I have tried hard to keep quiet about the War on Iraq, at least in this forum. I just couldn't imagine that one more voice would be able to add significantly to that massive amount of coverage, and there are, of course, many other important subjects that deserve examination and discussion. I've continued to follow the war coverage, and I don't mean from major U.S. media sources, which I long ago wrote off as irrelevant puppets for whatever political party is in power.

Why am I then compelled to speak up again, and add my voice to the din? I have no insider information to thrill you... not even 4th-hand, as most of it is. What I want to add is this perspective:

None of us should be at all surprised at what has transpired. It has all happened before, more than once. It has happened enough times, with enough similarity, that the basic steps were, if not predictable, certainly recognizable when they happened.

War is political. War is waged by governments, not by nations. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, this is not the U.S. attacking Iraq, it's the Bush administration attacking the Hussein administration. War is waged for political reasons. How long are we all going to pretend to believe otherwise, and why?

Is it because most Americans feel some allegiance to one of the two major parties, and understand that to damn one party for political warfare means that we'll have to admit that our own favorite has done the same... and probably would under these circumstances? 

We have the hypocritical farce now of Democratic candidates trying to make hay of Bush's "fall from grace", hoping we will assume that they would have done otherwise. Only someone who has their heart set on believing that Democrats are different could buy into their righteous protestations. Notice that Howard Dean is the most outspoken now. If you believe that's because he's different, divest yourself of that illusion. He has the advantage of having not been a Washington insider, so he can avoid being smeared with the war-cooperative actions of Democrats in Congress. He can get away with more without seeming hypocritical.

All of this digging into the minutiae of the war and its manipulations is not to discover the truth, but to prove it... to nail the administration for doing what most of our Presidents have done. I remind you that even this tragic, unforgivable War on Iraq is nothing compared to Lyndon Johnson's %#^&$ Vietnam.

I actually have some sympathy now for those who call themselves Republicans, but no more sympathy than I had for Democrats who were cursed with the shenanigans of Clinton. As did Clinton's loyalists, embarassed Republicans will try hard to shift emphasis away from wrongdoing and concentrate on the "great good" their man did. To anyone with loyalties to neither party, it's a pathetic act to watch.

How many disastrous policies are we going to have perpetrated in our name before we understand that major-party politicians are good at only one thing... saying whatever it takes to get elected and reelected. They are not, as Americans seem determined to believe, superior beings with great knowledge and wisdom.

Politicians do have power, and Power does corrupt. It has corrupted both major political parties and thus it has corrupted our government, and that is why our government continually does inconceivable, immoral, unworkable things, regardless of who currently wields the power. That is why we have Presidents taking us to war for no other reason than to improve their political strength.

Two power-hungry political organizations butting heads decade after decade, so corrupt that they're guilty of collusion in blocking opposition parties. So corrupt that they pay no more heed to their own platforms than we do to "Do Not Remove" tags on mattresses. So corrupt that they twist their own new players into compliance. So corrupt that they're willing to expand our government into an out-of-control monster... just to increase their own power.

We were once an exciting nation. America was the inspiration for the world... the hope for others with less freedom... the dream that life could be filled with opportunity for those willing to earn it. That once-great nation has been bastardized by power politics... corrupted by the twin ideologies we once fought - fascism and socialism. Our government has made many citizens dependent on a wide variety of welfare, and handicapped many others under the fist of oppressive controls. Many more citizens are simply being carefully compliant, hoping to avoid trouble.

The independent spirit and work ethic that built the U.S. is slowly being ground into submission. Taking, through government, rather than earning, through individual effort, is becoming the new American way, and the cancerous growth feeding off that is two power-mongering political monstrosities.

If you haven't already...

It's time for every American to dump their allegiance to these corrupt organizations. This is not a damned football game with a winner and a loser. There are NO winners in our elections... we're all losers, and our future generations are the serious losers.

We need a wake-up call... a clear message to all politicians that can't be misunderstood, can't be spun into something else, and can't be ignored. We need a message that we're fed up with power politics of all kinds. We need a message that we're tired of being told by political stooges that they know more about running our lives than we do, and that we're sick of having the world hate us because of what our government does in our name. Those who don't hate us make fun of us for what we've allowed our government to become.

I'm asking you to stop your support of either of the two major parties. If you're old enough to vote or contribute, and bright enough to have found this and read it, you know what your support has been twisted into. It's time to conclude that the LESSER OF TWO EVILS is still EVIL, and to stop falling for the "vote to keep the evil others out of office" ploy.

I know that's difficult; it took me a long time to accept it. I wanted to believe the lies so much that I made excuses for the liars. I hung in there because the "other party" was worse. I bought the excuse that the "other party" was keeping my party from doing what had to be done. I kept deluding myself that the next election would straighten things out. I cared, and I wasn't going to give up.

Eventually, my hope and optimism became battered by inescapable reality... neither of these parties could be trusted to do what had to be done... they were the PROBLEM, not the solution. As millions of other Americans have done, I dropped out, disillusioned.

That was 8 years ago, and I still get phone calls and mail from my old party, who can't believe that I've wised up to their charade.

Dropping out felt good. I was now able to look at both parties with equal suspicion, and found that was twice as much fun, and then... twice as depressing. I was now part of the "Independent" voting bloc, and really thought about becoming part of the massive number of non-voters... those who had just given up.

Tomorrow... why I re-engaged in politics.