The Pennsylvania Progressive

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Welcome to Bushworld

While waiting for an elevator this morning I overheard a conversation a woman was having about the war. She was commenting about the Marine unit under investigation for murdering Iraqi civilians back in November. I fully expected a statement along the lines of how terrible it was that U.S. soldiers mercilessly stormed into civilian homes and slaughtered noncombatant women and children. Then how the Pentagon sought to cover up the story so it didn't get out. No, she started blaming the media for reporting it. She said how terrible it was that our soldiers were being subjected to such awful stress and how bad the conditions were for them in Iraq.

Excuse me. We're Americans. We don't do things like that (oops, just forget My Lai for a second). Aren't we supposed to be the good guys? Weren't we the ones who were supposed to obey the Geneva Accords, even when the other side didn't? Weren't we supposed to stand for something? So much for "pro-life Republicans." It's ok to march into people's homes and slaughter them on the spot, including children. This is Bushworld after all.

Why do I think I've moved to a parallel universe? One where America invades a country that didn't attack us and had no way of attacking us? One where we lied to convince our people the war was justified? A world where we refer to the resistance in that country as "insurgents?" I hope if the U.S. were ever invaded like that these people would join the resistance and drive out the occupying army. It's called patriotism. Why shouldn't there be Iraqi patriots defending their country from our invasion forces? Let's call them what they are: the opposition.

Women and children gunned down in their homes like vermin and this woman thinks that's OK. No wonder they hate us. No wonder more and more will become terrorists and continue to attack us. So much for winning hearts and minds. Welcome to Bushworld, an alternate universe.