Sunday, December 7th. Who remembers? I’m too young for that. I’m a boomer. But I read the books and I hear the stories. Sugar rationing. Until we moved from the big house in 1969, my father had a secret stash of things hidden in a secret room in the basement. There was thirty-five pounds of sugar hidden away down there. I don’t know what else. My aunt’s friend, Mabel, had her own stash of sugar packets. They travelled a lot. Where ever they went, Mabel would pick up sugar packets at diners and restaurants. She called them souvenirs. We knew better. She literally had over a thousand sugar packets. Gas rationing. My aunt lived in the city. Most of the year, her car was in storage. Every summer, for the month of August, they’d all go to the summer houses in upstate New York. My aunt would save up her gas ration cards for the trip. The nearest store was six miles away. My aunt and Mabel had bicycles to make the trip over dirt roads. (I think this must have been the period when my father was working on guided missiles in Key West. But, as I say, this was before my time.) We found out about this when my sister and I discovered the bicycles stored in the old outhouse, and asked if we could have them. Okay, so I rode a girl’s bike. We also discovered an old photograph of a husky harnessed to a red wagon. I don’t know where Buster lived, but he would pull the wagon down and up the hill when my aunt went down to the farm to buy milk. Blackout shades. Once, in the attic, I found some black window shades. I thought they were rather ugly. I asked about them. I learned about blackout shades, used to darken windows in case on an enemy air raid. These were left over from the previous owner (we moved into the house in 1948.) The old Erie-Lackawanna train station in Hoboken was built, probably, in the early 1900’s. The railroad barons were rich in those days, and could build themselves monuments. The train station in Hoboken was one such monument. It was massive, and fancy, and it had a 10000 square foot Tiffany glass skylight. During the war, it was tarred over (a rather massive blackout shade). It wasn’t until a renovation in the 1990’s that it was discovered (or is that uncovered?) again. (My dimension may be wrong, but it is a massive, and beautiful skylight.) Air raid drills: Through the early 1960’s, we had air raid drills at school. Every so often, we would have a drill. Everyone crouched under his or her desk for a while, or we’d file into the hallway, and sit on the floor. The nuns would lead us through a rosary, so they lasted for at least a half hour. Now, we find ourselves in another war. A war against terrorism. Again, we were attacked. In the last century, we fought a valiant battle against imperialism and tyranny. What was our answer this time? We destroyed the terrorists’ bases, and the country that harbored them. We have not, however, been able to destroy the terrorist organization. Instead, we attacked a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attack against our country. The reasons given for attacking Iraq have been proven to be blatant lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction. This was proven beforehand, and we have found none since. Saddam Hussein was told by the United Nations to dispose of the weapons of mass destruction. He complied. The weapons of mass destructions do not exist. There was no development of nuclear weapons. This was a yet another deliberate lie. Our government knew this before declaring war. Innuendos are spread that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attack. Again, this was a deliberate lie. The stories change. Now, we are told that the reason for attacking Iraq was to remove its leader. Saddam Hussein is/was an evil man, to be sure. There are many evil dictators in this world. Many are far worse than Hussein. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in other countries, by evil dictators. Cambodia and Myanmar have experienced far worse atrocities. Yet, they are not on our horizon. The Bekaa Valley in Jordan is the largest terrorist training camp in the world. Yet, Jordan is below our radar screen. North Korea, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Israel have developed nuclear weapons. Iran is developing them. None of these nations are on our list of nations to invade. The terrorists who perpetrated the attacks against our country were in no way associated with, nor encouraged by Iraq. Most of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia or of Kuwait or of others of our allies. Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks against our country, despite our president’s innuendos to the contrary. We were told that the people of Iraq would welcome us with open arms. Instead, our valiant soldiers are killed by guerillas. Many people, thinking people, have become disillusioned when they realized that they were being told lies after lies after lies. If we are going to fight a war against terrorism, not matter where it is, Iraq is a irrational choice. In the last century, we fought wars against imperialism. This time, we fight a war of imperialism. The war in Afghanistan is a war against terrorism. The war in Iraq is a war for oil. $87 billion dollars is the latest estimate of the cost of this war, and the rebuilding of Iraq. This is American taxpayers’ money. Is it coincidental that companies associated with government officials will be getting the lion’s share of the contracts for rebuilding? Our reasons for this war were put before the United Nations. The United Nations rejected our reasons. Most of our allies rejected our reasons. It turns out that they were right. There are no weapons of mass destruction. There was no development of nuclear weapons. There were no drones capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was in no way involved with 9/11. Lies. All lies. The war was ill-conceived, and in violation of International Law. The president signed a Presidential Directive banning political assassination, and then offered a reward for Saddam Hussein, dead or alive. Now that the United States has destroyed what little existed in Iraq, we are asking other countries to assist, financially, in the rebuilding. Most other countries called our war ridiculous, are asked to help rebuild, but banned from rebuilding contracts? World Wars I and II were wars against aggression and imperialism. The Gulf War was fought to protect our allies. They were wars for peace in the world. This war seems to have been fought to take our mind off the fact that we cannot destroy the terrorist network that attacked us, nor the mastermind behind that attack. And, of course, a war for control of oil. ~ © Paul (AHikingDude@aol.com) ~ December 12, 2003 If you use my graphics, please add my button and a link to this website. http://www.geocities/wcseptember2003/ If you enjoyed this page, check these out: Remember Pearl Harbor? Pearl Harbor Remembered And.......for many others, click the link for HOME. Home: Writers' Corner Index