Needle and the Damage Done

Read something tonight that struck painfully close to home.

Skippy has a letter to Bush up at his joint, that pleads with the President to consider the results of his leaking, and lying, and his desperate desire to be seen as a manly 'war president', and the destruction he's created in the crazy rush to bomb and invade a country that had not, and in fact was not going to threaten or harm us.

It made me think of an incident from back in high school. At the time, I was hanging with some of the 'farmer' boys from out of town, and a couple of jocks, since I had a short lived and nearly totally inept career in high school basketball. One day, in the brief period before class, several of these guys were taunting a kid from one of the smaller town, who had a slight harelip. enough to be an outcast, I guess.

In a misguided effort to be part of the kewl kids, and to my great regret ever since, I joined in. Itchy (for such was the nickname this poor unfortunate received) correctly perceiving that I was the weakest member of the group, finally turned and struck out, breaking my nose.

I confess I don't really remember any response. Afterward, others told me that I grabbed him by his neck, and started to choke him, even lifting him off the floor. I imagine that in pain and madness I struck out blindly, looking to hurt and maybe even kill. Luckily, of course, it didn't go that far, and we were separated. In a post mortem while waiting for our punishment, we even managed to understand each other, a little bit and become friends of a sort.


But it makes me think of the bombings of 9-11, and the war in Iraq.

America was struck, and bloodied, painfully. Whether justified or not, it hurt deeply. In pain and fear, we wanted to strike out. We wanted to draw blood in return. In the blood fear of the time just after the attacks, the emotions and reactions of the country were manipulated and taken advantage of by deeply cynical power junkies who saw an opportunity to effect their wildest desires. To exploit this temporary blindness in pursuit of otherwise insane political maneuvering.

They used America's pained desire to take revenge to misdirect the result. To strike at a country that had not damaged us, could not even make believable threats.


As skippy points out, the recent revelations that Bush directed the dissemination of classified information for political reasons, to disguise the fact that he and others in the cabal had manipulated and distorted information to justify a blind, angry reaction aimed at the wrong target.


I don't think that beating up on somebody who didn't deserve it is something that we will be able to proud of.