November 25, 2005

Tonight on MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews asked his guest, John Crawford (Iraq invasion veteran, author of "The Last Story I’ll Ever Tell"), what his best day was in Iraq. Crawford told Matthews of a night where he asked his commanding officer for permission to "confiscate" alcohol from the local Iraqis who were drinking by the Tigris River. Then Crawford and his pals got drunk on the "confiscated" alcohol.

Confiscated? They STOLE the alcohol from the locals with permission from their commander! How the hell is this not a crime? The alcohol is the private and paid for possession of the local Iraqis; what were the terms of the "confiscation?" This is outrageous! Matthews simply grinned and enjoyed Crawford’s little story about pillaging the locals, never stopping to ask him about the fact that they stole the Iraqi’s alcohol for their own personal use under the premise of it being a confiscation! This is unbelievable. I am so outraged that I want to punch Matthews in the face and I want to spit on anyone who condones the criminal Nazi-like invasion of Iraq. Is there a single journalist anywhere in this damn nation?

Watching Matthews grin while an American "hero" talked about stealing the possessions of Iraqi citizens made me sick beyond words. Even though I was already wide awake to the reality of the giant atrocity called the Iraq War, Mathew’s indifference to the crimes committed, no matter how small, against the Iraqi people, raised my outrage to a new level!

Enough is enough…we have to admit that what we did in Iraq is a crime equal to or worse than the crimes committed by the villains of history that Americans describe as evil. The invasion of Iraq was an evil act conduced by an evil administration using evil tactics for evil purposes. No two ways about it. There is NOTHING righteous about what we did. We are living through the most disgraceful period in American history. It is for this reason that Americans can not come to terms with reality. The US has become a despot nation led by evil, lying people. The only way to fix this problem is to first admit that it exists. No diluting it. No candy coating. We must stop pretending that the invasion of Iraq was anything but a crime against humanity, a crime against democracy, a crime against freedom and a crime against everything America stands for.

There is no apology big enough for what America has done to that nation. The entire Bush administration should face the harshest punishment for their crimes and the members of the media who continue to pretend that there is even an ounce of legitimacy to the invasion should be hauled off to Abu Ghraib for a taste of what the US has done to the people of Iraq.

I stand now, open and honest, and I declare at this moment to the world, America and Iraq would be better off if the cruel dictator Saddam Hussein were still in charge of Iraq and the reason I say this is because under that condition it would be Saddam, and only Saddam who would be guilty of crimes against humanity in Iraq. As it stands now America is no better than Saddam was at his worst, and for that reason we are not better off, we are worse off. Had we not invaded Iraq only Saddam could be blamed for the atrocities in Iraq. Now America shares in the guilt, shares in the shame and shares a place with the evil despots of history. It is for this reason we are not better off.

Chis Matthews and the rest of the corporate media, have you no shame?