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Shock and Awe
The levels of hypocrisy are both shocking and awe-inspiring. In spite of the historic parallels to the Vietnam conflict and the blatant evidence that we were intentionally taken to war, the hapless and the clueless still cite the punditry propaganda that a surge is the way to victory in a war that can no longer be "won," a war that we lost long before it was even begun. Individuals from the PNAC, the birthplace of this Administration's strategy for carnage, have taken up shop at a new thinktank (the American Enterprise Institute) and continue to bleat their tune of continued warfare in the very birthplace of civilization itself.
Madness has a hand in events unfolding in our world today, and one need not be an expert on origami to discern the ill defined crease between reality and the deadly fantasies of fools.
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
-- Euripides, Phrixus
Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)
The "sins of the fathers" is an interesting and incestuous theme that is rife with relevance here. From Prescott Bush to George H.W. Bush and on through George W. Bush, the family that rides the very center of the maelstrom has long dabbled in the concept of war profiteering. The family history reeks of it, the family fortune built upon it. Death often accompanies any of their major undertakings: in the case of George Junior, it manifests as the death of businesses (any that he, himself, has run) or the death of a nation (the United States, or Iraq, or Afghanistan). It is this callous disregard for life that is often ignored by the evangelicals who stir support in the current Emperor; they point to his valiant efforts to save Teri Schiavo or his moratorium on stem cell research, and conveniently neglect to mention the failures of Katrina, the use of torture as a de facto policy, or the decimation of a nation's populace in an illegal war.
Instead, they cite the relevant scripture:
Isaiah 14:21
Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities.
(Whole Chapter: Isaiah 14 In context: Isaiah 14:20-22)
Just as conveniently, they avoid notation of those passages that speak directly against their actions: Psalm 79:8
Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.
(Whole Chapter: Psalm 79 In context: Psalm 79:7-9) Such quotes and excerpts often reveal inconvenient truths that cannot be allowed to get in the way of their success. Even here, tho, they can find refuge in their book, and hide behind their inadequacies of justification:Mark 10:14
Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. After all, war is hell and casualties happen -- would the innocent not go to god, and therefore have nothing to worry about?
Such reasoning sickens me, as the hypocrisy of their own attempts to justify murder is lost upon them.
Wherever weapons melt the skin off children and carefully sterilized reports of "victory" mask the deaths of innocents, you can lift up a rock and find these foul beings, crawling along upon their bellies and eating the dust kicked up by the devastation they have wrought.
The Cost of Doing Business
There are always costs to all forms of business, be it dirty or clean. "...you are no good member of the commonwealth,
for in converting Jews to Christians, you raise the
price of pork." -- Jessica to Lorenzo, Act 3 Scene V of Shakespeare's
"The Merchant of Venice" Powerfully rich controlling interests influence the actions and decisions behind the Bush juggernaut, and one of the richest sources of both money and votes for this lumbering behemoth comes directly from the "far right" of Bush's base, our own American Taliban -- the radical, militant fundamentalist Christians.
But what of the "beastly little children"?
The rising, blatantly unConstitutional and unAmerican usurpation of our government by religious fanatics has created a costly mess of our once-secular government. Rallying their faithful, myopic minions against the wall that once separated Church and State for the good of both the people and the nation, these lunatics have mastered the art of putting "our" way of life, as Americans, upon a pedastal while casting the lives of others -- particularly those of a darker-hued skin -- under a dimmer light.
Bless the beasts and the children
Give them shelter from the storm
Keep them safe, keep them warm
Light their way when the darkness surrounds them
And give them love, let it shine all around them
-- The Carpenters, "Bless the Beasts and Children"
The result of this cacaphony of hypocrisy has left devastation in its wake, both domestically and internationally. Children are our future -- not just "our children" but all children. The continued ballyhoo about posturing and bringing freedom to the region of the Middle East that just happens to control most of the strategic oil reserves for this nation (oil for our use, and oil that we don't want our 'competitors' to get) rises above and drowns out the much-needed infusion of sanity. While we "bring freedom" at the point of a gun, supposedly protecting our children and our nation by "fighting the enemy over there," we are simultaneously creating an exponentially increasing number of future terrorists. Meanwhile, our once-vast reserves of power and influence -- reserves that could help us, and the world, resolve global climate crises and address energy needs worldwide -- have been squandered to make more war.
Our shiny blue dot of a planet suffers the indignities, and will soon pass those savings on to us.
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
the Lord God made them all. -- Cecil Frances Alexander, "All things bright and beautiful" It's long past time to remind the "righteous" among us that they have overstayed their welcome; their hypocrisy must end here, their hatred and fear-mongering must end now. If it is possible to break through the darkness that surrounds them and shine a little light, then perhaps those children of a lesser god at home and abroad may someday join the ranks of others, those "beastly little children of a lesser god than mine" who have proven their worth as equals on the world stage of humanity.
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