I was very pleased yesterday when the long awaited T-shirt of destiny arrived. I purchased it here
It says: "Bush Lied" on the front and "They Died" on the back. It also says at the top "3,734 U.S. Troops Who Died in Iraq from March 20, 2003 Through August 30, 2007" and then lists the names of all the fallen.
This shirt means a lot to me because it seems to embody most things that are troubling me at the moment. I get so incredibly stressed every time that I think about the atrocities of war and the possibility of another senseless "conflict" in Iran. I hate it, every second of it. War is destroying our economy, destroying our future, destroying our youth. What kind of country is this where the government can wiretap us at will, with no real reason at all? What kind of country is this where the president can just decide not to listen to a word congress says? What kind of nation are we creating when we let our president, who has the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old (and temper tantrums to match), lie and cheat and rape his own people day in and day out?
What kind of future are we creating for the youth? I am 20 years old. I want to have kids someday, but not in a place like this. I do not want to have anything to do with this country if it continues on the path on which it seemingly is stuck, like when your axle breaks in Oregon trail or your ox dies. But, that is game. Mr. Bush, this is our life. This is not a game.
What bothers me the most is the amount of apathy that I see. When I think about the movies and documentaries and books that I have read about the Vietnam era, I see people doing something, anything, to get their country back. Today, I see nothing. There are protests now and then, but the media doesn't seem to be covering it. Congress doesn't really seem to care enough to do anything to help. The executive branch certainly doesn't give them a second look. And, our fearless leaders have started spouting the same bullshit about WMDs in Iran. Just today a headline on Digg.com was about Iran now has "trillions of atoms" that they MIGHT be able to use to create a (nuk*u*lur) weapon. You know what? We are trillions of dollars in debt. We can't balance a budget. We can't afford the war in which we are ALREADY involved. Mr. Bush, when are you going to care about the American people? This debt is going to fall to me. I am going to be taxed out of my mind in the coming years, and the years after that, and the years after that. For what? Because YOU are a greedy bastard who cares only about himself and the oil that makes your fat side-kick rich.
The economy is going down the toilet. Say what you will about Clinton, but we had a surplus! We paid back some of the national debt. The economy was good. Then BAM. September 11th. You know what? That infamous day could have had very different consequences. We could have NOT invaded Iraq. What a different, SAFER place the world would be then.
So, thats why I like this T-shirt. All of my worries, they ALL stem back to this. You lied, Mr. Bush. They died. And we, along with the rest of the world, are suffering because of that. We lost friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. All of them needlessly, for "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Iraqi freedom, at the expense of ours? You truly are a sick, twisted man.
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4 comments:
That was a powerful rant, and I sympathize completely with your feelings.. what we need is one of these:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1003/899573370_5bdfba8c9a_o.jpg
These people had enough and they were mad as hell, so what they did about it was they overthrew their president. Just like that. 100,000s gathered to block the highways and they demanded change.
Revolution composes the roots of our constitution, so why can't us Americans manage the same?
Anyway, that's a great shirt and I hope to see more people wearing it in public.
Just stumbled upon your blog while googling "lol wut" trying to find a t-shirt for a friend. I read this post, and, ironically, my reaction was, LOL WUT?
A few comments before I move on and never again read your blog again.
1) "I do not want to have anything to do with this country if it continues on the path on which it seemingly is stuck" - Good. Leave. Now. Unfortunately, this response is a response heard most often and truly, makes the least sense. If you don't believe in the capitalist democratic ideals of America then you should leave for a more socialist/communist sort of regime. Bush might not be the perfect President but our democratic process put him there and we have to live with that. Revolution? Overthrow the Preident? Are you kidding me? What exactly would you put in place of democracy then? Yes, yes, yes, I remember the American Revolution but overthrew the tyranny of another country and fascilitated the creation of DEMOCRACY. You can't just interrupt the democratic process, remove a president and put some other schmuck in there. We have a process for a reason. I do my part and vote every year. Yup, me along with the 33-52% of Amreicans who exercise this right. And no, I don't buy that crap argument "my vote doesn't matter anyway"- oh really? No, its that your vote- WITHOUT ENOUGH PARTICIPATION FROM YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC- does not have pull to make change. If you want your vote to count "more" than get your fellow like-minded collegeues to vote with you. If you do mobilize your group, vote en masse, and the laws you don't like STILL don't get changed then guess what? Democracy has determined that your view is not the best for the people. Thank you, next. Sorry to be harsh, but that's the way it works. Democracy is what sets us apart from the rest of the world and I for one am all in favor of keeping this. So what, Bush sucks? Ok well Democracy ensures that we get a shot at a new leader every 4 years. Fantastic! Sheesh, I mean, you have to look at it from the big picture.
2) "War is destroying our economy, destroying our future, destroying our youth." Mm... fine if you feel this way but what about apathy, drugs, student debt and so on and so forth. Take war out of the equation and guess what? You still have an ALWAYS fragile economy (because like it or not, we are dependent upon the ebb and flow of other countries). You still have kids with zero self esteem dressing like hookers and experimenting with drugs at increasingly earlier ages (birth control being handed out to NH middle schoolers? Ah, I don't think you can blame the ol' war in Iraq on that one there). You still have a bleak future for many Americans who cannot get out from under student debt, live on welfare because it pays more than minimum wage and cannot afford their own homes because property taxes are suffocating them (to name a few).
As an aside, what do you think will happen when we pull out of Iraq and come back all at once? Bsaically Iraq will collapse and soon be taken over by terrorists yet again. Mass genocide will occur and yet again, we will be blamed for leaving and not doing anything about it. Well what are we supposed to do? We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we maintain a presence there (and in that type of country, I'm sorry but only a military presence will work) then we are seen as forcing our values on another country and murdering innocent people for no reason. If we leave them there to fend for themseles, then we are horrible for leaving a third world country by themeslves without a plan for continued existence and development. Thus, it becomes our responsibility to carry this burden around on our back. The UN ain't touching this with a ten foot pole. They KNOW they do not have the presence or the power to develop the Iraqi government anew. NO ONE wants this job because its f*cking HARD. People will die either way- if we stay they die. If we leave, they die. We had to strike back after 9/11 because we couldn't show that we were going to take mass murder lying down. The ties into oil are for another long *ss reply so I won't even get into that. Point is, we are in this mess and its just not that frickin easy to get out of it.
3)"What kind of country is this where the president can just decide not to listen to a word congress says?" As a poli sci major my only comment to this is simply LOL WUT? I would definitely rethink this statement and research the relationship between the executive and legislative branches a little more. The veto power has its place and is useful in such situations as when jackass congressmen try to sneak in a pork barrel clause into an environmental act proposal or some other bill that is sure to be passed (covered in their grease).
4) "What bothers me the most is the amount of apathy that I see. When I think about the movies and documentaries and books that I have read about the Vietnam era, I see people doing something, anything, to get their country back." Agreed. American youth is apathetic. Look at the power the under 30 set has- they control the internet and have systems of mass communication through blogs, myspace etc. that adults can't even begin to understand. Sigh, yet they would rather sit home and watch reruns of "Tila Tequila" than make a difference in the world. Not that I am an overall fan of MTV but they do offer access to a lot of programs to get young people involved in politics and humanitarian and charity efforts. Is it working? A little. Will we ever see the widespread action as in the 60's? Not until materialism dies a painful death and people begin to get off their asses and do something. You wrote a blog. Ok, nice. What else? Do you ever read your local paper and write letters to the editor with your comments? Do you ever volunteer for a political campaign? Do you constantly read the paper and different magazines in order to get a wider perspective of what is going on in the world rather than just reading once source which could potentially be limiting in its stance?
5) "We are trillions of dollars in debt. We can't balance a budget. We can't afford the war in which we are ALREADY involved. Mr. Bush, when are you going to care about the American people? This debt is going to fall to me. I am going to be taxed out of my mind in the coming years, and the years after that, and the years after that. For what? Because YOU are a greedy bastard who cares only about himself and the oil that makes your fat side-kick rich." Mmm... some valid points but they get a little lost. Yes, I agree that the oil industry must be drastically changed and that alternative fuel methods must be developed. For the time being, what are we going to do? We must continue to buy from the Middle East because the other alternative is drilling in Anwar and we all know what argument doesn't fly. Ok, so when we finally develop the technology- then... oh crap, an ENTIRE NATION will need new cars. Where will those cars be built? Well they certainly won't be built here. Nah, American industrialism is being wiped out for cheap labor in other countries. We will continue to import cars, destroy on of the most tried and true American industries there ever was and on for what? Because people have become "too good" to do "that kidn" of work. Sigh. There after, then who will buy these cars? Everyone will have to right? God forbid people continue to use their older, environment murdering cars! Tax deductions for those who buy new cars. HIGHER taxes on those who don't (and usually those who cannot afford a new car).
If you think everything that is wrong in this world is because of Bush, then I'm sorry to say that I predict you will be let down by whoever is next to fill his shoes. Hmm, you are 20 so basically most of your world-cognizant life has been under the Bush regime. Clinton was not the answer. Oh no, no, no, his regime was not perfect either. What you have to learn is that each successive president inherits the baggage left by the last one and adds more to it themselves. For the most part, whether a President is deemed "successful" or not is based upon what world events are occuring at the time. Again, our country is hopelessly tied to the rest of the world. In many instances, a "good year" for the US can happen just as easily as a "bad year" can. Just because Bush will be out of office soon will not change the United States drastically. If you don't realize this, then you are certainly bound to be very unhappy living here and I would start country-shopping now.
By the way, I'm not some crotchety WASP-y old fart. I'm 27, I live on the East Coast and I have loades of student debt. I won't say that I like Bush, I won't say that I hate him. I'm just waiting for a politician who is really going to make a change. But I'm patient. Well, I'm a lot mroe patient now than I was when I was your age. I'll continue to do my part. I vote. I volunteer. Hopefully I'll continue to live in a free country, have access to the best medical care in the world, and- as always- have nothing but endless opportunities to achieve my dreams. I love America. Bush or not. I love this place :)
Sounds like numero10 needs a reality check.
Re: "Bush might not be the perfect President but our democratic process put him there and we have to live with that. Revolution? Overthrow the Preident? Are you kidding me? What exactly would you put in place of democracy then?"
This nation is supposed to be a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Democracy is the tyranny of the majority, controlled by the corporate news media, where the individual has no rights. Our presidential candidates are chosen in advance by the criminal international banksters.
What your quote proposes is a false paradigm. There are other choices. We could sidestep the criminal global corporate elitist scum who run this world, and we could elect Ron Paul for president. We could get back our Constitution, our liberty, our prosperity, our human dignity, our individual rights, and our Nation. The fact that some baboon managed to get elected by sucking up to the "elitists" and lying to the Citizens does not give him carte blanche to violate every legal principle on which America was founded. If Major General Smedley Butler was still alive, I would nominate him to lead the Marines on a mission to arrest Bush and all his cronies, and put them where they belong... behind bars in maximum security prison, or 6 feet under.
"Capitalist democratic ideals of America"? You must be a product of the government schools, numero10. You need to learn history and the founding principles of this once-great nation. Our government and our course as a nation and as human beings has been hijacked and made subservient to the greed and megalomania of the criminal global corporate mercantilists. The purpose of the income tax (a tax on corporate profits) was to make the corporations pay to be regulated and controlled, because they are a construct of feudalism and a danger to the liberty of sovereign Citizens. Instead, the corporations used their profits to buy the government.
You may not have noticed, numero10, but our government doesn't give a damn about the will of the people as expressed in the "democratic process." They do what the corporate scum want. The news media feeds us what we are supposed to think, dictates to us what the majority opinion is, and if for some reason the rigged election (all candidates generally belong to them) doesn't go their way, the voting machines can be accessed by cell phone via the built-in modems, and the election stolen.
If we succeed in electing Ron Paul, and they kill him, it may be time to refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. God bless the Republic! Death to the New World Order!
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/
You write very well.
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