Land of the Greed, Home of the Grave

July 4, 2006 means nothing more than another day for the parents of the dead children in Iraq. Freedom is just an American word meaning death, destruction and corruption.
Just days ago the U.S. newspapers were headlining the “barbaric” beheading of two American soldiers captured “on patrol”. A few days later we found out the soldiers captured were members of a unit that had stalked a fifteen year old Iraqi girl to rape her. After the rape, they killed her and her family.
Iraqi citizens had reported the crime but the “official report” had listed the deaths as killings by “militants”. Only because a soldier of the unit had developed a guilty conscience about the rape and killings did the truth emerge.
The “barbaric” killings now look like retribution against a rogue unit of soldiers by an Iraqi people sick and tired of the American bully. The bully that had so many reports of soldiers and Marines committing atrocities even the gutless and shirking press was beginning to tell the stories.
Still the American press lacks the outrage of acts by the killers in American ranks that it does for the killers of Iraqi or Arabic background. Still the stories of children crushed and destroyed by bombs of unseen planes fail to be told. Still American “free fire zones” are ignored.
Noted historian Howard Zinn rightfully suggests we not wave the red, white and blue flags of the American flag in pride this year on July 4, 2006. He points out the catastrophic results of the disease called nationalism that has driven this nation’s destiny. A destiny that seems to be forever one of a nation that has wasted more lives, more natural resources and more potential than any in the history of the world.
Fireworks continue at this late hour in my neighborhood. The firecrackers, pop bottle rockets and other pyrotechnics that add up to 610 million dollars in sales each year continue on without missing a beat while we fail the poorest and weakest of the nation.  Jobs, education, healthcare, mental healthcare, substance abuse care, clean air, environmental concern, prenatal care, veterans benefits and vital human programs go without enough funding while we foolishly spend monies on explosive devices for celebration and incineration.
500 billion dollars spent on the war in Iraq since 2003 and we have only a more sullied reputation to show for the money that could have done so much to improve humanity all over the world.
I see the flag of this nation and I feel shame for our greed and over-consumption. I feel shame for the hatred we’ve so rightfully brought upon ourselves with the continued swath of death and destruction we’ve brought to so many in the name of “freedom”.
I hear the self-proclaimed patriots say “freedom isn’t free” and I agree. We need only to ask the people of Iraq who have paid so heavily for the freedoms that we’ve taken with their lives.
I hear the patriots say, “America, love it or leave it” and I agree. They should either love our country enough to do what’s moral and legal or they should leave it to the tyrants and the liars who have already stolen much of the freedom that made this country a beacon to the rest of the world.
The young Americans responsible for the rapes, killings and atrocities they’ve committed deserve jail and punishment for what they’ve done. The time of saying they were only doing their jobs is over. The time of saying they only did their duty is over.  Time has come to accept personal responsibility for being part of immoral and illegal actions.
Americans thinking the atrocities are anomalies by just a few are foolish and complicit in those atrocities. Trying to hide behind the flag and patriotism is deceptive and self-serving.
The citizens of America need to stop fooling themselves about the reasons for the atrocities by their children in the military. The rotten barrel of apples begins and ends with a leadership that has allowed torture and illegal actions to become a norm.
George W. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, Rove and all the stooges of this administration have given the green light to corruption and immorality so often it’s little wonder the soldiers and Marines have seen no limits to what they should be able to do while allegedly “fighting for freedom”.
July 4th is not a time of celebration in America. It’s a time of humiliation. July 4th isn’t a time for waving the banners of nationalistic pride. It’s a time of distress and shame. The only way the American flag should fly is inverted to signal a country in distress.
Peace and justice groups aren’t free of complicity either. At a time outrage is necessary and the only proper response, timidity and passivity seems to be the reaction. While young American men and women die and kill and innocent Iraqi’s die in ever more obscene and senseless ways, peace and justice groups spend hours talking about the problem rather than acting on it.
Departments of Peace, letters to corrupt politicians, campaigning for politicians no different in philosophy than the ruling tyrants and symbolic actions lacking the power to be meaningful are simply actions to feel good about things but not actions taking a risk of time, talent and energy to truly oppose the despots in charge.
The urgency of a nation rotting from within is lacking in a fog of consumerism, self centeredness and apathy. Rather than change we keep recreating the wheels of imperialism and nationalism. The same concepts with slightly different names are the rule not the exception.
America, America, God shed his light on thee…..nothing but words of a delusional nation thinking “their God” somehow favors them for their gluttonous and hedonist ways.

Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat veteran
USMC
VVAW member
Denver, CO