The Furious Spinner

Mario and I have been watching documentaries, most of them about past wars and the anti-war movement. Recently we've seen Fog of War, Weather Underground, Power and Terror, and War at Home. What I've gotten from all these movies is that people don't seem to learn from history. (1) During all wars—including World War II—the government lies to the people about the truth of the situation and what they are doing. (2) For some bizarre reason, people trust the government's reason for sending their children to die in war. (3) The anti-war movements are despised by the general populace, even though they are the ones telling the truth. (Later history always verifies the veracity of their claims.) (4) The government pays no attention to the anti-war movement, or at least, they do not change their policies because of growing opposition. (5) The government and the people always claim they "can not pull out now or all those who have died will have died for nothing," so thousands more die. (This is so illogical it makes me want to pull my hair out.)

I could sum that up more succinctly: Governments always lie; citizens trust their government; people die.

I say question everything!

If you didn't see Sunday's Doonesbury, here it is.

People have put up all kinds of memorials in honor of the war dead. Some members of our peace group made a poster with photographs of all of the American soldiers who have died in Iraq along with photographs to honor the other soldiers and all the Iraqi citizens who had been killed. A local bookstore has it in their window, and people have left flowers and lit candles on the sidewalk below. I hope nothing bad happens to the store. In San Francisco, an art gallery closed after the owner was attacked(POPUP) when she showed a painting that depicted the torture of Iraqis by American soldiers. One veteran says that war memorials "honor failure." Instead, let's create a Peace Department. This author says we too easily accept war and its horrors.

Let us not forget how many thousands of Iraqis have been killed in our name with soldiers and weapons and bombs paid for with our tax dollars–with our hard-earned money. The government takes my money and uses it to kill. It is an understatement to say that I don't like that.

May the dead rest in peace.

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