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State of Disunion

By Horace Coleman

IVAW in formation after march to Republican National Convention site in St. Paul, August 2008

I recently got an offer I couldn't refuse: "Want a ride to the Democratic National Convention—and a place to stay?" So, I joined the contingent of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) people from Southern California. A two vehicle convoy full of MFSO members and sympathizers (a van and a Prius full of people) drove straight through from California to Denver.

In Denver I listened to Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney and exchanged hugs with Michelle Obama at a rally. Before I left Colorado, I watched the tube as Barack Obama accepted the nomination for Democratic presidential candidate.

When I got home, McCain introduced his "pit bull hockey mom" running mate to the nation. I turn around and he's saying the country's "fundamentals" are "sound" while another bank fails and Houston and Galveston reel from a hurricane.

Evidently some people and things are "too big to fail" while others can't fail enough to get much help.

Something's up. To quote Malcolm X, "Chickens are coming home to roost!" The results of prior acts are presently bearing bad fruit. Now is the time to use your best judgment, act wisely and get in touch with your Higher Power (or consigliere).

The next president is going to be faced with monumental problems--as are we all.

Washington Post columnist David S. Broder recently wrote that "the next president, whoever he is, will probably inherit a budget that is at least $500 billion out of balance -- a record sum that will limit his ability to do any of the wonderful things being promised daily."

As usual, some folks won't be thinking about your best interests at all. We know there were no WMDs in Iraq, no 9/11 connection and no love lost--let alone cooperation--between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. So, why did we go there? Why are we still there? Burying the truth with the bodies? Lowering the price of gasoline? Spending lives and money we have no better use for?

IVAW guard tower in Denver, CO at the DNC

Planned and spontaneous events crammed the schedule of the group I was with. Among them were:

• Attending a meeting with DNC delegates and presenting ways to quickly move troops out of Iraq without unnecessarily endangering them.
• Speaking to a policy advisor for a Colorado congressional candidate (who has a good chance of winning) about a practical way to accelerate troop withdrawal.
• Participating in sanctioned street theater where Iraq Veterans Against the war simulated search and detain missions in Iraq (Operation First Casualty).
• Distributing leaflets to DNC delegates.
• Participating in a press conference held on Colorado's State Capital steps.
• Tabling at the Progressive Democrats of America convention (distributing literature, selling t-shirts and buttons).
• Attending a rally where Michelle Obama and Jill Biden lead convention delegates doing a "Day of Service" in filling "care boxes" to be sent to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (double amputee Iraq vet Tammy Duckworth was also there).
• Hearing Democrat US Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) speak.
• Meeting Col. Ann Wright, a retired Army officer who co -wrote and edited a good book about what led to US involvement in Iraq (Dissent: Voices of Conscience). The book, although short, is so readable and well documented that it could be a text used in classes ranging from high school to graduate school. It wouldn't hurt if a general audience acquainted itself with some facts instead of "sposed to be / assumed to be" truths.
• Listening to speakers such as Cindy Sheehan and Ron Kovic at a community arts center.
• Visiting a Denver park where peace / anti-war groups had booths, speeches were given and open air classes were held about non violence and organizing. [IVAW members were there manning a replica of a detainee camp guard tower. I passed out back copies of The Veteran with articles in them about IVAW and Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan.]

The burden of the unnecessary Iraq war falls on members of the military who are doing repeated tours of duty and subjected to Stop Loss orders that prevent them from leaving the military--even if they have completed their enlistment or are eligible for retirement.

The other Americans directly affected by the war are the immediate and extended families, lovers and close friends of troops. With the exception of those sending care packages, cards and making visits to, or assisting, newly wounded or convalescing troops, the public supports the troops by saying "I support the troops!" No batteries or other action required. Although, as the economy declines and the national credit card bill comes due someone is going to be disappointed.

There were no WMDs in Iraq. We found none and Hussein used none because he had none. Secularist dictator Hussein had no connection to, or cooperation with the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda or the Taliban. Even after the US government knew this, it made Iraq the focus of its hissy fit and put Afghanistan on a way back burner, allowed bin Laden to "disappear" while we focused on no bid contracts in Iraq for under performing US corporations and grandiose schemes and dreams of "reforming the Middle East."

It really makes little difference if bin Laden is caught, executed or already dead. He's already shown what a fanatical Tar Baby can do to a big ol' bear with poor judgment.

In the mean time, our Iraq adventure has lasted longer than World War II and PTSD is heavy among those actually bearing the burden. The military has a high rate of suicides. Female troops are being raped by male troops and dying in "mysterious" ways.

People who would make good Non Commissioned Officers (the back bone of a military) and captains who would be good majors are leaving the military.

The empire is in trouble. Banks and mortgage firms are going bankrupt. More jobs are being lost than created and natural disasters are piling up. Not to worry. It's just a temporary blip in the business cycle. Prior corruption, corporate Ponzi schemes and greed have nothing to do with it. This is USA.!! USA.!! The laws of physics and the examples of history don't apply here (so some think). Those who know better will have to do better—or at least the best they can.

How to tell a war is really bogus

• Not enough volunteers
• No draft to staff it
• Repeated deployments by troops
• No taxes assessed to pay for it
• No tangible support from the public or a demand on it
• Those that incite don't fight
• No military service for most leaders, politicians, the affluent or ordinary civilians
• Poor health care for veterans
• Recruitment standards lowered
• Amputees allowed on active duty (if wounded while on active duty)
• The casus belli (justification for war) is poor or keeps changing • The casus belli disappears / collapses
• War profiteering / fraud becomes rampant
• Military actions that create more enemies than they kill neutralize or convert
• War waging expenditures and activities neither increase national safety nor advance National interests while decreasing the nation's quality of life

There's been a peace vigil on Second St. in the Belmont Shore section of Long Beach, California for years. In front of the failing Washington Mutual Bank the last time I was there, a trim young man with a short hair cut stopped by where I was tabling. A member of Veterans For Peace was standing nearby. The three of us got into a brief conversation. Maybe he stopped because of the sign saying "War is not the answer" held by a nearby member of the vigil or the t-shirt my friend was wearing that simply said "Veterans For Peace."

When asked that question that can set gangbangers off ("Where are you from?"), the young man said he was "living in Southern California now." After a little chit chat he said he was a marine from Camp Pendleton, had done a tour in Iraq and was going to be deployed soon to Afghanistan. My friend said "We don't have any thing against you." Why should we? We were both Nam vets. We knew the realities of the military and being a troop in war time. "We don't think this is a good war, is all" my friend said.

Many can't make that distinction. Everything is black and white / all good or all bad. They don't know (or remember) how much gray there is, how ambiguous things can be sometimes. How your feelings can shift (or solidify) before, during and after joining the military, having a war experience or reflecting on it afterwards.

There can be many different combinations of reasons for joining the military, some idealistic, jingoistic, knee jerk impulse, patriotic, pragmatic, self testing, sense of adventure, etc. reason. One thing's certain: In the military you get more responsibility, and sooner, than you would in civilian life and for less reward. It's a rarity in civilian life when some one dies because of what you do or don't do properly. The military don't guarantee you the job you want, who you'll fight and why; not even where you'll live. Things can quickly go to hell at any instant in a war zone; faster than that in combat. Neither one of us asked the gyrene what he thought about the war nor politics or some dumb civilian question like "Did you kill any one?"

Military jobs fit into two broad categories: Killing or in some way helping people who do kill. Duh!! I did ask "What's your MOS (Military Occupation Specialty)?""Combat engineer" he said. "I disarm IEDs (Improved Explosive Devices--home made bombs that cause most of the casualties in Iraq). Mostly blow them up."

The young woman he'd been walking with had come back. You could tell they were a couple by the easy way their hands fit together. Married? Lovers? Not my business. No need to ask. He shook hands with me and my friend. "Come back with what you left with!" I said firmly as he walked away. I meant that. Hoping that he would but knowing that even if he did there might be a little something extra and unpleasant with him.

A face of war. A reminder of why I was on Second Street. Not to persuade, inform or influence a troop but to do my little bit to inform civilians (many of whom are still clueless about Iraq) that all troops should at least have a justifiable war to fight and decent treatment when they come home. That's part of "supporting the troops."

A column published in late September by Washington Post conservative columnist George F. Will began:

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around."-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

That column ended: "Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end; by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either."

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

A news article published by Washington Post Staff Writer Juliet Eilperin the same day as Will's piece bore this headline: Palin, McCain Disagree on Causes of Global Warming. The story's first two paragraphs were:

"No one, including Gov. Sarah Palin, questions that Alaska's climate is changing more rapidly than any other state's. But her skepticism about the causes and what needs to be done to address the consequences stands in sharp contrast to the views of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, and place her to the right of the Bush administration and several other Republican governors."

"Although Palin established a sub-cabinet to deal with climate change issues a year ago, she has focused on how to adapt to global warming rather than how to combat it, and she has publicly questioned scientists' near-consensus that human activity plays a role in the rising temperatures."

In the mean time, racist and conservative voters are busy sending out e-mails and holding conversations where they say "Obama's a Muslin / Arab" and "I wouldn't vote for an African American / darkey / nigger!"

Given the Dynamic Duo the Republicans have chosen, will al Qaeda contribute to Obama's campaign? The Gophers? I think they'll save their money. And, just let us scorch our own earth as McCain starts his own war and the US economy continues to disintegrate.

Benjamin Franklin was supposedly asked as he left the meeting in Independence Hall that established the form of government the US had "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?" Franklin is said to have answered "A Republic, if you can keep it." The odds of that happening now seem longer than drawing a Royal Flush. What we seem to have reached is oligarchy, plutocracy and corporatocracy. Franklin also said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." No fuzz on that. I guess we'll just have to shut up and suffer. Fat chance!

IVAW tabling outside the DNC in Denver

MFSO marching at the DNC in Denver

Michelle Obama at Day of Service in Denver, CO