Scott McClellan Gets Even

First of all I haven't read McClellan's book and neither have you because it doesn't come out until Monday. But I have seen Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove come out and say they just don't understand what happened to Scott. What in the world has possessed him to say such terrible things about the Bush White House? Well I know. And if you've been reading this blog for the last four years you know too. Scott McClellan was lied to about who was responsible for outing Valerie Plame. AND THEY LIED TO HIS FACE! Now at the time I wasn't sure if someone lied to McClellan or if he was just lying to the American people but I did know it was a lie!

Of course it was a lie. This administration was built on lies. First they tried to lie about being warned that Bin Laden was determined to attack the US. Then, thanks to the 9/11 commission we know the president was given a report titled "Bin Laden Determined To Attack US." He lied! Then they lied about Saddam Hussein either, depending on what day it was, having weapons of mass destruction, or helping Bin Laden plan 9/11. He lied. He lied so much that on the eve of the Iraqi invasion 70% of America thought Saddam did have something to do with it. He lied. Bush said Saddam had tried to buy yellow cake uranium from Niger in the State Of The Union!!! He lied. And he was called on that lie by Joe Wilson in the New York Times. This made them so mad that they outed his wife, a covert CIA operative who worked trying to make this country safer against wmd! She was actually working undercover to protect America against wmd's and they outed her to get to her husband. They lied. And when it came out that this was a plan executed by White House. They lied. They lied to their own press secretary. These fucking people. More importantly they lied to the American people. They lied to get us into a war they have no plan to get us out of. And when people like Scott McClellan tell the truth, they attack. Or when former secretary of the treasury Paul O'Neill wrote that planning for the invasion of Iraq began before 9/11, they attack.

In the coming days I'm sure we'll here quite a bit more about Scott and how he just doesn't seem like himself anymore. I'm sure he does seem different to Rove and Cheney and Dan Bartlett and George Bush. He's different because he stopped towing the party line. He is different because he got out of that fucking hell hole called the Bush administration. And come January 20th, we'll all be rid was these lying ass incompetent fucks!

Obama For President!

Wilco: Singing About My Life.

It's NOT Mr. Bush's War. It's His War. And Many More Like Colby Buzzell.

Return to Sender - Iraq Veteran Gets the Call Again

ColBuzzell

Thursday, May 8, 2008

When I voluntarily enlisted in the Army, I remember asking my recruiter about the fine print on the contract about being called back up to active duty once my enlistment was completed. He assured me not to worry, that every contract said that and it would only happen if "World War III" broke out.

That was a little over five years ago. After serving in Iraq, I elected to use my GI Bill to enroll in a photography course at San Francisco City College. I felt good, and I had a feeling that the days to come were all going to be good as well.

On way out of my building two weeks ago, I checked my mailbox and found a letter from the Department of the Army with "Important Document" printed in all caps on the middle. I immediately felt sick, so I went back to my room, locked the door, grabbed a beer from the fridge and stared out my window for a while. People outside were all wearing sunglasses and walking about enjoying the sun. I took a picture.

I got out of the Army three long years ago, and since then I've never really talked ill of the military, the people in it, or expressed any regrets at all about enlisting. If I had to do it all over again, I honestly would have. Granted, I got lucky and made it back with all my body parts intact. If I hadn't, my answer might be a little bit different than what it is now.

As terrible as this might sound, whenever someone asks me about enlisting, I'm tempted to encourage them. I figure that the more people who enlist, the slimmer the chances that I'll get called back up. But of course this is ridiculous: No one in their right mind would enlist now, whereas I've already signed the papers. I'm now going back to Iraq for a second time because people like me - existing service members - are the only people at the Army's disposal.

Looking back, would I have joined the military if I were doing something that I loved? Or had a job that paid $100,000 a year? Probably not. Those are the men and women I feel that we need to mail these letters to. Let's see what happens when they receive letters telling them to put on a uniform and ship out immediately to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many people believe that the draft ended the Vietnam War. I'm convinced that reinstating the draft would definitely end this war. Rich, connected people will always find a way to evade mandatory service, but what about the rest of America? The middle class - people with good jobs and nice lives - would perhaps riot if the government even suggested that it expected from them what the Army expects from veterans.

What if there were a war and none of the veterans who were called up showed up?

Every time when I hear about a soldier's death now - which is always reported very briefly - there always seems to be a short mention that it was the soldier's second or third deployment, and now my name might be among them.

I know I won't get any sympathy at all from the "you dumb ass you signed the contract!" crowd, which is fine, but I really was looking forward to applying my GI Bill to photography classes so I could learn how to take pictures. But now, thanks to not enough Americans volunteering for military service, I now have to worry about my picture appearing on the second or third page of my hometown paper with the words, "it was his second deployment" in my obituary.

Colby Buzzell proudly served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army and participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003-04. He lives in San Francisco and spends his free time going on long walks with his camera. This will be his second deployment. Buzzell blogs at http://cbftw.blogspot.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/08/ED3J10IGLO.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle