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Marine: "You will see me assault the Bush regime at every possible angle"My name is Andy Topetzes, and I am a 24-year-old Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. I am also a research assistant for a political research and analysis firm here in Columbus, OH called Social Science Automation, Inc. I am currently finishing up classes at Ohio State.I just returned from combat in Iraq 2 months ago. Even before the military buildup began for the war in Iraq, coupled with a virtual assault of misguided and unconfirmed intelligence claims (aka: lies) by the Bush administration, I was against an unprovoked invasion of any nation, despite our hostile past with Saddam's former regime. What upsets me the most about Operation Iraqi Freedom are three fundamental truths:  - Hundreds of my comrades have died, and the numbers rise every day, but the original reasons why they were sent to their violent deaths (WMD, connection w/ Al-Qaeda, etc.) have no been rebuked by virtually everyone in the U.S. intelligence community. Saddam was never a threat to the United States, nor would he have been for a substantial amount of time.
- The Iraqi people were duped into believing that their economic well-being and physical security would be insured once Baghdad fell and American troops took control of the nation. This is certainly not the case, hence all the problems we've been having in that region since our we got our "Mission Accomplished" on May 1st. - Our piece-of-garbage president - the same one who thumbed his nose at an entire conglomerate of United Nations before the invasion and broke international law by commencing with the invasion - is now begging for their help...and money, and troops...to bail his stupid country ass out. And all of these things are perpetuated by a group of men who dodged Vietnam, lied about the shady nature of what little military service they did have, and then have the audacity to call themselves Patriots. I spit on them. I have lost faith in our president. I have lost faith in the electoral system, and all that is decent and honest in Washington today. The only man who can bring that decency and integrity back to the White House - and lead our nation through the War on Terrorism successfully, without another shot in the foot like Iraq - is a man who's honorable military service and patriotism can't be matched. Gen. Clark, sir, we need you desperately. In the mean time, in what little freetime I actually have, you will see me assault the Bush regime at every possible angle...because, like a true Marine should, I attack my enemies wherever and whenever I have the chance, from every possible angle. Sepmer Fi, to all my friends-in-arms in this Yahoo! group. -LCPL Topetzes, A.R. USMCR, OIF veteran Posted on Vets For Clark board Traveling Soldier responds:Lance Corporal Topetzes will find out soon enough that Clark betrays him and his friends-in-arms too. He should ask General Clark a very simple question: Are you or are you not for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. soldiers from Iraq? Anything less than an unequivocal, no bullshit YES means Clark wants more dead U.S. soldiers, including LCPL Topetzes’ friends. The Democratic Party is no less a party of corporate rule, blood for oil, and death for soldiers than the Republican Party. After all, the Democrats gave Bush the authorization for the war on Iraq and gave him the $87 billion for continuing the occupation. And we would do well to remember that that the 60s anti-war movement gave its support to the Democrat Johnson in 1964 as the “moderate,” “reasonable,” candidate – only to see Johnson massively escalate the war on Viet Nam, sending thousands of American troops to their deaths and murdering millions of Vietnamese. Voting for the “lesser evil” got us both the lesser and the greater evil. That said, LCPL Topetzes shows the world that our soldiers are already thinking and acting in ways that will set them on a collision course with those who really rule America, whichever party holds office. Nothing is more terrifying to a corrupt ruling class than a soldier who is thinking things over. When he writes that he has lost faith in the electoral system, he only expresses what more and more ordinary working class people know. It’s a stacked deck and a rigged game we can’t ever win, operated by and for the people with the money to buy and sell elections. The California recall election just cost $56 million. LCPL Topetzes and his brothers and sisters-in-arms are our brothers and sisters too. We need them to protect us against a government that serves the superrich and the giant corporations that care nothing for their lives, or ours. Sooner or later, attacking our enemies “from every possible angle” means taking our fight to the streets, like Indonesians did to get rid of the tyrant Suharto, and Serbians did to get rid of Milosevic. In Indonesia and Serbia, the soldiers refused to defend the government, and joined the revolutions. When that time arrives here, LCPL Topetzes and all his friends-in-arms will have to decide whether to open fire on their civilian brothers and sisters, or turn their guns against on the corrupt politicians giving the orders. Which way it goes depends in part on whether we reach out our hands in friendship now to LCPL Topetzes, and all his brothers and sisters-in-arms; listening, discussing; defending their right to question and speak out; and arguing for a completely different political vision of how life can be. There is no reason for LCPL Topetzes to look for some General to save him. He obviously has the spirit, intelligence, good instincts, and strategic smarts to be a general himself, in a movement from below that includes his brothers and sisters-in-arms and that can’t be betrayed by one more ruling class politician like Bush, or Clark, or Dean, or Kucinich, or whoever. We need to recruit him and his brothers and sisters-in-arms for our side in the only war that can change things for the better: the class war. Page 5--> |
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