Memorial Day, 2005

Memorial Day, 2005
the Guerrilla Campaign

We remember our military men and women who have been killed and wounded in our many wars. We also remember the countless peoples who have been killed and wounded by our actions.

Today, our young again face the same dilemma that many Americans my age faced during Vietnam. The choice is as stark now as it was then. Face jail, or exile, or a life on the run, or fight in an unjust, immoral war. These are all brave men and women, and nothing in their life has prepared them for this choice. Whichever decision they make is a profoundly life-altering experience.

Post-trauma disorders. Vietnam veterans faced a life after exposure to “Agent Orange” with all its attendant health problems. Today’s veterans face a life after exposure to the effects of our DU munitions with all of its consequences; a slow painful death, severe health disorders, birth defects in their children, and their children’s children.

Many of our Vietnam veterans are homeless. Many of our Iraq veterans are homeless. They all face the same veterans’ benefits cuts to pay for the president bush’s tax cuts for the rich.

The bush administration has asked for no sacrifice from his ‘base’. Many of our Iraq veterans are coming home with horrific injuries, and missing limbs, because, again, the president bush failed them by failing to provide for adequate protection, adequate planning, again to please his ‘base’.

To placate the voices in his alcohol and coke addled brain, he flung our military willy-nilly into an illegal and obscene war that he decided on before he even announced his candidacy for the Office of the President of the United States of America. Not the for defense of the country, not for the ‘liberation and freedom’ for the Iraqi people, not to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the Middle East. No, the president bush invaded Iraq because his voices told him to. Just as David Berkowitz listened to his neighbor’s dog, Sam. The bush depended on advice from his advisors who have never been in the military, in fact, couldn’t be bothered, because they had ‘other priorities’, and of course his ‘God’ voices.

The president bush has dishonored his office, his country, and the Constitution he swore to uphold. His Congressional, corporate, and religious allies also carry this blame and shame. Forever, and collectively, they have abandoned our children to a life of war and deprivation. They have lost any claim to any respect from history, the American people, and the world’s people.

For all of our military dead, the military men and women on active duty, and all our still living veterans, we salute you. And we hang our heads in sorrow that we allowed your lives to be thrown away so sensely, to be abandoned when you came home.

To the president bush, Fuck you.

Infantry, U.S Army, 1969-1971.