March 21, 2005

The Internet and media are totally abuzz over the Terri Schiavo controversy, as they should be. We've been made to focus on this specific case, which makes empathizing with her plight much easier for us, but beware of the tactics of the powers that be: Terri's case is a very useful diversion.

In the heat of battle to save one brain-damaged woman in Florida from what threatens to be an inhumane, cruel and slow death, it is just too easy to overlook the fact our soldiers in Iraq are falling to similar brain trauma just about every single day.

The number of wounded in Iraq alone just topped 11,000, and because of the advances in personal body armor, rapid evacuation and modern medical techniques, we'll be seeing a lot more soldiers coming home alive, but with horrifying and permanent injuries that will make many of them dependent on the rest of us until the day they die.

If I were king, I'd make all those cocky little people who stood on the curbs of America waving the flag as our troops marched into another undeclared war, go back to the curbside and watch the parade of the mutilated kids roll by in their wheelchairs while the flag-wavers are forced to wave their checkbooks instead. That's what I want to see! I want to see those same people who taunted the anti-war protesters across the street to have their faces rubbed in what they've done.

One of the most common wounds suffered by our soldiers in Iraq is traumatic brain injury, according to an article written by Norman Solomon and published in Newsday. The article points out that brain damage is often permanent. So while the whole government of the United States is gearing up to pass special federal legislation to protect just one Terri Schiavo, we're creating thousands more American kids with injuries as bad or worse than hers in a war they never should have been sent to.

Satan has got to be laughing his ass off! The same Bush-worshippers who have been calling and writing to save Terri Schiavo, won't even give a thought to bringing our kids home from Iraq. No, we're back to the old Vietnam era "peace-with-honor" malarkey, where you keep the kids in the meat-grinder until you think your pride can survive their withdrawal. It doesn't matter how many more of those kids get mutilated and have to spend the rest of their lives that way. No, our national pride is just too important to allow for that consideration. But we'll keep those letters, cards, e-mails and calls coming in for Terri!

Yes, I'm bitter! I can't believe this happened again, and there is just no excuse for it. I know people my own Vietnam age who were standing on the curb waving the flag as our kids were marching off to Iraq, and I'm not just disappointed in them; I'm furious at them! They fell for it again, but their pride won't allow them to admit it, and I dearly want to rub their faces in it!

Half or more of the 58,000 kids lost in Vietnam would still be alive today if those same little minds had not prevailed. They were like drunken gamblers who were betting lives instead of money, and they kept thinking if they just put a few more lives into that machine, they would finally win the pot. Well they never won the pot in Vietnam, and they won't win the pot in Iraq, but you just can't seem to stop these deep thinkers from betting the lives of others. I guess it's just a little too easy for them when it's not their own lives they are gambling with.

Last time the boogeyman was Communism, and this time it's terrorism. Last time it was the Bay of Tonkin incident, this time it was weapons of mass destruction. Lies, both of them, and those damned flag-wavers fell for it again.

I do have one request: Every time I hear somebody say, "God Bless America!" I physically cringe like a dog afraid he's going to be hit. Please stop. Number one, God doesn't take orders, and Number two, I'm afraid He's going to look in our direction and see what we've done.

Carl F. Worden

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Poll: Bush Opens Lead On Kerry?

Those Pesky "Assault" Weapons

If Being a True Christian Were a Crime...

The Draft Threat Is NOT A Hoax

The Draft Is One Headline Away

The Scott Peterson Murder Trial Ends

Is It Bin Laden, Or Memorex?

There Is A Terrorist Threat in America-

Fallujah: The Iraqi Alamo

The Peterson Trial Goes Bonkers

Get Ready For Peterson II: The Sequel

The Tax Man Cometh

Abstinence Vs Sex Education

Different War - Same False Hope

Dead Man Walking

A Tale Of Two Juries

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