Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Soldiers

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/07/con06304.html

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace

As of today, the War Department lists 2544 as the number of unjustly murdered troops in Iraq. Dozens of innocent Iraqis are being killed due to the war crime every day. Over 80 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad alone on July 9th: dozens of people just in one city on one day who would be alive if not for BushCo.

I don't know what number Casey was. Nor do I care. I have seen people say 614, I have seen people say 714. It doesn't matter because Casey and the other 2543 were not numbers. They were living, breathing, loving, worthwhile and contributing members of society. They could pass drug tests (unlike their "commander-in-chief" at their ages) and they honorably volunteered to serve their country to defend America and our freedoms. What George Bush and the rest of the careless war profiteers have committed in Iraq is abuse and misuse and had nothing to do with defending America or protecting our freedoms. The lies are well documented and proven. The lies are written on my heart forever.

Between WWI and WWII, highly decorated, Marine Major General Smedley Butler wrote a short dissertation called War is a Racket. I wish to God I had read this before Casey enlisted because I believe that he would be alive today if only I had. The first two paragraphs succinctly define the entire booklet and the reason not to allow your child to fall into the hands of the military industrial war complex:

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

[unhappycamper]

1. The online version of "War Is A Racket" is here:

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. K&R!