Camp Casey: Hold Them To Account
By Bill Scheurer
A ‘war president’ vacations while soldiers are killing and dying in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan. A corporate media ignores the Downing Street Minutes scandal, the same way they ignored similar facts in plain view during the rush to war. The wealthiest few continue to pocket huge tax cuts, while budgets are slashed and debts are run up to pay for the inhumane and dangerous policies of never-ending war. Politically connected big corporations reap billions of dollars on no-bid ‘insider’ contracts in this private war.
Where is the accountability? The shared sacrifice? LBJ’s misguided ‘guns and butter’ program during the Vietnam war, is twisted in Bush’s hands to a ‘guns and caviar’ policy for the Iraq war. The rich prosper from government’s hand, while soldiers and families at the other end of the economic rainbow pay the price—no pot of gold for them.
But accountability is rising. Sacrifice is coming home. Mothers of dead soldiers gather outside Bush’s ranch. People around the country rally to their side, in candlelight vigils and other ways. The media wakes up to a story they can sell, albeit falsely told.
We must call to account not only the administration that misled this nation into war, but also the members of Congress in both parties who failed to stand up to them. When their country needed them most, they failed to answer the call—unlike the troops they send.
On August 13, in 100-degree heat and humidity, crowds gathered on Boston Common in support of Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace, with a banner that asked:
SENATOR
KERRY AND CONGRESSMEN
MEEHAN, MARKEY, AND LYNCH:
CASEY SHEEHAN IS DEAD
BECAUSE OF YOUR VOTES.
WILL YOU MEET WITH HIS MOTHER?
We need to see more of this. Both branches of government—the administration, and the Congress—and both of the established parties, have failed the most critical test. They failed to build security through waging peace, instead of endangering all of us with endless war.
Will we see ‘Camp Caseys’ popping up all over the country? As permanent settlements for peace, until the troops come home and our rulers are held to account? I hope so.
Bill Scheurer edits The PeaceMajority Report, and is an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in the 8th District of Illinois. He has worked as a lay minister, a lawyer, and an entrepreneur, and is now a full-time writer and activist.