Commentary by H.G. Listiak
Politicians use tragedy as a weapon
Wednesday 2/18/2004
Welcome to My World, where it seems to me a travesty that a nation so unified in purpose and resolve after the disaster of 9-11, can be pulled apart and divided by partisan politicians looking at only their own ambitions to undo what already has been done, only to watch another pack of snarling wolves undo what they have done, not for the good of Americans but only for what they perceive as their own good. This bickering and cheap shot politics, blown out of proportion by a media eager to attract more viewers and sell more papers, does not show unity, only division. What is being ignored is the fact that we have an agressive enemy, full of hatred that comes from their very core beliefs. A very cowardly, yet determined, foe who has displayed on more than one occasion a great deal of patience, like a snake ready to come out of it's hole and strike. The thing that keeps them in the hole is a unified America with enough resolve to show them we are agressive enough not to let them do it again. When our politicians go before the nation and the world and say we were wrong, it only serves to give the enemy the perception that they were right. The politicians have even gone back to the war in Vietnam to try to divide the country for votes. Will the woulnds from that one never heal? I thought they had. I was wrong. It too was a snake in a hole lying in wait for the politicians to use it as a weapon, a campaign issue. Do we not have enough bad memories that desperate politicians have to divide us over a conflict from three decades ago? Hell, they are even trying to divide those of us who served in that era. The wounds fester again. I fear we are becoming disunified, a nation suddenly flooded with a vulnerability all for the sake of your mark on a ballot. I long for the kick ass, flag flying American determination that was ours a few years ago before the politicians tried to use our greatest tragedy as a weapon. Republicans, Democrats, liberals or conservatives, everyone seems to avoid the only label we really wear, and that is the most prestigious label of them all. It says 'I am an American', as I see it ... I'm H.G. Listiak.