Memorial Day

This weekend we have Memorial Day here in the USA. It is a day to remember the people who gave their lives in the service of our country. An example of this is Pat Tillman. He had a promising career, but decided to give that up and go serve his country. He figured, as many who enlist in our military services do, that his country needed him. Specifically, he figured he needed to help in the fight against "terrorism". He was sent to Afghanistan, and there was killed by friendly fire. Now, friendly fire will happen in any conflict, just as accidents will happen when you drive cars. It is just a part of war because people make mistakes.

What happened next was shameful: the US Army and US authorities lied about Tillman's death.

In a Washington Post article, Tillman's father said "Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore."

He also said ''All the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this. They purposely interfered with the investigation. They covered it up. I think they thought they could control it and they realized their recruiting efforts were going to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

And Tillman's mother said "If this is what happens when someone high profile dies, I can only imagine what happens with everyone else."

How ironic and very sad it is that a decent young man, with a prosperous career in front of him, goes off to fight the "terrorists" and ends up being killed by his fellow Americans. And then, on top of that, the US authorities LIE about it. I feel it is ironically symbolic of our entire "war on terrorism" - which they are also telling astounding lies about.

I respect the people who choose to serve our country. I am deeply saddened by the way the current US government are misusing and abusing them. I am deeply saddened that they are sent to fight in wars that are totally unnecessary. I am disgusted by the lies told by the US government.

It seems to me that we should have a *Memorial Day* to remember that all wars start with lies. Perhaps we should have a *Memorial Day* to identify and remember the people who told those lies. In the case of the Iraq war, the lies were told by the Bush administration. A "smoking gun" to prove those lies is the Downing Street Memo.

Representative John Conyers, Jr. is sending a letter to Mr. Bush concerning this memo and the need for an inquiry into the reasons given behind the war in Iraq. Mr. Conyers is asking Americans to sign his letter, and several organizations (PDA, Gold Star Families for Peace, Vets for Peace, Code Pink, and others) have started a website to work on this issue. There is much you can do! Together, we can get this into the public's consciousness. (That leaves us with a problem, as a commenter on this blog noted: after we impeach Bush, we have Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Rice, and god-knows-who-else we need to deal with! But I think we have to keep chipping away at their power and work for something better.)

The website to request a formal investigation into possible impeachable offences is at:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org

This website, and effort, is only two days old right now. I think this is going to be big. I hope so anyway.