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Enough, MKA

Madeleine K. Albright, a member of the war criminals club, this week, infringed on my cyberspace with repudiations directed at a political party indistinguishable from what is supposed to be the opposition party and, then, requested a donation? Her e-mail with the subject “Enough” is that, and more.

“The Republican strategy of delay and obstruct is hurting America and our standing in the world. It has to stop,” wrote MKA. Many of you probably received the same message from the 64th secretary of state. You know, the Clintonite female-like object who said, when asked about the more than 500,000 Iraqi children dead from our sanctions, “It’s a hard choice, but I think, we think, it’s worth it.”

MKA continued her e-mail vitriol against Republicans, for being partisan, “This is seriously undermining the President’s ability to restore America’s leadership in the world . . . .”

No, MKA, Republicans, alone, aren’t undermining Obama’s ability to restore America’s leadership. Our leadership was ceded years ago with illegal, immoral wars of choice in which millions have been murdered. I include Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis in the most recent ravages, along with our own troops, killed by the perjurers who stoked the patriotism that sent so many young men and women running to recruitment centers to enlist, believing they were protecting our freedoms and spreading democracy. Democrats share ownership of the deceit.

Last weekend, Obama skulked into Afghanistan. Doesn’t seem that years of war to make us safer have, uh, made us safer. Look at any airport, federal building, or mass transit area where bomb-sniffing dogs patrol, and black-suited, assault-rifle toting Rambos are ready to shoot you in the head if you perspire too much or penetrate some imaginary or real barricade. Obama’s pep talk to the troops could have been a lip synching of W’s sermons. God bless America!

I can’t help but think about a Rip Van Winkle character, awakening from years of sleep into what is now a police state. “Huh, where am I? This can’t be real,” he might say.

“Oh, Rip, it is. We rolled over, said uncle, scared dumb by color codes, ‘attempted hijacker,’ and 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 and anesthetized ourselves with displacement activities, called Reality TV.” I’d have to explain September 11, 2001, of course, and its component–that we really don’t know what happened that day because a real investigation has been avoided. National security, you know.

Back to MKA. Her e-mail continued with more condemnation of Republicans for thwarting “our efforts to build a secure future based on the defense of our interests . . . .” Ah, there’s the crux–“our interests.” That would be power, oil, the Trans Caspian pipeline. We have to take what is “ours” from the Caspian Sea and move it to friendly ports for use here at home so we can continue the way of life to which we’ve become accustomed and dependent. No sacrifices to modify the insatiable American appetite for more, more, more. Even though so many, now, have less, less, less because of the recession/depression that can be linked not just to deregulation but, also, to war, war, war. We support the largest military budget in the world while our infrastructure is as hazardous as our for-profit healthcare which denies adequate or any coverage to segments of our society who either die or go bankrupt simply trying to survive.

All of MKA’s one-sided criticisms are theatrically absurd, but get a load of this: The Republicans are undermining efforts to restore the rule of law and respect for human rights. Gag. The highest levels of government in this country have no respect for the rule of law or human rights. There has been no accountability for those who manufactured evidence to destroy the Middle East, its inhabitants, our troops and their families. We speak loudly for human rights, demand them in other countries while making laws–The Patriot Act–to deny them here at home. And what about the torture endorsers, free, patted with an admonition of “poor judgment,” and employed, with very high salaries and benefits?

The hypocrisy of our leadership is unparalleled by anything but the hypocrisy of former leadership.

Then, MKA said the “Democratic Party is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with President Obama as he and his foreign policy team move America forward.” How many of you believe that our foreign policy is moving us anywhere but down a depravity drain? A country can never move forward by committing crimes against humanity. And we do this every single day–not just with our conquest-oriented invasions and occupations but, also, with robotic, unmanned aerial vehicles and weapons of mass destruction. Simply acknowledge the evidence of an increased number of babies born in Iraq with birth defects because of the banned-by-international-law armaments we’ve used to “save” the people whose lives are meaningless to those who lust for power. And acknowledge what is being done in our names.

The shame is overwhelming. It should be.

MKA wrapped up her plea for my donation with this: “President Obama is a gifted and dedicated leader, but he cannot guide America boldly into the future without the support of Democrats like you.”

So, MKA, I have to tell you I am not a Democrat and that I disagree with your assessment that Obama is guiding us forward. No one among the mainstream scene is. Each is in the grasping, greedy hands of large corporations that have more and more power while ordinary people have none. This is why we’re unsafe. This is why we are at the no-rights precipice. And, MKA, you’re one among many criminals. Remember the Iraqi children. And your question to Colin Powell in 1993: “What’s the point of having this superb military you’re always talking about, if we can’t use it?” This is repelling, repulsive, inhuman, and beyond creepy.

MKA, you personify/objectify what’s wrong with our country.

To you, I say, “Enough.”

Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She’s written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she’s a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,’05, she has been writing political articles. She can be reached at: Missybeat@aol.com

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