Unhappy Anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of our invasion and occupation of Iraq. My heart is heavy with the pain of knowing that our nation has such a deeply embedded acceptance of war as a method of maintaining our way of life that arguments for peaceful interaction are met with hostility. The average American citizen is so filled with patriotic fervor that he or she can't even recognize the real threats to their freedom.

The local paper today was filled with stories of the devotion of our soldiers lauded as fighting for our freedom. Support for our military is a fine balancing act. I, too, applaud the willingness and abilities our young soldiers have shown in what they believe is the defense of their country, but at the same time I deplore their willingness (or gullibility) to be used as fodder for the political machinations of our "leaders".

I can understand their eagerness to serve, though. I was once in those same shoes myself. What I find much harder to understand is the way their elders march in lockstep with the Pentagon as though the propaganda that passes for leadership made real sense. How I wish we could break through the acceptance of blind followership in lieu of true citizenship and get people to evaluate what they are told.

All this was meant to be a brief introduction to the fact that I just couldn't work up the gumption to write a blog today, so instead am going to reprint the poem I wrote the morning the intention to invade was announced. That announcement was no surprise, but I was still frustrated that nothing we had said to argue against the invasion had been heard. Five years later I am even more frustrated. Now that all of our arguments against the invasion have been verified as true and accurate, we are still over there killing and dying, and there has been no progress whatsoever in the fight against terrorism. There must be a way out of this, but we are going to have to look somewhere besides the Pentagon to find it.


WEEPING FOR AMERICA

The darkest day in American history has dawned but there is no light.
For months the distant thunder has warned of coming storms,
Tense air trembled in anticipation,
Warm blood run cold with fear,
And tears shed swift and hot with grief for the looming loss of law and lives.


Now comes Apocalypse.
Now American missiles end the lives
Of innocents.
Now the death of innocence
And all a once proud country stood for.

Now the pestilence of power run amok,
As famine flagged Iraqi faces turn skyward
To see what horror might come next from tyrants of all stripes
And stars,
Obscured by smoke from flames burning honor’s last vestige
From a land led by mindless money-mongers
Eager to pound their might into the minds of a world aghast at their impunity.

All these months we’ve marched to quench these flames,
But tears are not enough.

Our weeping falls on deaf ears,
And honor flees before our reddened eyes.

Bob Ranney
March 18, 2003


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle