Jonathan Flores just graduated last year from John Jay High School in San Antonio. He was a polite kid, active in his school, with twin kid brothers who idolized him.
"Flores . . . was killed Tuesday in Iraq by a roadside bomb near Fallujah."
There were no WMDs.
There was no link between Saddam and 9/11.
But Jonathan Flores is dead. Another sacrifice to the egos of a few megalomaniacs with way too much power and way too little humanity. Another sacrifice to making the reputation of a man who doesn't want to be known as just "the son." Another sacrifice, in short, to stupidity.
Jonathan was only 18 years old.
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Did I ever get you a copy of the Levellers song "Another Man's Cause"? It's running through my head a lot lately...
Every day she sees your face
On the picture on the fireplace
With your brother as he was leaving school
Then a day came five years ago
You said, "Mother, I need to know"
And you spoke the words your brother spoke before
"I seen the things my Daddy's done
And I've seen the medals that he won
And I know this is what he would have wanted for me."
But your daddy, well he died in the Falklands
Fighting for another man's cause
And your brother he was killed in the last war
And your mother, well she's lying home alone
Now she wonders at it all
Just in whose name do these brave young heroes fall
And how many more are going to answer that call
They're going to fight and die in another country's war
They're going to die for a religion they don't believe in at all
They're going to die in a place they should never've been at all
Never have been at all
Don't forget the CIA report acknowledging that the war has created a better, more diverse training ground for militants who could take their newly practiced skills to cause trouble in other countries, including the US. Canada's intelligence agency notes that the war with the Sunnis might especially create problems around the world since most Sunni Muslims live outside the Middle East.
Meanwhile, recruiters are falling well short of their goals because only the most desperate kids want to sign up for duty; our soldiers are asked to buy or make some of their own equipment because their leaders have failed to provide them with necessities in the field; and our military is stretched to its limit even as Bush, Cheney, and Rice are rattling sabres at Syria, Iran, and Venezuela. (Nukes in North Korea? Strife and poverty in Africa? Wha? Maybe that stuff will just go away....) Jonathan Flores and 1,727 other US soldiers are dead, and 12,855 US soldiers wounded, for Bush's vanity and lies.
Last throes, though... Last throes. And Bush says he thinks about the war every day. So we have that comfort.
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