ALLEN ROLAND'S
SEPTEMBER 2003 NEWSLETTER
WAR IS NO LONGER AN OPTION
We have now reached the place where we must
learn , the hard way, that War is no longer an option.
We obviously did not learn this lesson in Vietnam
but we will learn it in Iraq.
Our occupying troops are being attacked atleast
two dozen times a day and the death total is now
close to 300 with the wounded well over 1500.
As Maureen Dowd , New York Times columnist, wrote;
" Far from being the swift and gratifying lesson in U.S.
dominance that Cheney& Co predicted ~ our incursion
into Iraq is turning into a spun-out, scary lesson in the
dangers of hubris ."
We are going to be humiliated in Iraq and rightfully so and
many soldiers and innocent civilians will pay the price
for our greed and arrogance.
Maureen Reynolds of the Los Angeles Times interviewed
a private of the Third Infantry during President Bush's
recent visit to Fort Stewart , Georgia. Private Henry
commented that the response to the President was muted
by the knowledge among the soldiers and families that they
will have to return to Iraq soon.
He said he lost about ten members of his unit and he's not
eager to go back .
" What I heard the President say was ' You went there.
You took names ~ came home ~ now your going back ' "
Then Henry commented ; " He likes war . He should go
fight a war for two days and see how he likes it ."
This is a president who has never seen combat , and was
AWOL the last year of his reservist duty in a Air National
Guard unit ~ whose records have been purged .
The presidents obvious strategy for the election in 2004
is to cloak himself in a flag as the commander-in-chief of
a never ending war against terrorism that he himself has
intensified with a blatent and illegal grab for oil and
power in Iraq.
It's going to get worse before we see the light and the
truth that war is no longer an option ~ which is
what always happens when we make a collective shift
in consciousness.
We will literally be scared into a new way of thinking
and acting.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes of the obvious and cynical exploitation of 9/11 for the administrations neo conservative and war agenda ;
" Is the public - and the news media - finally prepared to cry foul when cynicism comes wrapped in the flag? America's political future may rest on the answer.The press has become a lot less shy about pointing out the administration's exploitation of 9/11, partly because that exploitation has become so crushingly obvious. As The Washington Post pointed out yesterday, in the past six weeks President Bush has invoked 9/11 not just to defend Iraq policy and argue for oil drilling in the Arctic, but in response to questions about tax cuts, unemployment, budget deficits and even campaign finance. Meanwhile, the crudity of the administration's recent propaganda efforts, from dressing the president up in a flight suit to orchestrating the ludicrously glamorized TV movie about Mr. Bush on 9/11, have set even supporters' teeth on edge. "
It's time for a change in direction and we must lead this
change by asserting that our innate urge to unite and cooperate with one another is far greater than the false need to separate ourselves from and impose our will on others.
It won't be easy because this admiinistration is so convinced
that it is right ~ and it is more than willing to use lies and deception to accomplish its neo conservative agenda.
It reminds me of an appropriate quote from Laurens van der
Post ~
Human beings are perhaps never more frightening
than when they are convinced beyond doubt that
they are right.
Let us prove that they are wrong by deciding that we do have
another choice in 2004 and let's have that choice be fueled by
this life enhancing affirmation ~ War is no longer a choice .
Allen L Roland, Ph.d
12:28:38 PM 
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