SIGHTINGS



An Open Letter to America
By Fran McCauley <MARTICOSETTE@prodigy.net>
6-8-99
 
 
As a former member of the armed forces of this country, I cannot help but be appalled at the current state of affairs in which we now find ourselves. We are at a point where all we want is a "quick-fix" for all of our problems. The trouble is that these "fixes" are for the short term, not the long.
 
Our President is a confirmed liar, draft-dodger, philanderer and worse...he has no sense of being an American. He seems to feel that the Constitution is out-of-date and should be folded, spindled, and mutilated to conform to whatever he wants. He has, with the help of his internationalist co-conspirators in Europe, turned NATO into an aggressor force and illegally started and is pursuing an undeclared war against a sovereign state in Europe where there are absolutely no American interests involved, aside from resurrecting his tarnished image.
 
With this self-serving attitude, he has also convinced the so-called "World Court" to prosecute Slobodan Milosevic as a war criminal. Never mind that the NATO bombings have served as the trigger to the "ethnic cleansing" or that the conflict is a civil war in nature or that the Kosovo Liberation Army is a terrorist organization funded by blackmail and drug-profit. Does it matter that the casualties we have created are being treated as "acceptable collateral damage"? Why isn't Clinton being prosecuted along with Cohen, Albright, Clark, and the rest? Perhaps a history lesson is in order.
 
On the night of February 13-14, 1945, the RAF and the USAAF bombed the city of Dresden, Germany using a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs, producing a firestorm of unparalleled intensity. The next morning, American P-51 Mustangs strafed refugee columns composed of civilians, wounded soldiers, and prisoners-of-war. The end result was that at least 135,000 ( some estimates put this figure as high as 200,000) casualties were produced in a senseless bombing that had no effect on the outcome of the war (Germany surrendered less than three months later). At least 135,000 people in one 24-hour period, most either horribly burned to death or suffocated. Depending on which figure you accept, that`s between 2 to 3 times the casualties of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima. Why were there never any war-crime charges filed? Simply put, because the Allies won. The victors not only get the spoils, they also get to write the history books. I also recall a book sub-titled "The Children`s Crusade" by a survivor of the Dresden holocaust. It would seem that although the book was a best-seller, nobody got anything out of the book save the humor caused by the hilarity of the protagonist`s situation. And yes, I do consider 135,000 killed in one night to be a "holocaust".
 
When I served in NATO (Germany, 1979-81), I was given to the belief that my fellow soldiers and I were part of a force dedicated to the defense of Western Europe, which we thought was an honorable pursuit. It would appear that the situation has turned around today. There is no longer any honor in NATO. There is most certainly none in Washington. All there is today is a sense of self-importance and over-riding avarice.
 
The self-sanctified assembly known as Congress has established itself as an entirely new class of beings: the bipedal invertebrate. They seem more concerned with finger-pointing than in accepting responsibility for anything. There can be no accounting where none are willing to take responsibility. But since the current train of thought is simply to be re-elected, there are none willing to risk loss of office to do the right thing..
 
Maybe times have changed, but when I was in school, it was taught that "gunboat diplomacy" was totally wrong and was an out-dated concept that went out with Teddy Roosevelt. Now we are in the process of shoving our ideals down the throat of a nation which has no means of defending itself against our acts of aggression. But, as time will show, if we are foolish enough to actually send in ground forces, the situation will rapidly change. There will be no more video-game war.
 
The media is quick to jump on any tragedy that it can to get viewers` attention for more that 15 seconds. The Internet has reports of 84 (at last count) aluminum coffins being sent out of a military hospital in Greece. Where is the media on this? In the political vernacular, this is what is termed as a "non-event" because if it were to receive any publicity, it would destroy the current support for continued aggression in the Balkans.
 
How much of the problem with immorality lies within the leadership of the country? Let`s look at the facts. The president went on national television and wagged his finger in the faces of over a quarter of a billion Americans and denied having ever had sex with "that woman". He proceeded to lie while under oath to a grand jury. He promised that American troops would only be in Bosnia for 6 months when he knew better. He is currently on record as stating that he is opposed to sending in ground forces in Kosovo when all along he has been told repeatedly that with no ground forces, there will be no victory. The one person who is most visible to the public seems to be sending the message that it`s all right to lie as long as you get what you want. His lies have nothing to do with national security or national interest, they simply reflect his own interest in being remembered as some kind of liberator and not an egotistical sex-fiend.
 
So, now we stand at a crossroads. Do we follow the New World Order concept openly embraced by the current administration of the United States? Or do we retain our National Identity as Americans? Do we want to answer to a World Court or follow our own Constitution? Are we going to sit idly by and watch our freedoms and rights be slowly taken away by an out-of-touch group of individuals who consider themselves the elite of society? And ask yourself what would happen if we were to lose our Second Amendment rights. Recent world history is full of examples attesting to the fact that after a people are divested of their right to bear arms, their free speech is the next thing to go.
 
The Founding Fathers of this nation declared independence from tyranny 223 years ago. Please don`t throw away what they and so many others have fought and, if need be, died for. And don`t allow it to be stolen from you by any self-serving public official, either.
 
Kevin McCauley
 
Tyler, Texas <lynxfeld@hotmail.com





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