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- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
SLIP SLOP AND FIDDLE DIDDLE
 Do
we, the great American electorate, exist just to be diddled, fiddled, riddled
and milked like the government's cash cow?
One day we are told we are safer because we invaded Iraq but the next minute security alarms begin to sound. We must protect our National Security. Then why isn't it called it the National Security Act instead of the Patriot Act? The former refers to fears that our homes and lands will be attacked. The latter demands that you agree with its provisions or you are a traitor. One has only to see the loss of respect for America demonstrated at the Olympics to confirm what travelers have reported. There is a widespread world wide dislike, fear and distrust of the United States. Many potential spectators are staying away from the games fearing a reprisal attack on the U.S. by angry Islamics. A situation triggered by the policies of Bush and enforced by his regime that practices "might makes right" as its primary value -- a regime that demonstrates this by invading another country without provocation. Some call the language of the Bushies surreal, with many reversals and contradictions. Still the media sees flip-flops as synonymous with Kerry as it faithfully disseminates the Repug Party line of slips and slops with little or no critical evaluation. So we occupy and run Iraq, yet it is a sovereign nation. We've got Saddam, yet he is in Iraqi custody. We will leave Iraq when their government is in place, but will be there for many more years, and on and on in the same bizarro vein of double speak. Decidedly NOT
contradictory are these excerpts from a Forum letter by a wife of a National
Guardsman serving in the area around Baghdad.
"Every day these men and women [serving with my husband] live in conditions that would make any episode of Survivor look like a vacation at Trump Towers. Never once has he ever complained, except for shedding many tears after memorial services for the three fallen comrades from his unit. "The temperature in Iraq was 137 degrees last month and is expected to rise as high as 160 degrees by August. "When I go shopping, it is not to spend hundreds of dollars on concert tickets. I purchase many flea collars which are worn around our soldier's ankles for the gnat bites that are continuously all over them and for bottles of aloe for the sunburn, despite the sun block. "Because they are in the desert, the perpetual wind is like a blow dryer in their faces, and when the air conditioning goes out their tents become stifling. There are eight species of venomous snakes, and camel spiders reaching up to two feet long, also with a venomous bite, that gallop through the desert at 10 MPH... "Oh, one last idea! Perhaps George W. should pack a duffel bag, buy up a bunch of flea collars and go get a first-hand experience of what his unnecessary war is really about!" -- LRC GenderGappers would only add that Bush should be left over there for "four more years of hell" like he's given to so many.
2004-034 Copyright 2004 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@sover.net. |
