"No one's trying to kill you," Clevinger cried in Chapter 2, page 29 of
Joseph Heller's Catch-22 WWII novel. ----"Then why are they shooting at
me?" Yossarian asked.
"The people of Iraq love you as their liberators. They don't want to
kill you.", Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld assures weary GI Joes and
Jills of the American Iraqi occupation force. "----"Oh yeah?", puzzled
US GI's should ask, "Then why are they shooting at us?".
Nineteen US servicemen have been killed by Iraqi insurgents since May
15, with many others wounded. And further grenade, landmine, and
machine gun attacks against US personnel becoming a daily affair. And
also, of course, six British solders were killed and eight wounded in
attacks Tuesday. Its the tired old "Catch-22" being played all over
again: The hollow words of US Republican neoconservitives piously
insist that Iraqi people want us there, but the reality of Iraqi bullets
stitching American and British bodies graphically proves otherwise.
How many returning body bags will it take to make US public realize that
our nation has been lead down the path to disaster in Iraq?
Well---whatever the number turns out to be---it's beginning to look like
we'll eventually attain it. Arrgo