Selective long term memory

As we listen to saber rattling and information about Iran's threat to Israel, to the Saudis, to Iraq, to the US and to the entire world, let's remember a few things, a problem for many Americans in some cases.

• "All the suspected hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (fifteen hijackers), United Arab Emirates (two hijackers), Lebanon (one hijacker) and Egypt (one hijacker)" (Wikipedia). All were Arabic. None were Iranian.
• The CIA was complicit in the Bush regime lies about Saddam Hussein's WMD.
• The highest members of the Bush circle--Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Feith, Wolfowitz, Perle, Powell, plus press secretary Fleisher and Judith Miller of The New York Times--all lied about Iraq's nonexistent WMD.
• These liars said Saddam had thrown out UN WMD inspectors. Never happened.
• The Bush regime team lied about Saddam's alliance with Osama bin Laden. As if. Saddam outlawed al Qa'ida and bin Laden issued a death fatwa on Hussein.
• This same group of liars told us the invasion of Iraq would be relatively inexpensive and that, with all their oil, the Iraqis would repay us anyhow in just a couple of years.
• They either failed or feigned failure to anticipate the robust insurgency from Iraqis who wanted their country back.
• The Bush neocons did just about everything possible to encourage a Sunni-Shia civil war in Iraq and they got it.

I vigiled with others every Tuesday outside the large multi-branch armed forces recruiting center on Broadway in Portland all during the worst of the war, when Fallujah was set on fire and casualties on all sides were terrible every day. I told many recruiters, all bound to argue with me, that "eventually, you will leave Iraq, and for that matter Afghanistan, and you will not leave a peaceful country behind. They will violently sort themselves out for themselves and you will have only accomplished getting more people to hate America." This, more or less, was the very message that the very conservative warrior, Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor, offered us when we brought him here to Portland State University to speak. 

This is exactly what is happening and will happen in both countries. War is simply not the answer. Just Say No. Remember. Never Forget. We are a smart species and can find alternatives, as we saw in Tunisia and, for the most part, in Egypt and across much of the Middle East and North Africa (except where we offered our military 'help' in Libya). 

We can remember the things that matter--we are all deeply informed about the Kim and Kris Konflict, the details of the NBA lockout, Lindsay Lohan's addictive self-sabotaging record--so let's get on our knees and pray we don't get fooled again. No one except the one percenter elite from Richistan can afford it and no one can morally or ethically justify any more war. Let's start a season of peace that lasts for years. Let's put our people back to work by redirecting the first 75 percent of the Pentagon budget to job creation and universal health care. We can do this if we decide upon it.