New Civilization News - Category: Violence, War    
 Memorial Day, 2010, A National Disgrace0 comments
27 May 2010 @ 13:49, by gsosbee. Violence, War
See my comments this Memorial Day on the outrageous criminal activities of the fbi/cia,et al against veterans, even as Gary Sinise parades about in pretentious concern for our suffering vets.
----------------------

This Memorial Day is day of National Disgrace for the corrupt USA's treatment of its own war veterans and for this nation's phony wars on the people of the world.The so-called "GOP Savior" Gary Sinise should stop insulting the veterans with his pretense of concern for them, especially as many suffer from unlawful assaults & mistreatment by the thugs of the government of the United States of America (i.e.: the fbi/cia assassins).


See my reports on this subject as follows: The intel services (fbi/cia) force suicide on some veterans with the full knowledge of VA. Other veterans prefer death to a padded cell or jail. In any event , Gary Sinise, stop the charade that USA cares for and has patience with its veterans. You are an actor, Gary, now playing politician on the backs of injured and killed veterans. Your silly ads are sadly laughable to all knowledgeable vets.
See:
[link]
and:
[link]

[QUESTIONS! geral sosbee (956)371-5210]



Actor Gary Sinise floated as possible GOP savior politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com [cnn-photo-caption image= [link] caption="GOP strategist Nicole Wallace names Sinise and others as possible GOP saviors."] WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nicolle Wallace, a top adviser to George W.

See:
[link]
and:
[link]
and:
[link]
and:
[link]

_________________________________

The following Indy group is appartently controlled by the fbi/cia and this group deletes every report I submit regarding fbi/cia atrocities, even while the Indy thugs pretend to offer a forum for "Police State". Here is the deletion of the above report:

From:
[link]

sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org.
U.S. | Police State and Prisons
HIDDEN
The following post may have been a test post, a duplicate, or could have been hidden if it violated this site's Points of Unity. If you think this item should not have been hidden, first make sure it wasn't posted twice and you were just unable to find the other copy of the post. If that was not the case, you can contact the editorial collective by e-mailing sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org.


Memorial Day, 2010, A National Disgrace
by geral Thursday May 27th, 2010 8:23 AM
See my comments this Memorial Day on the outrageous criminal activities of the fbi/cia,et al against veterans, even as Gary Sinise parades about in pretentious concern for our suffering vets.
[link]

 Endless Israeli Atrocity9 comments
28 Dec 2008 @ 06:42, by vaxen. Violence, War
The following articles should illustrate for all but the blind, the stupid and the dumbed down that there is something terribly amiss in Yisra-El which the ADL and the Zionist Mossadic propaganda machine just cannot silence!

"Wage war by deception." Mossad's motto just won't work anymore as the blood of the unmercifully slain and tortured calls out to the international community for something more than just revenge.

Justice is demanded and justice will come! Those who cry holocaust and anti semitic turn out to be the worst offenders of all! These actions have no firm basis in the Judaic religion of Rabbi Hillel, and no place in the Pirkei Avot. Blood thirsty warmongering greed and lust for power, for control ("And in that day the Law shall go forth unto the world from Jerusalem.") is behind this oldest of cons in our world.

The Babylonian/Judaic system of usury and corruption is coming to an end so they are sacrificing as many humans as possible. Won't help them one iota when they turn and judge themselves and find themselves terribly wonting! Read and understand that America, and via their silence Americans, are paying for this genocide of Palestinian peoples. This holocaust by the supposedly holocausted. Rabid wolves!

Endless Israeli Atrocities
By Mary Sparrowdancer
Copyright © 2008
12-28-8


Today was the end of the world...for hundreds of unarmed civilians, including children. The Israeli military, one of the most powerful military forces on earth, has held the 1.5 million civilians captive within Gaza for years. Like the "dog in the manger," Israel has also deprived these civilians of the most basic necessities of life, such as food and water.

 More >

 Myth of Thanksgiving17 comments
28 Nov 2008 @ 07:39, by vaxen. Violence, War
Native Blood: The Myth of Thanksgiving

Every schoolchild in the U.S. has been taught that the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited the local Indians to a major harvest feast after surviving their first bitter year in New England. But the real history of Thanksgiving is a story of the murder of indigenous people and the theft of their land by European colonialists--and of the ruthless ways of capitalism.

* * * * *

In mid-winter 1620 the English ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, delivering 102 Puritan exiles. The original Native people of this stretch of shoreline had already been killed off. In 1614 a British expedition had landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox behind. Three years of plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of the coast, destroying most villages completely.

The Puritans landed and built their colony called "the Plymouth Plantation" near the deserted ruins of the Indian village of Pawtuxet. They ate from abandoned cornfields grown wild. Only one Pawtuxet named Squanto had survived--he had spent the last years as a slave to the English and Spanish in Europe. Squanto spoke the colonists' language and taught them how to plant corn and how to catch fish until the first harvest. Squanto also helped the colonists negotiate a peace treaty with the nearby Wampanoag tribe, led by the chief Massasoit.

These were very lucky breaks for the colonists. The first Virginia settlement had been wiped out before they could establish themselves. Thanks to the good will of the Wampanoag, the Puritans not only survived their first year but had an alliance with the Wampanoags that would give them almost two decades of peace.

John Winthrop, a founder of the Massahusetts Bay colony considered this wave of illness and death to be a divine miracle. He wrote to a friend in England, "But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection."

The deadly impact of European diseases and the good will of the Wampanoag allowed the Puritans to survive their first year.

In celebration of their good fortune, the colony's governor, William Bradford, declared a three-day feast of thanksgiving after that first harvest of 1621.  More >

 War Hurts Families5 comments
picture8 Nov 2008 @ 15:46, by jerryvest. Violence, War
While working with our Wounded Warriors in our Ft. Bliss Restoration & Resilience Center, we notice how families suffer as well. Seems that when soldiers go off to war and their families are left to fend for themselves, often while their partners are deployed for several tours, it often takes months and even years to get to know one another. The families do have many Support Services on post, but when 20% or more of the force are wounded physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, there are just not enough resources to respond quickly to the challenges of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), PTSD and the numerous physical and mental injuries that require a broad spectrum of specialists.

This research identifies the tours of duty for the marines who average just over 3 months in this report, while the US Army units are much longer. We have one infantry soldier who left home at 18 and returned home when he was 23. Can you imagine what happens physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to a young soldier when we send teenagers to war and return them when they are young adults? Another soldier that I worked with has been married and deployed with 3 children and he has been with his family for only 7 of the 15 years of marriage. Is it any wonder that the divorce rate is so high in the military?

Do pass this message on to others so that we can advocate for developing and advancing more health and family resources and to also encourage our government to examine the serious affects and consequences of long tours on couples and families. Obvious to me is that when the troop morale goes down, our forces will not be able to protect and secure our Nation as we would expect. May God Bless all of our Warriors and their Families.

Expressive Art Picture - "Wounded Warrior" by SFC Scott Milligan
**************************

Science News

More than 2 million U.S. children have had parents deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan during the wars there, according to background information in the article. About 40 percent of these children are younger than 5. "Recent policy statements from the American Psychological Association and the Department of Defense Task Force on Mental Health have called for research on the effect of wartime deployments on children in military families," the authors write.

Molinda M. Chartrand, M.D., of the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, and colleagues studied 169 families with children age 1½ to 5 who were enrolled in military childcare centers at a large Marine base in 2007. Parents and childcare providers each completed a behavior problem assessment that analyzed both internalizing (such as anxiousness, depression and withdrawal) and externalizing (such as attention problems and aggression) behaviors in the children. Parents also completed a questionnaire to measure their own level of depression. Caregivers provided information about the rank and deployment status of the parent in the service, as well as family composition and both parents' age, education and ethnicity.

Of the 169 families, 55 (33 percent) had a deployed parent, with an average deployment length of 3.9 months. Children age 3 and older who had a deployed parent had significantly higher scores on measures of externalizing and overall behavior problems than children of the same age without a deployed parent. "Such reported differences might be dismissed as distorted perceptions of the child by the distressed non-deployed parent; however, the association remained after controlling for parental stress and depressive symptoms," the authors write. In addition, childcare providers reported similarly elevated scores.

"Larger, longitudinal studies are needed to ascertain whether there are changes in children's behavior from the time before parental deployment, during parental deployment and at the time of reunification," the authors write. "This information is necessary to provide clinicians serving military families with evidence-based anticipatory guidance and clinical interventions. Finally, the needs of the children of deployed parents in the National Guard and Reserves also warrant urgent further elucidation."

This study was supported by the Joel and Barbara Alpert Foundation and the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Support in the form of books was provided by Reach Out and Read.


This article describes how children and family services are needed to address these issues as well.

**********************************

Editorial: Changes in Policy and Services Needed

"The decision to send troops into war is never taken lightly, and the sacrifices experienced by the soldiers, their families and their country are heavy burdens that may be considered intrinsic to war itself," write David J. Schonfeld, M.D., and Robin Gurwitch, Ph.D., of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in an accompanying editorial. "However, our country's policies must be based on efforts to take all reasonable steps to minimize known negative effects; thus, these research results, which are unlikely to be surprising to pediatricians and other child health care providers, are nonetheless timely and important."

"Findings from this study highlight the need for increased attention to the mental health concerns of young children of deployed soldiers as well as the mental health concerns of the soldiers and non-deployed spouses," they continue. "They raise questions of how to best determine deployment length and what preventive measures can be taken to reduce stress and distress to the non-deployed spouses and children left behind."  More >

 36 MILLION DEAD BY AMERICA’S AGGRESSIONS, WHAT SAYETH OBAMA?1 comment
21 Oct 2008 @ 08:33, by erlefrayne. Violence, War
I would now wish to bring the matter of US aggression and its toll to the American voters and the Obama camp, this being a most urgent agenda for international peace and cooperation. As per latest count, since after World War II, when the USA was transformed into a World Power status politico-militarily, over 36 Millions of peoples worldwide already died as aggregate casualties of all the US offensives and related military initiatives. What sayeth Obama and his team about the matter?

For an outside observer, it hardly matters what foreign policy architecture were periodically installed by the US administration to justify aggression of every type. The much hyped ‘global cop’ cliché no longer bites the dust, nobody believes today in the rationale for any further US aggression across the oceans save for fascistic elements that profess sympathies for US imperialistic violence and conflicts. What matters is that (a) the aggressions were committed by (b) an imperialistic power, (c) under the guise of performing a global police role, (d) resulting to a staggering 36+ Million deaths!  More >

 BEIJING OLYMPICS: LAST GAMES, AS WORLD WAR III COMES3 comments
5 Sep 2008 @ 11:35, by erlefrayne. Violence, War
This note is a sports forecasting briefer. It’s not about the typical forecasting of the outcomes of specific events and the overall medals that countries can make from out of the aggregate medals—especially gold—accruing from those events. It is about the big possibility that the Beijing Olympics could be the planet’s last, that thereafter no more Olympic games will be in the offing for a long while. That London games for 2012 is a chimera, it will be cancelled most likely as London will sustain damages from the coming conflagration.  More >

 AUGUSTUS CEASAR OR BONAPARTE RETURNED TO ROLE-PLAY GLOBAL TYRANT6 comments
17 Aug 2008 @ 12:48, by erlefrayne. Violence, War
After 2000 years a cosmic drama gets to be re-enacted. Mystical masters such as Rudolf Steiner have clarified to us this knowledge of cycles before. This idea attracted thinkers Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee who used the same 2000-year period to characterize their theory of cycles of civilizations. When science and mysticism converge, theory becomes fact, fact is theory.

2000 years ago Rome’s Republic was in fragments, chaos was the order of things, and out of that chaos the Empire galvanized. Cosmic evil descended so low as to dominate the physical plane altogether. It was the chief reason why an Ascended Being, Jeshua ben Josheph, was sent forth by the White Lodge’s highest councils to counterbalance that chaos and check-mate the descent of Earth towards further chaos and evil.

The marked descent to evil by the figure known as Octavius at that very moment has been quite well documented. The nephew of Julius Ceasar, and close to him as he was to Ceasar’s confidantes and co-leaders, Octavius rose meteorically to monopolize all powers of state unto himself, bamboozle the allies of Rome through invasions and destructive onslaughts, and created ‘synergistic anarchies’ or ‘synarchy’ through ceaseless wars of aggression across the borders. That Empire was to last for 500 years, later on passing the flame to Byzantium.  More >

 An Introduction To Social Pathology Of Police And Federal Agents0 comments
9 Apr 2008 @ 15:44, by gsosbee. Violence, War
Summary:
The police and federal cops are out of control in the uSA; in order to fully understand the low mindset and near total corruption of the men in blue (and their cowardly counterparts in fbi/cia) you and I may benefit from a study of their perverse and abusive thinking patterns (and those of other forum members who aspire to become cops or their idolators).
See:
[link]
and:
[link]

----------------


All citizens of the uSA need to understand the sickness that permeates the law enforcement community here. In order to facilitate the study of the deranged (or retarded) men in blue one needs to study the individual profiles and thoughts of these armed and dangerous thugs-as represented in their postings- who pretend to defend our lives, our liberties and our Constitutional Rights. Begin the pathological cop review by signing up on the police and federal agents' forum at:
[link]

Then begin studying the profiles and writings of the various law enforcement personnel who are active members of the forum. Soon after you post your first critical article of police methods and practices, you are likely to be banned, especially if you present evidence of fbi and/or police corruption and criminality. If you are not banned, then some foolish LA police sergeant, such as "IMACHU" may verbally assault you, or otherwise attempt to smear your work. Note that most or all of the cowardly cops (and federal agents) on the board post and assault you anonymously, as expected.For instance creepy cop degenerate supporter known as 'Bearcat 357' sends a threat to me as follows:
"Perhaps I should call the FBI and let them start re-tracking your nonsense...?
Oh...your time is short here....very short...." See:
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:LsqMNs7FVocJ:forums.officer.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D87841%26page%3D3+geral+sosbee&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=130&gl=us
[Sosbee to Bearcat357: you are the Living Dead. Your veiled death message reflects your cowardice and your violent mentality; if you are not a cop, submit your application as you are assured a spot on the sniper squad]

As I suggested above, you,the reader of the police posts may soon discover that the unprofessional conduct by the police and federal agents on the forum (such as 'Bearcat357')is exactly the same low minded reactions you are likely to encounter when you try to report police and fbi crimes (or other offenses) in person at your local police stations. Thus, you and I learn from the study that the quasi state action of repression of free speech is achieved by corrupt cops (and federal agents) in their private capacities through the internet, as they engage in wholesale verbal assaults and threats.

After I submitted my application to the cop forum for membership, I was accepted and I posted * two articles (outlining evidence of fbi crimes); then,I was promptly banned the next day from the forum. Before the ban, I posted a few statements in my defense, as the cops (and federal agent punks) continued to anonymously harass me; then, I posted my now famous article on the **'Living Dead' as such topic seems to perfectly apply to law enforcement officers who enjoy killing and imprisoning my Brethren.*** Below, see the message that the forum sent to me after the police and federal agents complained of my posting the evidence of their crimes.

*
[link]
and:
[link]

**
[link]

***
[link]
"These Are Private Forums for Law Enforcement. We Reserve the Right to Remove Non-LEO Members, Anti-LE or Inappropriate Posts and Users Without Warning.
vBulletin Message
You have been banned for the following reason:
No reason was specified.
Date the ban will be lifted: Never "
-------------------
Sosbee writes:
This information will not be a surprise to the intelligent reader, but should serve as a reminder that "We The People" must now by vital necessity inform these sociopathic killers, or rude and uncivil public servants that their services are no longer needed; further, these illiterate cops and federal agent punks must begin to learn the meaning of humility; I am giving them a primer on the subject. For a more in depth insight into the mental illness of the fbi, etc., see their activities as reported at sosbeevfbi.com.See:
[link]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
***********************************************************************
Here are a few of the cop posts directed at me; read and weep for your lost country and in some instances your lost freedom and lives at the hands of these fools and retardates in police and federal law enforcement agencies across the land (some are written by cop-wanna-bees or cop/fbi sycophants)
AgentMan:
"Who said few people care to be around them? I care to be around them you insensitive *****, lay off the angel dust and go back to the mental institution they shouldn't have let you go."

dwelch1503:
Originally Posted by TheChef
"Holy Sh*t!!!, Google this nutbars name in quotation marks & you get 500+ hits."
"And 497 of those hits refer to him as a nut job."

TheChef:
"Holy Sh*t!!!, Google this nutbars name in quotation marks & you get 500+ hits.
GERAL W. SOSBEE image from the interwebz:" ....http://defcon.pdx-tech.com/albums/
Ches-Defcon-12-Pictures/siviak_hat.sized.jpg....
[Sosbee's note: The Chef fraudulent states that the above image is of geral sosbee; thus, the chef is a proven liar.]

Guams ( a sheriff deputy, or park ranger):
"I think we scared the troll away."
See more on Guams and note the total failure of his intellect;this cop is an ignorant and cowardly punk and best continue to hide his identity:
[link]
-----------------------------------------------
See more on Guams from the forum; this cop needs careful handling and a wide berth; also read some of the writings from these armed, cowardly and homicidal fools in blue who say (with tongue in cheek) that they are the 'good guys':
[link]
Old 04-08-2008, 10:57 PM #29
Guams
Forum Member
Guams's Avatar
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 1,664

"Geral Sosbee appears out of thin air. Everyone stops mid-stride, "Is he... is he really here?!, they think. Geral begins to fill the air with blatant, and comical, fallacies regarding the federal government. He unfolds a thin hat, silver in color, that makes a funny crinkling noise and places it atop his head. Everyone around him diverts their eyes so that the rays from the CIA satellites don't extract the contents of their brains. Geral says "

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Seamonkey6:
"I was just bored enough to actually read some of the stuff from his link in his first post. It is a quote from the article/info item he posted. I got to that part and got hung up on what kind of benefits you might get in the psychopath kill squad...you know: differentials, full-time or adhoc, are you essential personnel, get holidays off, what hours, on call pay, ect..."

IAmJeff:
"where did you see that? did he write that? if that's the case then I think he would've been taken care of a long time ago, before he could blow the whistle on the fbi's sinister operation."

Bearcat357:
"Originally Posted by KapsFB View Post
A village somewhere HAS to be missing an idiot.
Actually, after seeing some recent posts on here.....there are a few villages missing their idiots.....including where this nutty dude came from....
__________________
Sosbee writes: See 'Bearcat's' self portrait as he records it on the forum:
"Bearcat...? Oh, he's very popular Smurfette! The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude!"

______________________________________________________________________________
From Harlingen, Texas
August 30, 2008
For more insight into the low mentality of cops (so-called law enforcement officers) see:
[link]
Note that the law of the jungle is the only language the police/fbi/cia understand; for this reason the world's turmoil continues as the usa with its pretense of a land under 'the rule of law' violates Human Rights and the laws of other nations with complete abandon; the law of 'rule by assassins' permeates the usa in all jurisdictions and no peaceful remedy seems apparent to date. Intensified directed energy assaults continue as a result of Sosbee's recent reports; the symptoms are consistent with a possible 8 or 9 level (on a 1-10 scale of intensity), causing severe sleep deprivation, dizziness and headaches, etc.
The police assist the fbi at evry turn of the murderous agenda; this means in part that the police employ against the Target at every opportunity:
harassment, false arrest or fraudulent stings,slander, threats, etc. The police regularly steal, lie, falsify reports, create false evidence, murder selected Targets, and assist the DA or the USA in arresting innocent men in order to gain plea bargaining scenarios for entrapment of the accused Innocent .
Thus, the violent gangs that call themselves police (fbi/cia) are thugs of the lowest order and must be viewed and dealt with as such. Blind trust in the local police is the domain of the ruling , elite class, not of the poor, the disenfranchised nor the targeted. This report does not represent a call for violence, but the police are on very shaky grounds as they continue to flaunt with outrageous arrogance their unlawful and tyrannical power over the people. "To Serve And To protect", is a false slogan of the police across the nation and the men in blue need to stop the charade.
If they do not, then I will stop it for them.
NOTE:
"...the individual cannot delegate the task of defending his basic human rights-to dignity,liberty, and responsibility-to any group of protectors,..." be they clergy, doctors, legislators, fbi, police, judges. "For if the protectors are successful, they inevitably become oppressors...."

Instead the individual must as I have demonstrated muster all the resources in heart, mind and soul to resist and overcome as best he can the bestial tyrants of his time; in the struggle the fortunate fighter maintains his dignity and prepares the way for successors to advance (with even more fury, resolve and purpose) the search for enduring Humanity in this often barbaric world.

Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., The Age Of Madness , Jason Aronson, New York, 1974, p.361.


Finally, see the infirm preoccupation of cowardly "Trooper82" as he hides his own identity while celebrating mine:

[link]

geral sosbee
P.O. Box 3374
Harlingen, Texas 78551
(956) 371-5210
I can be found almost daily at the US Post Office in Harlingen, Texas 78551, at around noon.

 Few Care To Listen, *Until They Discover That...0 comments
3 Apr 2008 @ 18:10, by gsosbee. Violence, War
Few care to listen to the pleas of the tortured among us, until they begin to realize that the names of the homicidal perpetrators (and their silent supporters) will eternally be known as the human beasts doing the torturing. Further, the murderous minds of the uSA's sociopaths which hold sway over the media and the general population now enjoy a certain sense of infallibility as they (the hoodlums engaging in global killing, imprisoning and torturing) meet with little resistence from their apathetic and sycophantic public. However, the uSA's reign of warfare over Mankind is fast coming to a close as the entire world takes aim at the assassins who serve the uSA war machine. **The fbi and the cia are for the most part, the brains behind the atrocities being plotted and waged globally; their participation in and sponsorship of war crimes on behalf of the United States is an indictment of all three braches of government; at the same time, the citizenry who do nothing to stop their out of control government in uSA are seen as cowardly fools, and the military of this nation is seen collectively as brazen criminals let loose on the world's people.

From:
[link]

"To the depths of depravity that the United States has fallen to...", The New York Times compares themselves to last centuries Nazi Empire as follows:

"Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those "good Germans" who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It's up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war's last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country's good name."

In the madness of war and horrific destruction being visited upon the Muslim peoples of the World by the United States, and its dwindling allies, it is interesting, but sad, to note how far these once free people fallen in barely 100 years from their truest ideas as a new war with Iran looms before them , and as we can read:

* As President Theodore Roosevelt said in his 1906 State of the Union address, "No man can take part in the torture of a human being without having his own moral nature permanently lowered." See:
[link]

**:
[link]

 Re: happy veteran's day & Pakistan?15 comments
picture12 Nov 2007 @ 11:23, by jazzolog. Violence, War
Does one really have to fret about enlightenment? No matter what road I travel, I'm going home.

---Shinso

To find the universal elements enough; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter...to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring---these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

---John Burroughs

I know there is no good in my trying to explain to you why I am away from home—war doesn’t make sense even when you are grown up.

---(Lt.) Henry Fonda to his children during World War II

In the photo, former President George H.W. Bush makes his entrance to his presidential museum during a rededication ceremony with Army Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott with the Golden Knights parachute team in College Station, Texas, on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/College Station Eagle, Gabriel Chmielewski)

From: "Annie Warmke"
To: "Richard Carlson"
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007 10:05 AM
Subject: happy veteran's day

> Happy Veteran's Day!
> This morning the local NPR station played their favorite tunes for "Happy
> Veteran's Day" and each year after about 15 minutes I have to turn the radio
> off.
>
> The songs are full of one message - pain. Some sing about the pain of going
> to war. Others tell the story of losing a limb, or losing children. They
> all tell a story that leads me to the same conclusion each year. War is
> hell and it is not the solution.
>
> So today I've turned off the radio earlier than usual and begun to wonder if
> that's not what America is doing each morning when the radio offers the
> morning "war report" as I call it. I'm wondering how much longer we'll turn
> off or tune out the news of death and destruction that is happening in our
> names.
>
> The elections this last week remind me that nothing so far has changed. We're
> still up to our eyeballs in corruption in the government. The Democrats
> refuse to take a stand that actually changes anything on any issue - you
> pick one and you'll see what I mean.
>
> As I look out the window at the colorful leaves on the trees - the trees
> that ought to be naked - I am reminded that we're at war in many places on
> this earth, and it seems we're losing them all.
>
> Annie Warmke is an activist, writer and farmer who lives at Blue Rock
> Station with her family of humans, llamas, chickens, goats, cats and her
> French-speaking dog, Rosie.

Dear Annie,

I haven't been to a Veterans Day parade in Athens in a couple years. I guess they've been on weekends, but when kids are in class a bunch of schools march and show up or something. Usually people on the staff put the pressure on or the principal is gung ho, and whole elementary schools turn out. The last couple have been particularly patriotic in the cloying way that makes me uncomfortable. That was before there was more of a general mood of We Support The Soldiers But Not This War. Of course in the military-trained mind---and for the kind of people who run parades like this---there's no such thing as not supporting a war, because your commander has issued an order.

As a kid, it still was Armistice Day. I knew it was about the end of World War I, at 11:00 on 11/11 in some long ago year (1918) but I didn't know what any of that was about. Few others did either, and there certainly weren't a lot of festivities. I wonder if anybody today knows what World War I was about. We sent 2 million soldiers to France, and 100,000 didn't come back. I read in the New York Times this morning, only one veteran from that war remains alive in the States. Garrison Keillor said Saturday World War II was just World War I continued...and I do remember some history classes in college supported that notion. I have a friend who claims the continuous war of the Twentieth Century was about only one thing: oil.

Armistice Day became Veterans Day as Decoration Day became Memorial Day and we added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance all in the mid-1950s. A general for our president, the McCarthy Era, and the Cold War geared us up to be tough guys. Now we rattle our sabers anytime we feel like it, no one tells us what to do, and we say anything we want to the other nations. The other day Bush told the Pakistani prime minister to take off his uniform because you can't be a military commander and the president at the same time. Huh?

I hear in Baghdad they're claiming the suicide bombings have lessened considerably. That's a good thing...and I suppose we should credit the "surge." But are the inSURGEnts all dead now...or running away into the desert? Or have they been redirected? Are they massing somewhere else? If so, I wonder where that could be? Let's see, what staunch ally of the United States has nuclear weapons but is teetering into instability? Where is there Emergency Control for the next 2 months until more great democratic elections will be held to celebrate freedom? Where are suicide bombings increasing? And where is Osama Bin Laden, dead or alive? The answers to these and other questions will be revealed in forthcoming exciting episodes---or maybe later today.  More >



Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11   Older entries >>