They will light the big Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center tonight. It will be on TV, on NBC.
I hope they don't sing "Joy to the World" or "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day," because it would be too painful to watch a world-wide broadcast of Americans singing "Peace on earth, goodwill to men" the day after the New President just announced he is escalating the U.S. war against Afghanistan, that the corrupt election installing the drug lord Karzai for another term is A-OK with us, and 18 months from now maybe a few of the soldiers will be withdrawn. It does not sound like peace. Sounds like war, more war.
For those who say that the new troops are being put in to help the people, stabilize the situation, that is so wrong. The military has one job, which is to attack, bomb, destroy, kill, take, occupy, control, with weapons. And kill anybody who is a possible threat. They are not an NGO. They are not there to run soup kitchens or free clinics for the people. Before they are sent in, the troops are issued rifles, grenades, knives, various weapons. They are not given schoolbooks for the children or building materials for the villages.
I used to work on 5th Avenue between 47th and 48th St., caught the subway at 50th and 7th Ave., and I would always walk by Rockefeller Center on 5th on my way home after work. On the day they lit the tree, the plaza would be packed with people and children. Sometimes it was really cold outside -- even if you pulled your hat down and stamped your feet, it was still too cold. So I would stand there for awhile, then rush to the subway to get home.
I still like to watch the lighting of the tree on TV. I know, I know -- Christmas is so commercial, Rockefeller is such a corrupt family. But I like the tree and the lights. Take it from someone who used to walk up that street five nights/week, it was nice to see the big tree with the lights, a welcoming guide to us traveling home. I guess I just like the colored lights. But it was fun to see the little kids too, so excited about Christmas, about the tree. But no peace on earth. Not this year.
One of the subtexts in the movie "Appocalypse Now" is the bitter comment by Capt. Willard that Americans could cut a person in half with an M-60 and then rush in with band-aides to fix them up.
ReplyDeleteThe "Hearts and Minds" crap is still part of the psych job being perpetrated upon the G.I.s fighting and dying in the present mess. I am dubious about the policy being taken seriously by the indigenous population, they have buried far too many civilians and they are more than cynical about U.S. policy.
It does provide a moral balm to those feeling a bit queasy about slaughtering over a million Iraqis and, what is it, 90 thousand Afghans?
The bs in this war is the same as the bs in the wars fought continuously since the end of WWII, forces of freedom, against insurgents, terrorists, commies, Islamo-fascists, etc.
Obama has shown himself to be the corporate lawn jockey for the front yard of the White House, I do not expect him to speak out in anything more than the soaring vague rhetoric which is his specialty.
Don Smith