How Many More Must Die In Bush's War?

Our Speech at a Sept. 24th Peace Rally:

"I'm proud to have one son that chooses to serve in the US Military. I am equally proud to have another son that has refused to be a part of George W. Bush's War.

Just a few short years ago, my youngest son, his mother, and I and thousands of others that agreed that this was the wrong war at the wrong time were labeled as anti-American.... as "un-Patriotic". We were told that we didn't support our troops.

But now, it appears that some 68% to 70% of our fellow citizens have become anti-American or un-Patriotic if those Patriots and Zealots that condemned us 2 and 3 years ago are to be believed. It seems that we are no longer the outsiders, but rather that America has caught up with us.

Sadly, almost 2000 American soldiers and thousands of others have already died.

How many more must die for Bush's War?

In the late 90's, George W. Bush lamented his father’s squandering of the political capital gained after George the 41st Gulf War.

He said, “If I have a chance to invade…. if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it.”

Well George the 43rd certainly got his chance to invade! Granted he had to lie and manipulate people and information to get his war, but he got it. It was one of the very few successes in George W. Bush’s incredibly tainted resume. But, he wanted a war, and lo and behold, George W. Bush has his war!

He didn’t waste his opportunity to invade, but he has wasted the lives of over 1950 Americans, and thousands of Iraqi citizens.

How many more must die for Bush’s War?

My youngest son, fronts a rock band. He wrote a song called No Pride.

The chorus says,

There’s no pride in victory
When death is all that’s won
Killing in the name of nothing
Won’t save anyone

He wrote:

Before we go and massacre people in another country
Fix the problems here first, like AIDS and poverty.
Body bags can fill up fast and coffins are quickly made.
100,000 soldiers or a mother and a child? How many more will it take?

We are faced with monumental issues in America today. We are faced with monumental issues around the world. And yet, this administration, with the aid and comfort of both National parties spends more per day on this unnecessary and ill thought-out war than it spends annually fighting many horrible diseases that kill many more Americans than have died in this War.

Bush's War has cost America over 200 Billion Dollars.

The money spent on Bush's war would have funded all AIDS research world-wide for almost 20 years.

The money spent on Bush's war could have funded a four-year college education for 9.5 Million American boys and girls.

The money spent on Bush's war could have provided basic immunizations to every child in the world and had money left over to fully fund all hunger programs worldwide.

I'm proud of my son that chooses to serve in the US Military. He's a good man... a good husband... a good father. We can be proud of all the men and women that are serving. We can laud the sacrifices that have been made by following the orders of their Commander-in-Chief, because that is what we expect the military to do. But, it is with a heavy heart and a father's anxiety that I ask again,

How many more must die for Bush’s War?

There’s no pride in victory
When death is all that’s won
Killing in the name of nothing
Won’t save anyone"

posted by Stash @ 6:11 PM