- "If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring
men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand
in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." "Samuel
Adams
-
- "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government
to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain
the government--lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."
"Patrick Henry
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- "It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country
from its government." "Thomas Paine
-
- My friend Dennis Kyne wrote a song that we recorded together
while he was staying at my home in January. He was in Baton Rouge in order
to attend, and to speak at, the "Jazz Funeral For Democracy"
in New Orleans, a counter-inaugural demonstration that activists from south-Louisiana
had organized.
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- The song is called "All We Want Is The Truth."
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- Dennis is a Gulf War vet, and was a medic with the front-line
24th Infantry in 1991. I am an older volunteer infantry vet, one that spent
32 months overseas, from 1971-1974, serving this country as an occupation
soldier. We are patriots.
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- The truth. It's not too much for a soldier or vet to
ask for, particularly when the subject is whether or not our nation goes
to war.
-
- As many of us, those that actually tried to stop the
occupation of Iraq before it got started, watched this tragedy unfold,
what we saw was everything BUT the truth.
-
- Will the press now do its job, and report the facts?
-
- We all know how hard Congress, and the press, went after
Clinton because of his lie. He was impeached for his lie about sex.
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- So all we can hope for now is that the actual words of
the Bush administration, the neocons, will somehow get the same scrutiny
that ANY lie made by our elected officials should get. All we can hope
for is that they will be punished.
-
- All we want is the truth.
-
- Here's a FACT. Before President George "Dubya"
Bush forced his "war" against Iraq down the world's collective
throat, he said, "First, we will demonstrate to the people of Iraq
and the world that the United States and the coalition aspire to liberate,
not to occupy Iraq." Iraq heard him, and now they know it was a lie.
-
- That was in the first few days of the "war."
-
- Bush also promised our nation that he would go to war
as a "last resort." That was a lie.The truth is that the administration
was hell-bent to go to war with Iraq at any cost.
-
- The TRUTH is that they planned this "war" before
9-11. And the parents and families of those who have given their lives
were lied to, as were we all. We deserve MUCH better.
-
- Can we truthfully say this is not an occupation? We are,
in fact, building 14 permanent military installations as I write this.
We have poured $1,500,000,000 into building the Green Zone embassy complex
alone. An embassy for $1.5 billion, in war zone? Undoubtedly a "cost-plus,"
no-bid contract.
-
- Ask our troops if they are "occupying" Iraq.
-
- Bush refuses to let this country see the coffins he is
filling with his "non-occupation," much less admit that this
is an occupation. I say the situation in Iraq is now at genocidal proportions.
-
- Here is a FACT. On March 16th, 2003 Vice President "Dick"
Cheney said on "Meet The Press": "We will, IN FACT, be greeted
as liberators". A lie.
-
- Can Cheney now say say that we have been "greeted
as liberators"? When the most powerful man in the world says something,
he MUST be held accountable.
-
- "Oops-- I was wrong" cannot be used as an excuse
for failed foreign policy.
-
- In May, 2003 President Bush said "Mission Accomplished,"
and since then more than 1,000 of our citizens have died in Iraq. Is the
mission accomplished OR NOT, Mr. Bush?
-
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said "I don't
believe that the United States has the responsibility to pay for reconstruction."
-
- Can he truthfully say that Iraq is paying for this war?
With a straight face?
-
- The FACT is that this disaster in Iraq has already cost
the people of the U.S.A. $300,000,000,000, with no end in sight.
-
- Condi Rice said on CBS, "I don't think anybody could
have predicted that...they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a
hijacked airplane as a missile." A HUGE lie, if any lie was ever told.
-
- The TRUTH is that she had been handed a memo, by our
nation's top terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, long before 9-11--a memo
that said exactly what Rice said "nobody could have predicted."
-
- Rice also said "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities
to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was
moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to." That is a complete
LIE.
-
- The TRUTH is that Clarke sent a memo to Rice principals
on 1/24/01 marked "urgent," asking for a Cabinet-level meeting
to deal with an impending al Qaeda attack.
-
- Our own (former) weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, said
"there are no WMD's." He had scoured Iraq FOR YEARS looking for
them. He knew the truth. Bush ignored him.
-
- Our own investigative diplomat said the "yellowcake"
uranium rumors were false and fabricated. He was told to shut up, and his
wife's CIA-agent identity was released in retribution for his unfavorable
report, by SOMEONE in the White House.
-
- All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find? I
can find it, why can't the TV news find it, report it, and act on it?
-
- Two years ago today, on March 29th, 2003, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana held an anti-war demonstration and march. At that march, off-duty
police stood with those advocating that we protestors should be shot for
protesting. SHOT for protesting.
-
- How fascist will we allow this nation to become before
we wake up? During the same week, a local DJ, while ON THE AIR, advocated
beating protestors. How much trouble would we protestors have gotten in
for advocating violence against say, Republicans who were for the war?
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- The media advocating violence on the air. Can this really
be the USA? Policemen advocating death to protestors?
-
- All we want is the truth.
-
- On May 21st at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge,
LSU police built a "Free Speech Zone" and ordered protestors
to stand inside of it to protest Bush's visit on campus. We refused, and
I now own a "free speech zone." My anti-war trophy. But the point
is, " Free Speech Zones" in the U.S.A.? You must be kidding.And
non-protestors were allowed within inches of the President, with no security
whatsoever.
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- That's the truth and reality of our nation today. "Zones"
for free speech. What "Bill Of Rights"?
-
- Perhaps we should issue "free speech zones"
to our leaders. Here are a few documented lies they told the world to force
this Iraq disaster to happen:
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- "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein
now has weapons of mass destruction." "Little" Dick Cheney.
A lie.
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- "Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities
that were used for the production of biological weapons." George "aWol"
Bush. A lie.
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- "We know for a fact that there are weapons there."
Ari Fleischer. A lie.
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- "25,000 liters of anthrax...38,000 liters of botulinum
toxin...materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and
VX nerve agent...upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical
agents...several mobile biological weapons labs..." George W. Bush
even told us the quantities that he KNEW existed. Where are they, George?
What a lie that was.
-
- "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep
his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." Even
Colin Powell started lying to send us to war.
-
- "Well, there is no question that we have evidence
and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and
chemical particularly...all this will be made clear in the course of the
operation, for whatever duration it takes." Ari Fleisher lied to send
us to war.
-
- "We know where they are. They're in the area around
Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald
Rumsfeld even told us where the WMD's were.
-
- "Obviously the administration intends to publicize
all the weapons of mass destruction US forces find--and there will be plenty."
Neocon scholar Robert Kagan was lied to. He believed their crap, and he
is one of the neocons.
-
- "We are learning more as we interrogate [or torture]
or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure,
that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will
find them." Bush kept on lying, even after he lied to send us to war.
-
- "We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do
so." George Bush lied.
-
- There were no WMD's.
-
- "I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass
destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting
it just now." ABSOLUTELY SURE said our Secretary of State Colin Powell.
A lie.
-
- "US officials never expected that we were going
to open garages and find weapons of mass destruction." Condoleezza
Rice told that lie. She was obviously not listening to the rest of the
administration. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell all stated that they
would find WMD's, and even stated we knew where they were.
-
- "For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue,
weapons of mass destruction[(as justification for invading Iraq], because
it was the one reason everyone could agree on." Paul Wolfowitz said
this, and it might have been the ONLY true statement that the whole administration
made.
-
- All we want is the truth.
-
- But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing
devices or banned weapons, they're wrong: we found them. George W. Bush
said THAT! What a delusional lie that was. Where are they, George?
-
- So now we have passed the two-year mark, in a "war"
sold on lies. When will the Congress and the "free press" rise
up to punish this band of war criminals and professional liars?
-
- All we want is the truth. We deserve the truth. The liars
deserve to be impeached, at the very least. Wake up America--our country
is hanging on the edge of a cliff, and only the truth will save it. If
we allow these war criminals to get away with their lies, our nation will
be sent tumbling down the mountainside.
-
- We still have the choice. We should DEMAND "the
truth." We MUST demand "the truth."
-
- James Garfield, one of our presidents, once said, "Now
more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of
their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because
the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.
-
- "If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because
the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national
legislature.... If the next centennial does not find us a great nation
... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture,
and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political
forces."
-
- WE THE PEOPLE, must DEMAND the truth, especially when
war is at the balance.
-
- All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find?
-
- "History, in general, only informs us what bad government
is." "Thomas Jefferson
-
- The "truth" is, that our top level government
is lying, IS BAD, and it wouldn't matter so much if these lies didn't mean
the deaths of so many innocent citizens of the world. But it is a war that
these lies sent us to, and many, many, innocent people have died for these
lies, and it is our job, the press's job, and our elected officials' job,
to stop it all, now.
-
- The innocent dead deserve that much. They have certainly
earned that much. All THEY wanted was the truth. Had the truth been told,
NONE of them would have perished for these liars.
-
- "All we want is the truth, why's it so hard to find."
Thanks for writing that, Dennis, it says it all, and that's no lie.
-
- "We the People are the rightful masters of both
Congress and the Courts--not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow
the men who pervert the Constitution." "Abraham Lincoln
-
- "The means of defense against foreign danger historically
have become the instruments of tyranny at home." "James Madison
-
- "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does
NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly
to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.... It is unpatriotic
not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise
he fails in his duty to stand by the country." "Theodore Roosevelt
-
- George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza
Rice ALL SWORE to abide and obey the Constitution. They have all failed
to do so in the worst possible way. They LIED to send us to war, and countless
thousands to their deaths. That's NO lie.
-
- The "TRUTH"...it's out there. All we want is
the truth. Why's it so hard to find?
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- Ward Reilly, of Baton Rouge, La., is a member of Veterans
For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the Warssage has been received.
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- http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/033005Reilly.html
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