November 5, 2007: This website is an archive of the former website, traprockpeace.org, which was created 10 years ago by Charles Jenks. It became one of the most populace sites in the US, and an important resource on the antiwar movement, student activism, 'depleted' uranium and other topics. Jenks authored virtually all of its web pages and multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files. As the author and registered owner of that site, his purpose here is to preserve an important slice of the history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade. He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content remains intact. THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site. Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org, a multimedia blog and resource center.
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Don't
Fall Victim to America's Cash Crop: War
By Vincent L Guarisco
March 12, 2005
"Nothing is the same, even as nothing changes. The ghosts of war are
chained to America's ankles, as it marches onward. I have a poster from the
days of Vietnam. I have kept it all these years as a reminder of the politics
behind war. It is a photograph of Arlington Cemetery, neat orderly rows of
white headstones, on green grass, below a sunny sky. The caption reads:
We are the unwilling, led by the unqualified, to do the unnecessary, for the
ungrateful." ~John Corry, A Vietnam Veteran who received the Purple
Heart and Bronze Star with V device.
Beware of
Uncle Sam's harvest of war, an old familiar military industrial cash crop that
unceasingly yields new hybrid cultures of shame. Yep, a dreaded farmer's
nightmare comes to mind -- leaders with twisted piety -- disgracefully draping
themselves in the flag while inventing new and improved ways of cultivating its
peace-loving citizenry into a plethora of warriors. Oh yeah, these days --
green-thumb Sammy sprinkles a little more
than manure on that desired servitude. He's always searching for more
obedient useful sprouts that will lock-and-load and pillage at the snap of a
middle-fingered salute pointed in any direction.
Sadly, this is the reality we all must face. After September 11, 2001,
our nation in a weak moment of confusion and severe vulnerability, was covertly
and psychologically victimized by the Bush war machine, in order to desensitize
us into walking the old path of Hitler's Nazism. Today's neocons use it like a
snake-oil cure for saving the "body politic" (the nation) from
imaginary destruction. Just like yesterdays false reflection, today's
reality is no different -- the same radical belief in nationalism is being
instilled, being recycled for asserting absolute identity between self and
nation. And just like the Fuhrer, Bush is capitalizing on that same
worship of identity by using "patriotism" as a vehicle to transform
America into a totalitarian militaristic society.
Call it fraud over fact, hubris over honor, blatant denigration of the dead, or
screwing the living. Regardless of what phrase or clichˇ you choose,
the bottom line is the blood of brave soldiers and innocent
civilians alike will continue to spill -- like sacrificial lambs whose throats
are cut -- at the alter of supremacy, until these warmongers are stopped.
That's right, this ghoulish cabal will ruthlessly continue with
manic determination, aided and abetted by the corporate
state-owned media, because they are both one and the same, partners in
crime; both heavily vested in stock with Defense Corporations on Wall Street.
Think about it -- why should they tell us the truth? Why, indeed, when
they can lie with no fear of being held to account and they can profit
like kings. Besides, to do otherwise is bad for business. I guess the old
saying holds true -- there is no honor among killers and thieves. No
compassion. It's all cut and dried, their making a killing at our
expense! Especially, with the entire national defense system conveniently
privatized.
Can you imagine the devil, pitchfork in hand, dancing a jig while
dressed in a pinstriped suit? Well, keep that shirker in mind as the Bush
cartel attempts to sell this preemptive shenanigan in the name of
"National Defense," "National
Security," "War on Terror," etc. What a scam!
Once again, history repeats itself: Our leaders have again soiled
themselves with the spoils of war while wallowing in the spilled blood of
innocents. And they continue to do it right out there in plain sight,
while a stunned world watches in disbelief. Americans are not just
desensitized -- they have been dehumanized. More of them seem
to readily accept Bush's jargon of "spreading
democracy" with bunker-buster diplomacy -- few even blink as
Congressmen and administration officials openly discuss
dropping nukes on Iran, Syria, North Korea and, even China. The
madness isn't madness anymore...
Remember this -- the world has not forgotten how we slaughtered more than 100,000
Japanese civilians in less than 2.1 seconds at the end of WWII. They will never
forget nor forgive what we did, nor will they idly stand by and watch it happen
again elsewhere. They share a common goal; they are united under one banner, one
sacred cloth that has a single word inscribed -- "Peace."
And if that means they have to revolt in solidarity against America's arrogant
myopia to achieve it, so be it, they'll do it.
How do know this? Well, my father told me so. He spent five days in ground
zero walking on the ashes of Hiroshima soon after the Unites
States dropped two atom bombs on civilian populations. He is 77 now,
but he still cannot recall the experience without breaking down.
We need to get real. The world around us is not stupid; it fully
understands the United States has more firepower than all other nations
combined, and they also realize that Bush and his minions are germinating
as many illegal wars as they can, with cash registers sitting in their
laps. So you have what you have -- a large world consensus that begs for
a revolutionary effort to bring us down a peg or two in the superpower
department. Eventually this unification will succeed, and with it comes a
deep-rooted hatred that will not be soon forgotten. In fact, this once-great
nation may never recover because anti-Americanism may remain embedded in
the universal mind. It must. It's called
self-preservation.
Trust me -- I'm not feeling much safer inside our U.S. borders either.
It takes a heartless breed of ruthless neoconservatives who willfully send
so many innocents to their needless graves, a breed with no hint of moral
conviction, a breed unremorseful in its self-motivated delirium for
profit. This is not the way it's supposed to be! Where has my
beloved America gone? This new American patriotism depicts the
ugliness, the futility and meaninglessness of submission to the nation
state, a form of sacrificial death stripped of words such as honor,
heroism and glory.
It pains me to write essays such as this. It's almost as if
I'm subconsciously screaming that I am a U.S. citizen who is appalled
and heartbroken at what my country is doing in my name. I am, as
John Corry accurately said, "the unwilling, led by the unqualified, to do
the unnecessary, for the ungrateful." And I welcome the world 's
combined effort to contain the neocons that have taken over my beloved
country. But they should beware, because this is now a sad place where I
live -- a sad and lonely place where the seeds of war are now harvested
like grapes on the vine.
Vincent L Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City, Arizona, a
contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime founding member of
the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Replies welcomed at: vincespainting1@hotmail.com
© 2005 Vincent L Guarisco