OpEdNews.com
george bush Lowers the Bar
by Missy Comley Beattie
It has always been difficult for me to call him President Bush. Even to refer to him as "the president" is painful because george bush is not presidential. Please note that I'm using lower case from now on because there is nothing high (I mean spiritual or indicative of his "taking the high road") about george. If the word 'high' is used anywhere near his name, it would mean he's back on the sauce and I'm not talking barbeque. Yes, I'm so embarrassed by bush, his administration, and all the george clones I'm proclaiming from this minute forward that each one be demoted from upper to lower case because that's the level from which they operate and where they strike--below the belt.
I just accessed Iraq Body Count, which I do daily. We have lost 2,559 soldiers in Iraq. Actually, the site says that six more are dead, pending Department of Defense confirmation. Sectarian violence continues with no signs of ending despite the many times bush has said something about getting over another hurdle like the capture of saddam hussein or planting the seeds of democracy. At least 60 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday when car bombs exploded near a courthouse and a crowded market. tommy franks said that "we don't do body counts" (Iraqi) but somebody is. A Johns Hopkins University study reported upwards of half a million. Iraq Body Count records Iraqi civilian deaths at almost 44,000. Six thousand Iraqi bodies passed through morgues in May and June of this year. Each one is being mourned. If bush has his way, there will be not one Iraqi left to cry for the dead. Every person in Iraq is in harm's way.
And speaking of harm and the way it has its way in war, I just read an article about hillary clinton and her path through Long Island this weekend as she voiced her outrage about the lack of benefits for returning troops. This is commendable, but her concern, which she desperately hoped to convey with the statement, "If you send someone into harm's way, they need health insurance, and their family needs health insurance," is simply too little too late. clinton is just another pathetic politico who voted for this immoral war in Iraq and continues to fund it while sitting on the fence, afraid to step down on either side for fear of losing a constituent. She's sponsored legislation, the Heroes at Home Act, which would be praiseworthy and might just restore her to upper case if it meant heroes at home NOW. Instead, her sponsored act would improve the lives of returning soldiers (if they return). Should clinton decide to unequivocally support the troops, she'd demand their immediate redeployment to their hometowns. In fact, she'd have done this yesterday instead of repeating the ignorant mantra of george that we honor the fallen by completing the mission. If the lower casers prevail, this war could become another Viet Nam. We will honor the already 2,565 (I'm including those bodies waiting confirmation) by, finally, reaching almost 60,000, the number of men we lost in Southeast Asia in an immoral war.
This is the main reason I'm working for Jonathan Tasini who is running against hillary clinton for the U.S. Senate. He's the antiwar candidate.
And all the jelly-like politicians who continue to fund the war in Iraq, a country that was a sovereign nation before we destroyed it, and, blindingly, stupidly, persist in sucking up to a president who has sunk the bar of leadership so much that we are despised and ridiculed throughout the world, will receive the assignation of lower case letters for their lower case values.
Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She's written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she's a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,'05, she has been writing political articles.
