LA Weekly

Hi everybody. It's been awhile, but, you know, shit's been going down. I'm no longer on the Weekly payroll, but I still love my friends and colleagues from the nearly six years I spent at the Weekly as deputy editor and hope to keep contributing to the paper. You can read about my departure on LA Observed (if you can get past the frightening photo) -- here's the link and sorry you have to cut and paste, but I don't really know how to work this stuff http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/04/la_weekly_eliminates_its.php

But that's not what I care about right now. What I really care about the anniversary of Mission Accomplished in Iraq, the notorious declaration by George Bush on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which the White House PR machine held up outside of its dock in San Diego so our Tin Soldier-in-chief could have his photo op five years ago. Since then, nearly four thousand US troop have died in combat, and nearly 30,000 more have been injured in life-altering ways, countless families have been shattered, our economy, already in structural peril, is lurking the precipice of a deep, deep abyss. The toll on the Iraqis has been exponentially graver in almost every way. There may be no way back to anything resembling order, safety or even the thinnest margin of civilized society for generations, if ever.

I know to many out there it seems like low-hanging fruit: yes, Bush is a fuck up, so what's new? But don't be lazy. It's not enough to say yeah, yeah, we know he's a fuck up and this shit is whack. The challenge is greater than that.

The challenge is to internalize, own and accept what a catastrophe this man and this administration has been. You have to put your eyes on the horror and recognize it for what it is, and it is exactly that: a horror. And not just for the friend and family of the Army Ranger killed today after serving his seventh tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan -- his seventh! -- who is doing seven tours of duty because the administration knows they couldn't possibly sell this this morally, ethically and logically bankrupt war in Iraq to American's on its merits. If it were just and justifiable, most Americans (giving republicans some benefit of the doubt here ) would sacrifice for the cause in the form of taxes, volunteerism, or even being drafted into the armed forces. But because the administration knows there's no way this shit flushes with most citizens with an above-room-temperature IQ, they're afraid to ask us to vote for it with our dollars, our time, or our lives.

Instead, they bleed every last drop of blood from the young (and not so young) men currently in uniform, until they're either ready to drop dead from exhaustion and PTSD, or their families have splintered, or they've done something they'll hate themselves for for the rest of their lives, or, like that Army Ranger, their number simply comes up.

This isn't about just about blaming Bush and this administration, though that's where accountability starts, and it's accountability that we're losing energy for as so many other challenges begin to overwhelm us. But more importantly, perhaps, it's about you and me accepting what's gone on here, looking straight into the heart of it and seeing it for the horror show it truly is.

It's a political season and somehow it seems easier to lose sight of this horror show in the drama and entertainment of a political season, where everything is reduced and parsed to its elements, but the big picture is lost. This war is the big picture. It's part of everything that ails us - the economy, healthcare, education, jobs, your well being and the well being of our national psyche. It's not just about the costs in lives and treasure, but about the cost of all the opportunities lost and the opportunity cost of this war will still be hanging on us like an anchor long after this seemingly endless nightmare is finally over.

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