The Good Guys

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Voltaire

02/08/2003, George W. Bush, President
"We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad."

03/16/2003, Dick Cheney, Vice President
"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . weeks rather than months."

03/22/2003, General Tommy Franks
"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them."

03/30/2003, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
"We know where they are . They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

09/17/2003, George W. Bush, President
Q: Mr. President, Dr. Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld both said yesterday that they have seen no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with September 11th. THE PRESIDENT: "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th."


We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and that she will eventually plant her iron foot on the necks of all other nations. Such is the logic of patriotism.
Emma Goldman, What is Patriotism? (1908).


"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Samuel Johnson




So we've just had the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war. It's so depressing to see so many still trying to rewrite history and justify the unjustifiable. At Nuremberg after WWII we defined things like torture and the waging of an aggressive as opposed to a defensive war as Crimes Against Humanity. The Bush administration and its little lap dog, Tony Blair, tore all that up, imprisoned without trial and tortured, launched an unprovoked war based on deliberate and cynical lies .....and they got away with it. No arrests, no prosecutions. The US (our allies, the leaders of our "side) continue to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime they feel like it and the only discussion is whether it should be done to Americans or not.

So when other countries do the same: torture, murder, intimidate, launch missiles at civilian targets inside our borders, wage war - what right have we to object? Didn't we used to be the good guys? who are we now?

It struck me as appropriate that this woman's bag, while it is proudly emblazoned with our national symbol is also over printed with camouflage.