If you are not with us you're against us!
Or, how to divide an already divided people.
By Dale G. Cox
 

Forgive me, but that has to be the stupidest thing an American President has ever said. Don't get me wrong, I do not condone the murder of innocents. I send my sincere condolences to the victims and family's of those killed in the 911 attack. Their murders were senseless and completely unnecessary. But I think I need to take a moment here to murder some innocence.

First thing, the men who commandeered those airplanes, subjugated sixty some odd people, then crashed them into the world trade center towers were NOT, i repeat NOT cowards. Time to lose the naiveté. Those guys had balls bigger than George Bush and I guarantee you they probably don't stutter like he does. At least not anymore. 

This mood takes me back to my grade school playground, remembering the day Billy Marshall stood up to Josh Miller. Josh was the school bully at that time. After months of humiliation and general oppression, one day Billy walked up to Josh after school and smacked him across the face with his social studies book. The biggest book we had to carry. A full two handed swing that left the right side of Josh's face beet red, but Billy didn't stop there, while Josh was still in a state of shock at even having been struck, Billy followed up with another roundhouse smack with the book, causing Josh to fall down. Billy jumped on top of him and pinned him down and began to punch his lights out. For at least a minute before Mr. Johnson, the PE teacher, grabbed him and hauled him off to the principals office. That had to be the most shocking and exhilarating day of my grade school life. Our school would never be the same after that. On the walk home me and my friends relived over and over the first smack, then the second smack. Social studies was our new favorite subject. We were elated, through Billy we had all finally gotten a piece of Josh, all our frustration melted away in peals of laughter as we replayed the role of our hero Billy. The only problem was that the next day, we discovered that Billy had been suspended for three days, and Josh had a black eye you could see from three classrooms away in a busy hall. He was like a Bear woken up in mid winter, hungry and angry. He strolled down the hall with renewed hostility to every guy he went past. We got shoved and pushed, our books slapped out of our hands, kicked in the butt, etc., etc. Where was our new hero? It seemed a cruel injustice that Billy had been suspended not Josh. It was like Josh could get away with untold amounts of oppression, but as soon as anyone smacked him, that kid was history. That became the worst three days in all of grade school history.

The moral of this story being, we all want to feel like the victor when we've been oppressed. We all want to see the Josh's in the world get what they deserve, Joanie Meyers. Not really, Joannie was the ugliest girl in school, sorry Joannie, I'm sure you grew up to be quite beautiful. But really, we all want to see the bad guy get his just deserts. Unfortunately, this time, turns out we were Josh. We've been oppressing the world and getting away with it for a long time. We finally got our black eye and our bloody nose. Now we're pissed and we're chasing around the school punching every kid who doesn't look like us.

I know the 911 attack on the world trade center was a bit more serious than a school yard scuffle. I know it killed children. But I also know that every time I write to my Congressman or Senator saying I want the military budget cut, or I want the School of the America's in Fort Benning Georgia, where our tax dollars are used to train assassins for third world country's so they can kill unarmed civilians, closed, or I don't want war with people I don't hate, or I want America to ban land mines, or I want America to ban chemical and biological weapons, or I want America to participate in the Kyoto treaty, or I want America to send a top level delegation to the International Conference on Racism, or I wanted America to condemn the Apartheid government of South Africa, or I wanted America to participate in the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, all I get back is a polite form letter thanking me for my participation and my taxes. Now all of a sudden they want me to give money, give blood, give support, stand in the line of fire, and be united with them, when they made poor choices, presumably in my behalf. Well pardon my French, but FUCK them. Who the hell is the American President anyway saying stupid shit like "If your not with us your against us". Who the Fuck is us? Cause us hasn't condoned a foreign policy that in the last thirty years, count them folks, thirty years, has managed to fuck over almost every little country on the planet. Usually in the interest of Oil or capitalism or drugs. While getting a lot of innocent Americans killed in the process. Will we all suddenly be eligible to receive dividends on the oil profit? Or are we just supposed to die for Nationalism? A lot of Germans died in WWII for the battle cry of nationalism. Do you think they're watching us right now wondering if we will fall for the same trick Hitler pulled on them. Because Hitler's propaganda machine said alot of the same things our American media is saying today. These people are supposed to be working for us, and most of the time it appears the term "us", doesn't even pertain to the American people.

During the Reagan years we broke every International Law in Central America, and we're breaking those same laws today bombing the Afghan people. Starting in 1980, we fed the Afghan people over $3 billion in arms to fight the Soviet Union, then as soon as they won we left them with nothing but more guns and ammo to kill each other with. We call them Proxy wars, where we pay other people to fight our wars of Imperialism. Panama, Grenada, Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Cambodia, Vietnam, East Timor, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and a host of others. We've brutalized people from every continent on this planet including our own. Racism in America is alive and well and looking for volunteers, preferably brown, to play cannon fodder for its latest white vengeance campaign. So who the hell is a Republican President to say "If your not with us, your against us".  Is Bush prepared to unilaterally eliminate racism, homophobia, and all other forms of ultra right wing terrorism in America, including the economic terrorism we live with every day? Or are those of us who are oppressed automatically not included in "Us", unless we want to become cannon fodder. Is he prepared to have America say its sorry and stop acting like the global assholes we are, bring U.S. foriegn policy more in line with the wishes of the American people?  Josh Miller didn't. He continued on to become the high school bully, the local drug dealer, and eventually strong arm robbery ended him up in jail. 
 
 

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