America’s ruling elite, based upon misperceptions, exaggerations, and outright lies, has accelerated a “never-ending” path of destabilization, invasion, and occupation of other countries. For the sake of global position and corporate profit. For the sake of empire, in numerous places around the world including: Venezuela, Haiti, Guantanamo, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, members of America's armed forces have been committing acts that, if committed by the armed forces of any other any other nation, would lead the US media to label them as war crimes. International bullying. We must ask ourselves the question, “Why does the United States’ government accept what observer groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say about other countries, but refuse to accept what these same organizations say about the United States and how it deals with its own people and the rest of the world?” It’s a matter of double standards. It’s a matter of hypocrisy. It’s a matter of being above the law.

This is not new behavior on the part of the United States government, ask the Native Americans. But in this era, it has all taken place within the context of the so-called war on terrorism. The centerpiece of which is the war in Iraq. The fact that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, had nothing to do with 911, and had not attempted to obtain radioactive material from Niger, has been cynically pushed aside. Somebody lied. Through the release of formerly secret British documents, we now know that each of these, well publicized, charges were premeditated lies. Lies concocted as justification for war. Somebody lied to Congress. Now the question is, “What did they know and when did they know it.” Sound familiar?

Speaking of high crimes and misdemeanors. At a time when over 40 million Americans languish without health care, as thousands are being laid off, as people who are truly in need are being shoved off Medicaid, there are hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted on ill-conceived missions of conquest. There have been thousands and thousands of men, women, and children killed and wounded as the result of a civil war we started. Now there’s talk of bringing back the draft. We should resist. We should look beyond the pro-war propaganda being passed off as news and seek the truth about America’s foreign policy and its economic and military wars of aggression.

Most these wars are smaller in scope, what the Pentagon calls “low intensity operations”. But deadly they are. The Pentagon has admitted that these operations include economic pressure, the murder of civilians, the assassination of leaders, the funding of opposition political parties, and the overthrow of elected governments. The truth will set us free. We should keep up with useful news sources such as, independent and progressive newspapers and magazines, and credible Internet news programs like Democracy Now. Democracy Now’s website address is www.democracynow.org

We must challenge our leaders to look beyond the next election or contract and speak out against this unfolding "American blitzkrieg”. We should encourage young men and women to think twice, no three times, before they allow their bodies, their lives, to be used as pawns in an unjust and illegal game. Increasingly, many don’t need encouragement. Army recruitment numbers have dropped dramatically. As citizens, we should pray for the strength and courage to stand up and speak out against the fake patriotism that suggests our nation’s status should be based upon the control and murder of those with whom we disagree. We must speak out against and vote against the fake patriotism that tries to tie itself to Christianity, even though Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” not “Bomb your enemies!”
We should speak out against the fake patriotism that calls for free and fair (count all votes) national elections in every country on the globe except this one. We should speak out against the fake patriotism that wastes our hard-earned tax dollars on doomed missions that seek to solve historic cultural, economic, and political problems through military means. We should prepare to boycott the retail products of huge corporations that profit from this war madness.

The troops should be supported. The best and most patriotic way to support them is to not put them in the kinds of positions their in now. These men and women should be allowed to come home. As we organize for better lives, strive for unity, and rightly call for an end to the violence in our homes and on the streets of this nation, we must not be afraid or hesitant to criticize what, the peaceful warrior, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called, “the greatest purveyor of violence on planet earth, my own government”.

Editor’s Note: Lloyd Daniel is a poet, educator, and former
member of Missouri’s House of Representatives. His website address is www.lloyddaniel.info