You remember when we still had to go to the local video store to rent our movies? Wow, it seems like an eternity! Well, this writer remembers well one incident that is engraved in my memory forever, from one afternoon in late 2002.
I was at the video store rapping with my friend Kenny the manager. Now Kenny was a nice and pleasant guy, despite his conservative views. He enjoyed reading my columns, even if he disagreed with many of my opinions. Yet, when it came to the upcoming ‘War on Iraq,’ that the administration and the media was trumpeting, Kenny was on my side on that one: “We need to mind our own business, especially in places around the world where those regimes take our money and don’t care diddlysquat about us.” We both knew, perhaps for differing reasons, that any invasion of Iraq would be a terrible mistake, both fiscally and morally.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a young mother on the line, with not one but two kids swinging from her arms, shouts out “He’s got it now—we cannot wait any longer. He has the uranium—he’s a danger!”
I looked at Kenny who already was assuring her it was up to the people of Iraq, and not us, to take him out. She couldn’t wait to cut him off. “He can make the big one pretty soon—he’s got to go before he uses it!”
I asked her why this guy Hussein, or ‘Saddam’ as the Bush duo always referred to him, if in fact he even had ‘The Bomb’, why would he risk losing his power, his country and, most importantly, his life? Why would he use this bomb as a preemptive strike (sound familiar Georgie Jr.?) when it would be the last thing he would do while still alive? I concluded that men like him want to live as much as the next guy (or despot), especially since they live so well. They would all like to die of old age in a nice warm bed with their power under their pillow . . . not to go up in flames just to say, ‘Gotcha first.’ I intimated that the only way this clown would use any such weapon was if he were cornered like a rat. Isn’t that the time that all rats attack?
The mother of two swinging kids, with movies in hand, was now leaving, but she sent out one last salvo: “You’re crazy to trust this madman!”
I tried to answer her about who was the greater madman, but she was already climbing aboard her giant Land Cruiser with, and I kid you not, license plates that said ‘Support Education.’ I wanted to tell her that even a portion of the couple of hundred billion dollars about to be wasted on invading Iraq could go pretty far in supporting education, as well as better healthcare for her and her swinging kids. Too late as she was off into the heavy Friday traffic, getting her 12 miles per gallon. I guess this ‘War’ with Iraq could go a long way for her. Maybe occupying Iraq would release more oil and lower gas prices for her and her husband (We now know that did not happen).
Finally, I stood there and scratched my head in wonder. I told Kenny it is so easy for us to send troops into war, like we did in the 1960s when some of my schoolmates came home in body bags. It is so easy to send some other mother’s son to fight and die. What if this lady’s boys were 18 and 19 instead of 5 and 6, and we had a draft in place? I wondered how gung ho this Mom would then be. Perhaps she would load her boys into that Land Cruiser and gas guzzle it off to Canada. That is something for us all to consider. Before our citizens sign off and give our president the power to wage war without a congressional declaration, we need to investigate all the facts and all the options . . . and not just disinformation and half-truths. Hear that ‘Mother in War?’
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, Intrepid Report , The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at PAF1222@bellsouth.net.
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Remembrance of the run-up to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq
Posted on March 3, 2015 by Philip A Farruggio
You remember when we still had to go to the local video store to rent our movies? Wow, it seems like an eternity! Well, this writer remembers well one incident that is engraved in my memory forever, from one afternoon in late 2002.
I was at the video store rapping with my friend Kenny the manager. Now Kenny was a nice and pleasant guy, despite his conservative views. He enjoyed reading my columns, even if he disagreed with many of my opinions. Yet, when it came to the upcoming ‘War on Iraq,’ that the administration and the media was trumpeting, Kenny was on my side on that one: “We need to mind our own business, especially in places around the world where those regimes take our money and don’t care diddlysquat about us.” We both knew, perhaps for differing reasons, that any invasion of Iraq would be a terrible mistake, both fiscally and morally.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a young mother on the line, with not one but two kids swinging from her arms, shouts out “He’s got it now—we cannot wait any longer. He has the uranium—he’s a danger!”
I looked at Kenny who already was assuring her it was up to the people of Iraq, and not us, to take him out. She couldn’t wait to cut him off. “He can make the big one pretty soon—he’s got to go before he uses it!”
I asked her why this guy Hussein, or ‘Saddam’ as the Bush duo always referred to him, if in fact he even had ‘The Bomb’, why would he risk losing his power, his country and, most importantly, his life? Why would he use this bomb as a preemptive strike (sound familiar Georgie Jr.?) when it would be the last thing he would do while still alive? I concluded that men like him want to live as much as the next guy (or despot), especially since they live so well. They would all like to die of old age in a nice warm bed with their power under their pillow . . . not to go up in flames just to say, ‘Gotcha first.’ I intimated that the only way this clown would use any such weapon was if he were cornered like a rat. Isn’t that the time that all rats attack?
The mother of two swinging kids, with movies in hand, was now leaving, but she sent out one last salvo: “You’re crazy to trust this madman!”
I tried to answer her about who was the greater madman, but she was already climbing aboard her giant Land Cruiser with, and I kid you not, license plates that said ‘Support Education.’ I wanted to tell her that even a portion of the couple of hundred billion dollars about to be wasted on invading Iraq could go pretty far in supporting education, as well as better healthcare for her and her swinging kids. Too late as she was off into the heavy Friday traffic, getting her 12 miles per gallon. I guess this ‘War’ with Iraq could go a long way for her. Maybe occupying Iraq would release more oil and lower gas prices for her and her husband (We now know that did not happen).
Finally, I stood there and scratched my head in wonder. I told Kenny it is so easy for us to send troops into war, like we did in the 1960s when some of my schoolmates came home in body bags. It is so easy to send some other mother’s son to fight and die. What if this lady’s boys were 18 and 19 instead of 5 and 6, and we had a draft in place? I wondered how gung ho this Mom would then be. Perhaps she would load her boys into that Land Cruiser and gas guzzle it off to Canada. That is something for us all to consider. Before our citizens sign off and give our president the power to wage war without a congressional declaration, we need to investigate all the facts and all the options . . . and not just disinformation and half-truths. Hear that ‘Mother in War?’
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, Intrepid Report , The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at PAF1222@bellsouth.net.