U$er
It strikes me as unjust to speak of ‘The American Army,' or ‘American Government,' or ‘Americans' when what's actually meant is the United States. After all, Argentina is no less a part of America than the United States, but Argentina has nothing to do with the U.S. government or its machinations. Instead I use the term ‘U$er.' The term U$er is better than ‘American' because it's
clear we are not talking about Cubans, who aren't any less American than U$ers, nor frankly are we talking about U$ citizens who have no real say in their lives or their government, which is the majority of us. All we are talking about is U$ers: those who support and/or profit by the current reign of criminals.
The main characteristic of U$ers is their attitude toward the rest of the world. It is there, they say, for them to USE. Some of them pompously wonder if they are perhaps they are Using too much of it too fast, and soon there may be less for them to USE. People and other living things that they have no USE for, they kill without even a second thought, as they have for 400 years.
U$ers wring their hands that all their killing and U$ing might be affecting them psychologically, that their nightmares might stop them from a long future of U$ing, which they see as their birthright. It never occurs to them that their killing might have done damage to those they killed. It also never occurs to them that those they killed might have relatives who would want revenge. U$ers have no use for revenge, unless it is their own, and so they declare it meaningless. U$ers are surprised when anyone fights back.
U$ers have the most and best weapons in the world, and because of this they think they are safe. Anytime they feel insecure, they buy more weapons or bomb a city, and it makes them feel powerful. But actually they are weak and stupid and increasingly isolated in the world.
U$ers imagine that remaining ignorant makes them innocent of their crimes. After all, if they were just following their leaders and doing what they saw everyone else doing, then how could they be wrong? To a U$er, there is no difference between doing what is right and obeying authority. If you tell a U$er that this ‘morality' is the morality of lynch mobs and Nazis, the U$er will be insulted and either try to lynch you too, if the U$er has the guts, or (more likely) they will report you as a troublemaker. Being reported as a troublemaker means the criminal authorities might drag you away to be tortured. But take heart. There is infinitely more honor in being tortured and killed by the U$ers than in joining them.

Meeting a Blackwater Guy, For Real

My last paying job was as a video store clerk which derived most of its income from what the boss called the ‘family education section,’ or triple-x porn. On Sunday nights there was a dead period of almost no business from about 5:30 till about 5 minutes before we closed, and so I had plenty of time to chat with a visitor who came in then.
His name was Charley, he said, and he was from somewhere in southside Virginia. He did security work, he said. I was curious. I have done a little security work here and there, mainly bouncing in clubs. He said he worked for Blackwater Corporation as a courier. He was just in transport, he said, no actual operations. He said his job consisted of driving every week from Florida to Maine and back again carrying a small package. The package in the past had always been a computer disk, but this week he said it was a small heavy piece of heavy rock or metal. He said he was ordered to vary the route and avoid Interstate 95. Fo this he said he was paid over $100,000 per year. He described Blackwater Corp as the Bush family private mercenary force.
He was over six feet four, over 300 lbs. He wore a fine black leather coat that reached to his ankles. He claimed he had a record of 93 assaults, but I couldn’t tell if that was the law’s count on him or his own. I assume his own. He described the last one, involving alcohol and an ex girlfriend and Charley dragging some guy out of bed and beating him to a pulp. He said Blackwater preferred that recruits have some criminal record, ‘if it’s not too bad,’ he said, ‘a criminal record shows you’re not afraid to do what’s necessary to get the job done.’
He said the last in the last part of the training, he was awoken in the middle of the night, and told he was going to Saudi Arabia. He was given a side-arm but no ammo and flown in a military aircraft to a place that looked to him like Saudi Arabia. (Later he was told it had been Utah.) He was made to watch as apparent Saudis interrogated an apparent Saudi terror suspect, an elderly woman. The interrogation was pretty rough, he said, although all the talk was in a language he did not understand, as he watched through video monitors. When it was over, his commander told him that the woman had not had any good information after all, but that now she ‘knew too much.’ His commander handed him a single round of ammo for his pistol. Charley said he chambered the round, walked into the room, put the muzzle to her head and pulled the trigger. The bullet turned out to be a dummy, and he had passed the test. Now he was a Blackwater guy.

So it's all still here. I'm impressed. I stopped doing the web log thing for awhile, partly out of a fear that people were not listening, and partly out of a fear that they _were_ listening. But the time for that is done. As the Pirate Yellowbeard said, "Dyin' is takin' the easy way out. When they stretched me out on a rack for a couple of years, I didn't go dying all over the place. They'll have to kill me before I die!" So I am not going to shut up just for fear of what they -might- do.

Nothing I have seen in the past 7 years has shaken my conviction that GW Butch is nothing but an evil piece of white trash. He and his whole administration should go on trial for war crimes. And inasmuch as it was appropriate to try Eichmann for his Nazi War Crimes in Israel, it should be appropriate to try the Bushies in Baghdad. They should face Iraqi justice, and if they are found guilty, they should be unceremoniously strung up in their dank jail cells while grainy video cameras roll.

There is nothing that could ever happen to Bush or any of his people that could come close to equalling the magnitude of their crimes and treachery. And sadly, vengeance won't undo the damage they have done.

So if Justice will not right the wrongs they have done, or bring back the innocent dead, why bother? Why not just let them get off scot free? After all, that's what they expect. To a conservative, a public official being held personally responsible for war crimes is absurd. To a conservative, any crime committed by a head of state is OK, provided it leads to victory. Laws, to a conservative, are only there to give cops an excuse to beat up black people.

So as happy as it might make conservatives to let these war criminals get off, and still go around painting themselves as 'leaders,' or 'statesmen,' what will it say about the rest of us? If we refuse to pronounce the guilt of our leaders, then doesn't make us accessories to their crimes? Doesn't that make us part of the cover-up? Isn't there blood on all of our hands, if we will not turn over our so-called 'president' to face Iraqi justice?