Troops Home Now!

There are so many reasons to want our troops home. I can think of 2,325 to start. That is how many American Soldiers we have dead right now. That’s nearly four times the population of the Town of Vermont in Wisconsin. On Tuesday, that town will have a referendum question on their ballot to call on bringing the troops home.

Next, I can think of 16,653 additional reasons. Those are the numbers of American Soldiers who have been wounded. That’s nearly three times the population of the Village of Mt Horeb in Wisconsin. On Tuesday, that village will have a referendum question on their ballot to call on bringing the troops home.

I think of over 33,000 additional reasons. This is the minimum estimate of Iraqi civilians we’ve killed in over three years. It’s a minimum estimate because, in the effort to rid the Iraqis of Saddam Hussein’s brutality, we didn’t give enough of a shit to keep track of the number of civilians we’ve killed. 33,000 is more than the populations of Amery, Frederic, Osceola, Hayward, Exeland, Winter, Couderay, Draper, Edgewater, Ojibwa, Perry, Ladysmith, Egg Harbor, Ephrain, Forestville, Sister Bay, and Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin.

Combined.

All of these municipalities, and many others, will have a referendum question on their ballot to call on bringing the troops home.

I think of hundreds of thousands of Americans – family members and friends of the dead and broken. People whose lives have been irreparably damaged by this goddamned war who don’t show up on the statistic sheets. People like the Marlboro Man – who tries to heal himself from the horror he witnessed in Fallujah. This is a cost that transcends the nearly half-trillion this country is forced to spend to deal with the mess of Iraq.

And why did we do it? Weapons of mass destruction? Gathering threat? Iraq’s ties to the 9/11 attackers? So much bullshit spread by the Bush “Administration” to bully this country into supporting a war of convenience to forward a domestic political cause. America was so freaked out over the terrorist threats that it bought into a pre-9/11-planned war. Growing up, I read about McCarthyism but I never thought I’d live in a time where I thought I would have my love for my country so called into question as I saw it as war dissenters were rhetorically clubbed by those in power.

These are hideous times we live in. But the tide is starting to turn again. These towns and villages I listed above (and many others) are not influenced by anti-American moonbats like those in the city I live in. This is Real America. Regular Americans are standing up and demanding to let Washington know what they think.

This scares the shit out of Republican sycophants like Sykes, McKenna and Bill Richardson. I guess that when you’re safe in the knowledge that you won’t be getting any of Iraq’s sand in your trombone’s slide, you can feel free to cheer for the continued sacrifice of American soldiers.

Whatever. All I know is that Americans have the right to address their grievances to the government always. This does not ever change. Not after elections. Not during war. Never. The sycophants are screaming at us to sit down and shut up. But when America is largely against this ill-run war, we can’t be silent. That is why I’m voting “Yes” on the Madison referendum. There’s no doubt how it’s going to do here. But I’m more interested in the result in small-town Wisconsin – where regular Americans are speaking up. That’s going to be the story of Tuesday I want to see. Wherever you are in Wisconsin, if you have this referendum on your ballot, vote to tell Washington to end this now.