May 13, 2004

I want to welcome you, the distinguished honorable reader, to these pages and for taking the time and effort to appear here today. After serving faithfully for so many years, reading article after article and absorbing as much as you can, I want you to understand that we appreciate the attention you've given these matters and your efforts deserve our full attention, sympathy, and understanding in response. It isn't every day that we can count on someone like yourself to take time from your busy schedule, setting aside other matters of importance, and turning to these pages when we know you have so many things to attend to, budgets to manage, people to supervise and train, chores to finish, objectives to plan, duties to perform, obligations to meet, and other things that need your support and attention in these rapidly changing times.

Before we get to the email you are no doubt prepared to deliver, I would like to emphasize that this is an informal setting. We are not asking that you take any oath or perform any act to further demonstrate your undying loyalty to the process of paying your taxes, voting, and otherwise being a good and faithful citizen carrying out your duties within this best of all possible systems of democracy and justice for all. We have nothing but the greatest respect for whatever it is you are thinking, the feelings you are drawing upon, the experiences you've suffered, the sacrifices you've endured, and the contributions you've made in support of us all, your faithful servants.

Let me also say that we fully understand the chain-of-command you are dealing with from your spouse or significant other, through your offspring, possibly your grandchildren and grandparents, in-laws, nephews and nieces, cousins, and all the many support teams they require such as teachers, doctors, grocers, dry cleaners, sporting events, coaches, clubs, churches, lawn maintenance, unions, clothing, home, cars and SUVs, allowances, and other vital supplies for which you are currently or will someday be fully responsible.

I personally have nothing but the greatest respect for the way in which you have been able to balance and manage these things during trying times, times when you may have been forced to take on additional jobs, work for less remuneration, or otherwise receive less for your sweat equity. All this at a time when your country is at war with a form of behavior or tactic called terrorism, sports and entertainment figures are on trial for heinous acts, jobs are being outsourced to other countries, our debt is skyrocketing to $700 billion this year, and now of all things it appears that our boys and girls in uniform and occupying a pipsqueak nation we've invaded seem to be performing vile acts against prisoners we are not certain are the enemy or not.

Naturally, we can appreciate the many things Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense is balancing with thousands of troops under his command, the greatest $415 billion budget of any discretionary spending department, his immediate staff of Brigadier and Major Generals in the Pentagon, and a chain of command that covers dozens of different ranks and is spread through so many countries they can't even keep an accurate count of them. Foreign duties are estimated at something between 120 and 150 different countries depending on who you are talking or listening to.

Is it any wonder that Administratium has infected the chain-of-command? Or that it takes months for things to reach the Grim Reaper's desk where he has 18,000 criminal investigations to sift through and may be busily engaged in forming new draft mechanisms to recruit the larger military so many are calling for.

All of which brings us to the vital question of the day – do you really believe a picture is worth a thousand words?

Is it really possible that a few hundred pictures of prisoners suffering humiliation and "abuse" can be more effective than words like torture – pestilence – famine – greed – lust – and death – which should evoke images of the worst possible things, even the final act of murder, but do not seem to bring forth an accurate description of our military power at the work of being all that it can be, all that it is trained to do?

Do we require pictures of old men, women, and children suffering terrible injuries and death before we are revolted by what's happening in Iraq? If so, try these:

We know why the above pictures were taken and why they appear on Iraqi web sites like www.albasrah.net. They illustrate the atrocities committed by our illegal use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium.

We do not know "why" the Abu Ghraib prison pictures were taken in the first place, who took them, who released them and for what purpose. They were definitely posed with the photographer as much of a gleeful participant as the American soldiers pictured.

Is it possible that that the prison pictures were delivered as a "sucker punch" to inflame the rest of the Arab world into World War Three. Some of these other Arab nations have nuclear capabilities and we don't normally attack anyone who has infringed on our patents without permission and has the capability of fighting back.

Or are we simply trying to develop another Cold War after the Russians, who told Ronald Reagan they were "going to deliver us the worst blow possible by withdrawing and taking away our enemy" in the standoff. Is this all to support our massive and expensive defense industry while seizing some oil in the process of empire building?

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Wartime Debt. Can We Afford It?

Warning! Social Security Red Alert

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Trust - Hopless In Washington

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Conspiracy To Defraud And How To Recognize It

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Staying The Course - Will We Survive It?

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Abu Ghraib - The Buck Stops Where?

Sucker Punch? For World War Three

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