Now, with George W. Bush in charge, the nation is mired in yet another tragic period marked by incompetence, duplicity, bad faith and outright lies coming once again from the very top of the government.
-- Bob Herbert
Some have noted that Mark Felt (I hate people with names shorter than my last name) might have be inspired to act or reveal himself for less than pure reasons. What else is new? Money and personal complaints is often important in such cases. In fact, John Adams wrote about how personal desire is a major influence on public action, including that of the leaders of our nation. This is one of those "oh shut up" moments.
Then, again, it is a bit amusing to hear cries of "traitor" from various right wing sorts, including those who worked with Nixon. This is not too surprising, after all, since the times are not too different from the days of Nixon ... with cover-ups, lies, war crimes, and the like. John Dean himself wrote a book arguing that the Bush Administration is "Worse Than Watergate." They surely, in a certain someone's own words, are "people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble - that means not tell the truth."
The Bushies have one thing at least going for them -- the lack of historical memory of a time when a time when criticism of those in power was not based on lies about sex or such. The rest of us are lucky that the 22th Amendment is around and that the likes of John Edwards and Wes Clark look to be active and game for another go around. They were, next to Dean (who in my heart I knew was not presidential material), my favorite candidates.
The U.S. military keeps a meticulous tally of its wounded -- 12,762 in Iraq as of Wednesday, along with 1,658 dead. Scenes of soldiers convalescing at well-equipped hospitals such as Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center are familiar symbols of the human cost of the war.
But more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion, there is little available data on the far greater number of Iraqi civilians wounded in the invasion and subsequent violence related to the insurgency. And few of the victims' stories have been widely reported.
But, then the stakes show themselves once again. After all, we just honored those who died fighting our nation's wars. My sentiments leads me to lean toward the non-fighting class, those like Maria Ruzicka, slain while doing her heroic work serving civilians harmed by war. Ruzicka is among those who we should honor on Memorial Day, those who died serving our country during our nation's wars. Both classes deserve our thoughts.
"No matter how many men were hurt, the furnaces must be kept going," says William Attaway in Blood on the Forge (cited in Music of the Mill by Luis J. Rodriguez). So seems to be the case with war. The blood flow seems but a part of life, "an eternal act which has grown beyond men's control." This is not really so, actually, and sometimes we have held back the dogs of war. At the least, we must respect its victims. And, aside from an underreporting of just how many of our own continue to rise in number, this includes civilians. Ruzicka's mission was to care for them, which she felt included having a clear accounting of their numbers and needs.
Asked Wednesday about the issue, Mr. Bush said, "It doesn't fit our budgetary process."
-- Bush Maintains Opposition to Doubling Aid for Africa
Meanwhile, our resources are spread thin, including our abilities to use forces and funds in other areas where it is necessary. One of my deepest fears is that some new emergency will show its ugly head, and we will not have the resources -- given how many was wasted and misused in the last few years -- to deal with the situation. So much was wasted already. Heck, to be a bit trivial, the chance of an Olympics in my local area has been harmed because of the distaste the world has with our government. O tempora! O mores!
Where is the Deep Throat of the current day? And, everyone else who helped us move past those days? Many of the old faces are back in power or still heard. Like Jason, they are back again ... cue the music.