World War Forever
Cindy Sheehan
A good friend of mine Jon
Gold has taken to calling the US wars against the planet, “World War Forever.”
So, I’d like to thank him for the sadly relevant title of this piece.
Today, a friend of mine
named Jacob George killed himself.
Jacob was a young vet who performed three
tours of duty in Afghanistan and I met him last year when I was in the middle
of riding my bike across from California to Washington DC for Tour de Peace. We
met Jacob in the middle of the country: Oklahoma City. I can’t begin to say
what the death of such a gentle and sweet human means. The loss is horrible and not
just for Jacob’s friends and family, but for all of us.
 |
| Jacob George |
Not only is the Empire
deadly to the people who live far away in foreign countries, but also to the
people it recruits with lies and dangling “benefits” to lure our young people
into its bloody maw and then casually tosses them to the garbage pile when they
are “lucky” enough to come home from the wars for profit.
I know many colleagues
and friends, as well as myself, who are beyond frustrated and devastated with
World War Forever, but I also used to be friends and connected to far more people
who are now saying that they are “disappointed” in Obama. My question to these
people is, “just what the hell did you all expect would happen when you sat on
your collective and hypocritical asses for over six year?” Where were these people
when Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan, killed people in ½ dozen countries
with his damned drones, supported neo-Nazis in Ukraine, destroyed Libya,
supported violent rebels in Syria (which many analysts say have blossomed” into
ISIS/ISIL) and all the other evil things the Peace Laureate has done in his
tenure as Managing War Monger for the 1%?
I am convinced these same people
who are just NOW regaining consciousness will soon go back into an ethics-coma
and vigorously support the next Dem warmonger would have never left the
streets if a Republican were in the Oval Office.
I don’t know which group
of people gets under my skin more, the Google-challenged rightwing who
constantly accuse ME of being a hypocrite for not “opposing Obama,” or the
ethically and morally challenged “liberals” who deserted the peace movement
like the rats they are because they support Democrats over peace and justice.
I don’t know what the
solution is because I don’t see anything changing as long as We the People keep
allowing ourselves to be caught up into this never-ending death-cult spiral of
partisan politics which has led to the death-cult of World War Forever.
While you Republicans
and Democrats are waiting for the perfect president (who doesn’t exist) or the
next Congressional Super Majority (that doesn’t help), our young people like
Jacob and our brothers and sisters around this planet are suffering.
How can you live with
yourselves?
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy for this excellent reminder of how unfortunate it is that so many people put political party above peace and justice. If we are to reach a sustainable future we will have to find a way to peace. I also met Jacob George and I am thinking we both saw him at the People's Response to The Bush Lie Bury in Dallas, Texas. I found him an intelligent, sensitive, and creatively expressive person whom this world sorely needed. It was a shock to learn last fall of his death. It is important that people like him and you and I and one's we both know keep speaking and demonstrating for peace and social justice. We are all needed and really all the people are needed if we are to save our planet and our species and other species. Mother Earth is hurting and our military industrial war machine is making things very dangerous and destroying our environment and all life. I agree with all you wrote above. I am sorry to see no other comments before mine. I will repost your essay. Thank you for all you have been doing. I was very happy to recently learn from you that your sister, Dede, is regaining her health. Thank you for caring about and helping your sister. If we all helped each other and stopped the USA new World War Forever we would all be much better. Peace and hugs.