Handle the Truth

We rode two hours this morning, indoors. Although I rode my Honda to and from the PowerBarn, the indoor cycling facility where the ride took place, braving the chilly temps was a small price to pay to improve my MPG’s by almost 300% over the gas-guzzling Ranger. At over $3.50 a gallon, this has me concerned…..again. 

Concerned for a number of reasons and on a number of different levels. The most basic of both is that it is expensive. The most perplexing is that it shouldn’t be. The truth is buried somewhere between those extremes. Like most things steeped in capitalism and sweetened by demand. 

I watched a flawed but interesting movie last night called Shock and Awe. Directed and starring Rob Reiner, the brilliant man behind the equally brilliant A Few Good Men. I know Reiner’s politics and his talent so naturally I assumed I would enjoy his take on our post 9-11 world. Yet I couldn’t get past what history now confirms our suspicions at the time: That Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld  and even Colin Powell looked at us directly in the eye of the camera and blatantly lied their collective asses off. 

We have been in Afghanistan and Iraq for 18 years now. It is the longest running war in our sordid history of war. Please remember that we went into Iraq because of politics. Politics and an open ended opportunity to create profit for the very complex that DD Eisenhower tried his best to warn us of. We know now that they lied. We know that as a result of the over 30,000 Americans who have died as well as over a million innocent civilians. Cheney said we're be there a week. 

Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Halliburton, Johnson Controls and every other arms manufacturer are doing fine. The current administration personally sent another gratuity their way to ensure the flow of ammo, bombs and the craft to deliver them continues. The budget of the Pentagon is now 700 Billion a year with no end in sight. 

The worst part is not the absurd amount we spend on military and defense. By far that nebulous honor goes to our government itself, for creating such a openly phony and corrupt system that sends kids to their dismemberment or death and then turns their back on them should they return to civilian life. They call this patriotism. Patriots protects freedom. And freedom is as American as apple pie and baseball. BULLSHIT. This is about money. 

Today is Veterans Day. Your leader America, decided that a little rain was cause enough to cancel a trip to honor those who lost their lives in WWII. 

Our current involvement in several countries is obscene. Please do not contribute to this stunningly successful hypocrisy any longer. This has nothing to do with freedom, democracy, justice or anything other than greed. We are there because it is a trillion dollar business. American lives are simply collateral damage. I would gladly pay $30 for a gallon of gas if I knew a percentage of that profit was being used to uphold the values of our former America and its constitution. It isn’t. 

You know this. So did Knight-Ridder.