The Poet's Eye 
        commentary by Lightning Rod

the Poets' Eye is skeptical
without being cynical, innocent
without being naive and
critical without being
judgmental

 

Out of the Mouths of Babes
for release on 11-11-04

LONDON (AFP) - US pop star Madonna made a rare foray into politics, calling for her home country to withdraw its troops from Iraq during an interview with British radio.
"I just don't want American troops to be in Iraq, period."

It appears that what the leaders and politicians are afraid to say must be said by jokers and fools and pop stars.

It's wrong for the US to be in Iraq and nobody in elected office has enough courage to say it. We should leave and let the Iraqi people deal with their own destiny now that we have 'liberated' them back into the stone age. We've done our good deed, Saddam is no longer a menace to his people and the world. Now let's go home and let the Iraqis determine their own fate.

Oh, but CHAOS would set in if we left, say the neocons. Somehow the people of the fertile crescent have managed to survive for what? four thousand years without coalition support. The only chaos that is reigning in Iraq right now is the result of our being there as an occupying force. We are the source of friction and instability.

But, oh yes, there is the oil. One day ol' Jeb was shootin' at some food when up through the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil that is. Black gold, Texas tea. And the first thing you know ol' Jeb's a millionaire. Why wouldn't he be? He works for Halliburton.

This is war for profit and we've got to stop it.

But now Georgie Boy has a "mandate." He has "capital." The gloves are coming off. The resignation of Ashcroft is a symbol. Ashcroft was the administration's point man to the Christian Right. The Christian Right (bless their sheepish hearts) got Gdub re-unelected, but now they are of no further use to "The Agenda." The New World Order crowd really don't have any use for the Christian Right. While gay marriage and abortion are glamorous issues during an election, they really have nothing to do with the real goals of the cabal--money and power. So look for the priorities of the Christian Right to be relegated to the No Child of God Left Behind dustbin. They won't need the pew warmers until next election, and by that time Diebold will control all the numbers anyway.

The neocons have more important and pressing business. We can look for more frivolous military adventures based on commercial ends but wrapped in glorious rhetoric. How about Venezuela? After all, the drug lords and the socialists are overrunning the place. Let's don't mention that they are the largest oil producer in the hemisphere. And those meanies in Iran (almost as much oil a Iraq) are getting nukes and besides, they are religious fundamentalists which are almost as bad a communists. (apologies to the Christian Right) Oh, and Sudan has some oil....er...I mean some massive injustice that needs to be righted. The possibilities for righteous war are nearly endless.

America has already run up against a brick wall when it comes to manpower in the military. We are stretched as thin as we can be stretched. If Mexico invaded us, we would be shit out of luck because all our troops are guarding oil and contracts in Iraq. (oh, wait, the Mexicans are already invading us--three million infiltrators this year) This same thing happened to Rome at the height of the Empire. And again it happened to the British. In both cases, and as we see today in Iraq, the imperialist powers tried the same thing. They attempted to train the natives to be their surrogate occupying force. Witness the British occupation of India. Since the British didn't have the military manpower to police a country with many times the population of Britian, they installed British officers to command battalions of wogs (native Indian soldiers.) It's a tried and true imperial tactic and the Iraqis are familiar with it. That is why we see, day after day, the car bombings that kill recruits waiting to sign up to be America's wogs in Iraq.

Neither freedom nor democracy can be enforced at the point of a gun. Little contradictions like this are lost on some. But the Romans discovered it and so did the British and so will the Americans. You might go to bed with fantasy at night, but you wake up with reality in the morning.

The Poet's Eye has a glint. If kings could only learn from their fools. Madonna is the sexy jester. Jewels come from the mouths of babes.

Wise is the King
that listens to his clown
'cuz there's nothin' around
that's gonna get the
clown
down
down
down
--Lrod, from 'A Fool's Ballet'
listen here:

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