Digging a Deeper Hole

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday there was a long article in the paper about the war in Afghanistan and the toll it’s taking (a direct correlation between your 2010 surge and the increase in casualties). All these green-on-blue attacks (why do they hate us? G.W.’s lament still unanswered); the corrupt Kleptocracy of Hamid Karzai and Company and his drift toward Iran that’s more and more difficult to control (but we prop him up anyway); and our obvious failure to subdue these supposedly backward, ignorant fanatics. The picture of General Dempsey walking to or from his plane in full battle gear, camo, helmet, flak jacket, guarded by other guys also in full battle gear, tells it all. The picture was not taken on some forward outpost surrounded by insurgents screaming “Death to the infidels,” but on Bagram Air Base, a huge sprawling base secured by thousands of troops and barbed wire and sensors and whoknowswhat. This after 11 years and a trillion bucks! Adding insult to injury, those ignorant insurgents had the audacity to fire rockets at his plane and cause enough damage that he had to switch planes when he wanted to get outta Dodge the next day. But what caught my eye was this: “More active duty and reserve soldiers killed themselves last year, 278, than died in combat in Afghanistan, 247.” From out here on the hustings, it’s pretty clear this one’s in the crapper, Mr. President, and all we’re doing by staying on is prolonging the agony for both us and them. As one mother whose son was the 1,990^th casualty (a victim of a green-on-blue attack) said, “Our forces shouldn’t be there. It should be over. It’s done. No more.” More truth and wisdom in that mother’s cry than I’ve heard out of you or your generals in the past four years. And one final question: are those suicides counted in the 2,103 casualties in Afghanistan? The question’s, rhetorical, Mr. President. I already know the answer to that one. Back in the 1960s, in the midst of protests over another equally unpopular war, there was a familiar chant that went, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many boys did you kill today?” It expressed the rage and frustration over the senseless waste of life by politicians, generals and those who profit from death. Your name doesn’t quite fit the rhythm of that chant, but it certainly belongs in the same category of injustice and stupidity and political evil that seems to befall all those who gain power. You’re not saving face by staying the course, you’re just digging a deeper hole.

Mimics of Trustworthiness

Dear Mr. President,

Did you see the Op-Ed piece in the New York Times this morning by Moore and Stone? Probably not your favorite people but it’s worth checking out. It’s about Julian Assange and how it’s pretty clear you and your enforcers in the InJustice Department want to get your mitts on him and put him away where he can’t reveal any more secrets. Reminded me of the Inquisition: torture, false confessions, heretics burned at the stake, etc. Moore and Stone ask some good questions though. Like how come the Swedish inquisitors won’t go to England to question Assange when they’ve done that kind of thing in the past? Why other people and not him? He may be guilty but he hasn’t even been charged with a crime yet and they’re treating him like Public Enemy Number One. I thought that was a pretty good question, you know? And then there’s the issue of why they won’t guarantee no rendition to the U.S.A.; not only Sweden but the UK too. They could both guarantee no rendition, end of story, end of standoff, but nope, no guarantees. It sounds fishy to me what with all those rumors of a sealed grand jury indictment and secret deals with Sweden and Britain and whatnot. Then I read another article in the paper this morning, nothing to do with Assange or WikiLeaks but everything to do with untrustworthiness. This scholar at Boston University—Jesuits, the Torquemada!—just published a book about the psychology of con artists, namely, Ponzi schemers like Ponzi and Madoff—and while she didn’t name you, I will—the current president of the US of A, Mr. Barack Obama. The phrase she used was “those mimics of trustworthiness: con artists.” Soon as I read it I flashed right on you Mr. President, the Con-Artist-in-Chief. No question about it. Fooling all us voters who voted for you in 2008 thinking you were a moral man, an ethical man with a code of justice. And not only us, but even the Nobel Peace Prize committee got conned, thinking you were a man of peace when in fact you were a warmonger and a war criminal. (Has the Nobel Peace Prize ever been recalled?) Anyhow, I’d sure like to know your thoughts on Moore and Stone’s Op Ed piece. Of course, even if you did say something, it’s likely few of us outside the hardcore Obama-religionists would believe you. You’ve destroyed faith and trust not only in yourself but in every facet of government. The generals, politicians, administration officials, all liars. Believe nothing from any of them, they’re all mimics of trustworthiness.

More Bad Advice

Dear Mr. President,

I read this morning that the 10 letters you read every day from ordinary citizens like me are handed to you in a purple file. Kinda’ cool, a purple file. Obviously, none of my letters make it into that purple file. I think the 10 letters you see are cherry picked, the thanks-for-the-great-job-you’re-doing-Mr. President kind of letters and the I’d-like-a-new-pony-for-Christmas sort of thing, not crank letters from pissed-off voters complaining about Kill Lists and drone strikes, war crimes and Bradley Manning’s torture, banksters and unfair taxes, injustice and.. well, if you’d read my letters you’d know what I mean. 65 since May 28 and not a peep from The White House. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Yeah, I know, you’re a busy guy what with campaigning and covert wars to run and drone strikes to approve and trying to squeeze Julian Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London so the Brits can ship him to Sweden who’ll render him to the U.S. of A for prosecution by your InJustice Department (another whistle-blower’s scalp you can add to your collection). But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is something I mentioned in yesterday’s letter. I said I thought you were getting really bad advice on Afghanistan from your generals and advisers and this morning, guess what? the New York Times said you got bad advice on the mortgage crisis from that dynamic duo, Geithner and Summers—not exactly Batman and Robin fighting crime, more like Messrs. 1% fighting to bail out the banksters and screw the rest of us. The article was about how they assured you the mortgage crisis would take care of itself once Wall Street was bailed out. They even left more than $300 billion earmarked for relief go back to the Treasury unspent. So 4 million homes foreclosed so far, a good chunk of them illegally, and you ignore it till election time when you realize you might be in trouble on the economy. I’ve written about this very topic any number of times over the past few years but it did no good. The only people you listen to are the fat cats who can cough up thirty or fifty grand for your campaign, the advisers and lobbyists who speak only for the 1% and the warmongers who profit from arms and death. My brother keeps telling me it’s useless: “Those letters aren’t going to change a goddamned thing,” he says. “They don’t listen.” But I’m going to keep on trying and maybe one morning I’ll make it into that purple file folder, one of the top 10.

The 51st State?

Dear Mr. President,

How’s that “smart” war in Afghanistan working out for you? Isn’t it getting harder to keep pasting smiley faces on it and see light at the end of the tunnel or the latest turned corner or some kind of fragile progress or whatever the line of bullshit is this week? I mean, here we are training these Afghan security forces, giving them uniforms and humvees and weapons and stuff, and soon as our trainers train them how to shoot, they turn around and shoot our guys. What a bunch of ingrates! I mean, even a young boy, a tea server on one of our bases, sprayed machine gun fire into a gymnasium and killed 3 Marine trainers a few weeks ago. What the heck’s going on, Mr. President? Where’s Homeland Security? Where’s the Transportation Safety Administration? (I keep remembering that TSA guy who nailed my almost-empty tube of toothpaste at the Spokane airport last month, keeping our flight safe from terrorists.) And it just seems to be getting worse; we don’t trust them, they don’t trust us, everybody’s pointing a gun at everybody else… I don’t know, maybe we should just bring the troops home and let those Afghan ingrates figure it out on their own. If they want the Taliban back, I say let them have it. If they think Mullah Omar’s better than Hamid Karzai, then what the heck, they deserve what they get, right? They sure don’t get democracy in spite of the trillions we’ve spent protecting them from Sharia law—all those stoning and hand choppings and burqas and beard police and stuff. Not to mention all the smart bombs and missiles, all our troops staying up late nights to break down doors and arrest suspected insurgents, all those helicopter raids and drone strikes, all wasted on these benighted ignoramuses. I think it’s hopeless. I think the only winnable strategy is to surge about 400,000 troops over there, install our own government and declare Afghanistan the 51^st state. (Wow! Now there’s a job creation program for you!) Either that or get out and let bygones be bygones. I hate to say I told you so, but I think your smart war went sour on you and turned into just another dumb war. I think you got some really bad advice from somebody—maybe the generals, maybe your advisers—and now you’re in deep shit. Don’t feel bad though, Mr. President, everybody makes mistakes, even Imperial Presidents. But I’d say it’s time to cut your losses, declare victory and head for the exits. And don’t forget to vote for Jill Stein for President on November 6!

Bring me my Balaclava!

Dear Mr. President,

Pussy Riot. Intentional provocation right there in the name. These women are a danger to society, the judge said, and she’s right. Profane songs! Feminism! Anti-Putinism! On the altar of the church, a holy sanctuary! What outrage! What desecration! Is nothing sacred? Are even sanctuaries no longer off-limits? A dangerous precedent, these riotgrrrls. If they get away with this, next thing you know there’ll be an Occupy encampment in Red Square, demands for honest elections, separation of church and state, social reforms, maybe even free healthcare for all (like they had under communism until 1991 when they switched to something like Obamacare and life expectancy decreased by 10 years and health deteriorated on every measure). But really, what’s with these protestors anyway? Don’t they realize they’ll get arrested? Is that what they want? 15 minutes of fame? Apparently these Pussy Rioters weren’t making it musically so they needed a publicity stunt. But Putin and his buddy, that Kirill I guy, head of the Orthodox Church, decided to crack down and arrested them, tossed them in jail where they’ve been the past 5 months and now they’re in for 2 years. Of course, it’s all relative. They didn’t have it nearly as bad as Bradley Manning. He’s been in military prisons for 2 years without trial, his pretrial hearings just started a few months ago and it’s clear he’s going to be tried by a kangaroo court too. They’ve suppressed exculpatory evidence, refused to allow key defense witnesses to testify, and piled on one trumped up charge after another including aiding and abetting the enemy which carries a life sentence. Just because he exposed war crimes and political treachery and refused to implicate Julian Assange who you successfully hounded into silence anyway. (Are your government hackers the ones who’ve been attacking the WikiLeaks web site for weeks?) And now your lapdog Brits are threatening to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London (another violation of sanctuary) and render him through Sweden to the U.S. so you can put him away for life too. No doubt in the cell right next to Manning. What is it about transparency and truth that so terrifies rulers like Putin and Assad and Mubarak… and you, Mr. President? The truth shall set you free, it says in the Bible. Well, all I can say to that is, not under false prophets or dictators. Maybe it’s time we all donned balaclavas, hit the streets and started our own Pussy Riots. Bring me my balaclava!

 

Members of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot" Ekaterina Samutsevich (L), Maria Alyokhina (C) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (R) sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Agust 17, 2012.(AFP Photo / Natalia Kolesnikova)

What Don't They Get?

Dear Mr. President,

What is it with these people in the Middle East anyway? We spend trillions of dollars on decade-long wars to make the world safe for democracy and 70% of those people think we’re the second biggest threat to security and stability in the region? Second only to Israel? Even our two biggest allies believe that nonsense? Egypt ($1.3 billion a year in military aid—you might want to consider cutting that off) and Saudi Arabia (not exactly a model of democracy but they do sell us a lot of oil, 20% more last year than in 2010). What don’t these people get? We free Afghanistan from the bloody hand of the Taliban, topple Saddam in Iraq, help the Freedom Fighters of Libya kill Muammar Qaddafi, Mubarak’s gone, Saleh’s gone, Ben Ali’s gone, Assad is going, bin Laden's dead, and still they think we’re a threat to peace in the region? Just because we invaded Iraq under false pretenses, blew everything up including their government and they still don’t have dependable electricity, water, sewage or much of anything else including safe streets and markets, let alone justice or a government that works? Just because Hamid Karzai and his cronies in Afghanistan have looted the country—and the U.S. taxpayer—gained a reputation as one of the most corrupt governments on the face of the earth and done nothing for their people? Just because Libya’s still in chaos? Just because we’re threatening to invade another country or two if they don’t do what we say? Come on, Mr. President, teach these benighted ignoramuses a lesson about how democracy really works. Show them what capitalism can do, how war is business in more ways than one. Kick some more ass, fly more drones, launch more Hellfires, unleash Israel to take out those imaginary Iranian reactors. Bring real peace to the region. Earn that Nobel Peace Prize. I know you don’t listen to anyone but the innermost of inner circle but here’s my advice: do it quick in case Mitt pulls off an upset. Who knows what that guy might do? With all his flipping and flopping he might bring the troops home and get a Nobel Peace Prize too. Or, as clueless as he is, he might actually start Armageddon and inadvertently give joy to the Evangelicals, you know, the end days, the latter days, the second coming, the Rapture and all that? Think about it, Mr. President, bizarre things happen when people get power. You’re a perfect example. Who would have ever thought a Nobel Peace Prize winner was actually a war criminal?

Obama, Haiti

Dear Mr. President,

Did you know one of the communities housing roughly 50,000 displaced Haitians since the earthquake in 2010 is called Obama? There’s also Canaan and Jerusalem. It’s not clear if the names are cynical or hopeful; I expect the latter but I keep thinking about your 2008 campaign slogan of Hope. 50,000 people living in tents, shanties, self-built houses off the grid—no water, sewage or electricity—and with no help from anyone including their own government. Tens of thousands more refugees have simply disappeared into the hills, out of sight, out of mind. The article in this morning’s paper talks about two US missionary groups who teamed up to build houses for the refugees, about 300 so far at a cost of $6,000 each, but their funds are limited. Their leader is quoted as saying, “I don’t understand, for all the money that came into Haiti, why there aren’t houses everywhere.” Good question. Where did all the money go? I remember you appointing Clinton and Bush II to head aid for Haiti, a much photographed event, billions pledged and the result? No relief to those who needed it but a windfall for a handful of elites and corporate America in a project to turn a pristine mangrove swamp far from the disaster site into a deep-water port. The displaced of Haiti, the displaced of New Orleans, the displaced of every natural and manmade disaster out of sight, conveniently forgotten, lost in a haze of goodwill and empty promises while tens of billions are spent to kill, maim and destroy in the phony war on terror. The antiwar protesters have it right, Mr. President, Swords into Ploughshares, that’s the way to peace. That’s the way to really deserve that Nobel Peace Prize. Not by shredding the Constitution, violating human rights and ignoring the rule of law but by restoring the social contract and respecting life, all life, that unspoken humanity deep in us all that compels us to help our fellow beings in trouble, to not abandon them or forsake them and let them die on their own. A final thought. Yesterday I read that HCA, the big hospital chain is now the model for profitable hospitals. But it has become profitable through aggressive billing practices and cost cutting. One of the cost-cutting measures was to stop treating the uninsured who come to the ER unless they can pay or their life is in immediate danger. And who owns HCA? Romney’s company, Bain Capital, one of three private equity firms that bought the chain in 2006. A portent of things to come.