I Accuse the Church and the State
God is not the truth- the Truth is god
Just Another Man
A Story of the Nazi Massacre of Kalavyrta
Bedtime Stories
Musings of a Cynic
Andy's Other Writings ...
- Open Letter to President George W. Bush from Andy Varlow
Open Letter to President George W. Bush
President Bush: Sir, the letter below was sent to you two years ago. Now, 2500 of our troops are dead in Iraq. I find it timely to resend this letter to you. I’ve edited it slightly. Perhaps you’ll have a chance to read it this time around.
President Bush: March 15, 2006
Let me get it straight. You are preaching to us that no matter how misconceived and miscalculated the war you forced upon us, and the Iraqi folks inside their own land, we have the patriotic duty to stand foursquare behind our combating troops until they return home victorious. As one of the 80% of the world’s citizenry who regard your venture as egotistical and injudicious, I find your cry for all Americans to stay the course on the Iraqi mission to be as flawed as your pious proclamation that “Democracy is not America’s gift to the world, but the Almighty’s gift to the world.”
Sir, even fifth graders know that way back when, a few sensible Greeks came up with the principal of equality of rights for all, named it Democracy and put it into practice. As a teaser to the pious bunch, I’d like to point out that the gods who inspired those ancient Greeks to “the rule of the people by the people” are all dead.
Now, I hate to sound like a smart-ass punk, Mister President, but if you were to put aside what the goody-two-shoes preachers are telling you and forfeit an hour of golfing in lieu of some itsy-bitsy reading, inside the Good Book you’ll discover that your Evangelical God brazenly embraces slavery, and that the concept of “democracy” is as foreign to Him as the cell phone.
I direct you to Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 44, where the All-Knowing commands Moses: “And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have--from the nations around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, who they beget in your land, and they shall become your property. And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as your possession; they shall be your permanent slaves.”
Mr. President, as a free citizen, I find the need to speak out. So every chance I get, I declare the following: “Americans, raise your heads, wipe from your faces the manure tossed at you by the spin-masters at the White House. You are the savvy citizens of the greatest republic on earth. Stand up for the values you hold dear. Show your true patriotic spirit by asking our guys in Washington, our employees, to admit they fired from the hip and missed by a mile on this ‘Imminent threat to the USA by Saddam and his WMD’ thing. Write to them and tell them that you will not allow a misguided administration to keep on plunging our beloved country, built on human decency and tolerance, deeper into the gutter. Order them to bring our troops back home to their families now! Tell them that the 800 bright young men and women who not so long ago were giggling and full of hopeful dreams, and who are now coming home in pine boxes, is enough loss.”
Now that you have evil Saddam chained up inside an underground cage, incapable of firing his bazooka to blow up Washington and the White House, isn’t it time to grant our Iraqi friends their immediate freedom?
Look, Mr. President! If your Christian soul is burdened with guilt for ditching the Iraqis before you have imposed upon them your own blend of “Democracy”, surely you will find solace in your own “wise” declaration: “Democracy isn’t America’s gift to the world; Democracy is God’s gift to the world.” What I mean is this: the liberated God-fearing Iraqis, deprived of a democratic system by that nasty Saddam, surely will receive guidance from their Higher Father, who, by the way, is the same Personality as your god, though those folks over in Arabia like to refer to Him as Allah.
Good! Now that I’ve done my civic duty and have delivered to YOU my patriotic piece, l am ready to take off, go fishing with my pals at Graeagle, our spring Greco-Roman retreat. You know the place. Hope you can join us for a brew.
Lotsa love, Andy Varlow
