President Bush stated last week in his news conference, “ America is at a defining moment in the Iraq War….”

He might add that to his now infamous and false statement, “Saddam Hussein hides weapons of mass destruction that are an imminent danger to the safety of the United States….”

Soon after his personal invasion in an unprovoked war, Bush strutted across one of our aircraft carriers after the ‘fall’ of Baghdad with his “Mission Accomplished” speech.

Since then, 4,000 young American men and women died. Another 30,000 suffer horrific amputations, burns, emotional mayhem, depression, failed marriages, alcoholism, drug use, fatherless children and homelessness.  American soldier suicides reached an all time high in 2007. Thousands more return to lives living on the edge of despair with post traumatic stress syndrome.  Doctors expect thousands if not tens of thousands of post Iraq War suicides.  In a recent column, I documented some 150,000 to 200,000 Vietnam American soldier suicides after active duty.

Yet, Bush again made his statements at the news conference like he repeats year after year.  “We will not let their deaths be in vain,” Bush said in his news conference.    Every year, more deaths, more killing, more money wasted and more lives destroyed.  Johnson and Nixon said exactly the same words in different phrases. “Peace with honor,” Nixon said. “I will not send our boys to fight on foreign soil 10,000 miles away,” Johnson said. 

Bush’s idea of making those 4,000 deaths valid is to go out and kill another 4,000 of our young people and wound another 30,000! Brilliant logic Mr. Bush!

While the Vietnam War raged, the draft snagged my roommate Phil James and floor-mate Mickey Jackson.  They wrote regularly from their perches on rice paddies. After two months of patrols, Phil said, “If I get killed, it will be for nothing.  This war is stupid beyond belief.  It’s as worthless as crapping in a toilet.” (Phil did get killed.)

Mickey wrote a poignant letter, “We don’t belong here and nothin’s gonna change after we leave.  It’s all a crock of s***!” (Bob suffered an AK-47 bullet through his chest and today, his body looks like strips of bacon where they cut him up to save him. He suffers plastic tubes for arteries, cold fingers and eyesight problems.)

Fast forward to Iraq with CBS camera crews interviewing soldiers patrolling in armored Humvees.  “I’d like to see just one senator spend a few weeks with me and see if he thinks this war is worth it,” one soldier said.

That’s the problem!  Dick Cheney enjoyed five draft deferments out of the Vietnam War. Bush II drank himself or never showed up through his time in the Texas National Guard.  The poor and unfortunate fought and died in Vietnam while corporations made billions of dollars. The Silent Majority sat on their apathetic butts without a word in protest.

I thought we would never enter into another useless foreign war again. 

But I was wrong!  The Nazi Goebells said, "No one wants war, but if you keep making up enemies, everyone will soon agree to war."

Another Nazi, Hermann Goering said, “Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. Why would a German farmer want to go to war when the best he could expect is to come back with his body in one piece.   But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

What’s the difference 33 years after the end of the fraudulent Vietnam War as we move into the 6th year of this deceitful and immoral Iraq War? 

First of all, Bush enjoys his own private volunteer army to sacrifice year in and year out.  Second, our Congress doesn’t have the guts or personal integrity to stop this incompetent president.

Third, I see incredible American Silent Majority apathy mirroring the Vietnam War!  Our own congressional members watch the death tolls mount while they yawn their way through their work weeks. 

If you look across the American landscape, virtually no one give a rats rear-end about the war. 

Last week in Denver, a city of 2.3 million, a mere 300 people showed up at an anti-war protest.  We send hapless kids off to war who think they serve their country for freedom—when in fact—they serve as a private army for international corporations making billions off this war. 

Are we trying to win this war?  Not a chance!  We would have to kill off the entire civilization of Iraq because they are fighting their own civil war. We cannot and will not stop their tribal cultural antagonisms today, tomorrow or 10 years from now. 

This corporate war rages because Bush dances to the same strings as Pinocchio.  Except, I don’t think Bush can match Pinocchio’s brain power. 

Finally, the American people--equating Goering and Goebells’ words—stand by year in and year out in total apathy as their sons and daughters die in this amoral and unprincipled war.

When history looks back at the vanity, the deception, the lies, the immorality, the depleted uranium filled bombs and atrocities of this war—it will report that a madman from our era replaced another madman of another era.  Mr. Bush provides us with this defining moment of madness.

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Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border.  In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece.  He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges.  He works to bring about sensible world population balance at his website www.frostywooldridge.com

Listen to Frosty Wooldridge on Tuesdays and Thursdays as he interviews top national leaders on his radio show “Connecting the Dots” at www.republicbroadcasting.org at 6:00 PM Mountain Time.  Adjust tuning in to your time zone.