much as ever, Pekka.
The quickest way to end the Iraq war to is reestablish the draft. In 1967, the draft was something every young man had to deal with. Whether it was to wait for the letter, go to graduate school, join up, find a friendly shrink or move to Canada, it was a decision that had to be made. When the war becomes less abstract, as it is in most American towns not located near military bases, opposition to it will become a genuine, personal issue. When every family is looking at their son (and maybe daughter) possibly heading off to deadly war, the resultant outcry will bring the country and the war to a stop. Then, perhaps, our troops' patriotism, courage, dedication and training can be directed toward stopping terrorism, not attempting to police a local sectarian conflict.
The all-volunteer Army may have been formed in part to prevent adventuresome presidents from fighting unpopular wars, but the main reason for its existence is much more important: The all-volunteer Army exists so that people like Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush do not have to waste their otherwise valuable time dodging the draft or pulling strings to get into the National Guard.
You got that right, ITE!