Do you hear what I hear?

Iraq_war_protest_poster

Photo by Tom Pratt.. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

 

 

 

Every way I turn my head, I hear echoes from 9/11.

What I hear:

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. The excited heart of George W. Bush as he envisioned finishing what his father had started and planting Uncle Sam’s big boot on Iraqi oil fields.

No! No! No! The screams of babies, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles as they’re being pierced, shattered, and  torn apart by guns, mortars, bombs, and collapsing buildings, courtesy of the U.S. military.

Thud, thud, thud.  Earth and sand being thrown on all those graves.  There in Iraq. Here in the US.

What I don’t  hear:

Triumphant cheers from Iraqi perpetrators of 9/11. And why not? Because Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

The hum of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq—there were no WMDs in Iraq until the US sent its troops.

Can you hear what I hear?

The echoes are getting louder. The reverberations are getting stronger.

Beat.   Beat.   Beat. The sound of the war drums. [http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/13-4 ]

               My poet friend Tom Greening [www.tomgreening.com ] has a message that is relevant to all the Americans eager to gear up, flaunt their weapons, increase the Department of Defense budget, refill their pockets, distract people from problems at home, and once again make a bad situation worse:

Waging war is often occupational therapy
for men unsure about their
masculinity and life goals
and deluded about
how best to serve their country.
Patriotism should not be confused
with chauvinism and adolescent posturing.

What do I want to hear?

I want to hear all the anti-war groups, all the anti-violence groups, all the pro-peace groups, all the nonviolence groups join together and just say NO! No troops. No bombing. No more killing.

 

The image in the upper right  of this post is a poster from Arlington West Memorial Project of the Veterans for Peace (Licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0 Generic license). Learn more about the Veterans for Peace projects at: http://www.arlingtonwestsantamonica.org/