GORDON DUFF: ANOTHER YEAR: CHRISTMAS TIDINGS NOT ALWAYS AS WE WISH

WATCHING OUR LIVES SLIP AWAY

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Is it just me?  After over 6 decades of Christmases, the idea of getting a tree pretending things are ok is getting harder.  I know it isn’t just me.  Families all over America, all over the world, are facing disasters, big, little but disaster.  It isn’t just the parents of our dead and wounded and those in combat.  Half of our kids are unemployed or facing it.  For the first time in our history, many of those in our military are better paid and more secure than the people they protect.

It is easy for us here, Europe and elsewhere, to push war out of our minds, especially when we are thousands of miles from the fighting and our families aren’t involved.  Long ago, there used to be two sides to war.  Today, not only are troops being killed, but, every day, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Israel, Gaza and an endless list of places, a trip to pick up food can end up as a bloodbath.  118 dead in Iraq yesterday and it got 5 seconds of reporting in America.

Christmas is supposed to be about children.  As parents and grandparents, our job is to instill feelings of magic and wonder, be it religion, tradition or mythology.  The word we have all given up on is hope.  We are supposed to give it to others, too often lying to them as we lie to ourselves.

Our promises, a better world for our children, peace, safety, not “Cheney” safety, real safety, part of a country and world not made of the hate groups and phony political philosophies sold to us to blind us to the reality of economics, those promises are hard for us to keep.

Government makes it nearly impossible for us.  Prettymuch all government really does is shovel money into the pockets of the few.  Many of that “few” is, of course, the government itself.  It is like having a family you never wanted, that doesn’t want you but you can’t get them out of your house.

You can’t throw them out, they are the police, they are the courts.  You can just stay in your bedroom, lock the door and hope the house catches fire.

One thing we are all sharing this Christmas is that nobody believes in anything our government does.  I keep reading how we all came together after 9/11 against a common enemy.  I must have slept thru that one too.  I was a cynic then and have become a genius, not an “Einstein” but more a “Jerry Lewis” masterbrain.  It all has to be comedy, things are that stupid, you just have to find throwing people into a meat grinder funny.  If you aren’t there already, just watch more TV.

During WW2, we had continual comedies about our enemy, Hitler, Tojo, Goebbels, were comedy figures.  You would regularly see the 3 Stooges strutting around giving each other Fascist salutes.  Now the closest thing we have to a comic Hitler is Dick Cheney.  Nobody can escape that one.  What do you say about Bush?  Elected is proving to be a bit of a misnomer, “chosen” by the powerful, we ended up with a clown in the Whitehouse.

All that is left of that entire era, other than the wars, foreclosures, unemployment, closed factories broken lives is endless footage of smirking, bumbling moron who, in the end, made most of us cringe to think of.

Nobody has found anything funny about Mullah Omar yet.  Some think he is as dead as bin Laden.  Could it be we are hiring our own enemies?  Are they all actors?  If so, who is blowing things up?

General Asif Haroon Raja of Pakistan says that Blackwater is operating as a terrorist group there, attacking civilians, blowing up public buildings.  If so, I wonder who they are working for.  I thought Paksitan was our ally.

Since Blackwater, or whatever they call themselves now, seemed to be working for Bush and Cheney personally more than America, could there be some personal war going on?  Can former politicians actually declare war on a foreign country, especially an American ally?

Whatever is going on, I am certain that 5 supreme court justices will find it all just fine and dandy.  I do so love the concept of “moral flexibility.”

Any 3rd grader who understands economics knows that big government, war and special interest groups are disaster.  Real “big government” isn’t the welfare state, it is our “bought” government working for the thieves who work every day to destroy our lives by ruining us financially, not the “national debt” but something more personal.

Take a moment here.  Why are all prices the same, gasoline, cable tv, satellite tv, internet, mobile phone, emergency room visits, milk, butter, eggs, car insurance, fixing a toilet, buying tires, everything, why does everything look like some huge bureaucracy has a huge price stamper and makes up how much everything costs?

If you haven’t noticed, we don’t need taxes to go broke.  We don’t need a war.  Try living without spending money.  Own a home, you are taxed to death,  even if you don’t have kids in school, you pay for your own garbage pickup and live in an unpaved road.  None of it matters.

If the police we pay billions for keep us safe, why do we own so many guns?

Money buys nothing but is almost impossible to get, impossible to earn unless you are guarding something in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Ever wonder how much of your gas or electric, water and sewage or other “utility” bills goes to pay off politicians?  I was reading yesterday where Barney Frank wants to take 3 billion dollars of the 700 billions “bail out” to use for its actual purpose, underwriting mortgages.  What Frank is saying, without actually saying it, is that 697 billion was stolen and he would like 3 billion back.

All over the world people want one thing, to provide safety and security to their family, not the imaginary safety we get from blowing up terrorists around the world, but safety of going to sleep with a meal in your stomach under a roof.  These worries were supposed to be just for those imaginary countries in Africa and Asia, not for Americans.  Now, it seems, “chickens have come home to roost.”

There is so little time for us to blame the liberals or neo-cons, stomp out Communism,  end big government, build a wall protecting us from Mexico, keep an eye on those pesky Canadians and keep our gay population in check while trying to keep the bills paid.

Anyone considering yellow ribbons again, this time to bring out troops home alive and well?  Anyone for more family time and less politics and back stabbing?

If we are going to take care of our troops, first, bring them home, get them well and see if we can help them get their lives back.  I am no longer comfortable with the idea of a 35 year old Marine Lance Corporal with a 60 pound pack walking thru Afghanistan for his 3rd Christmas in a row.

I don’t care if they are willing, I don’t care if they are able, wrong is wrong.  Those of us back here know better.  I want everyone here to enjoy Christmas but the idea that thousands of American troops are enjoying Christmas because they are hopped up on anti-psychotic meds so they won’t kill themselves makes this holiday season a bit surreal.

The medical profession has a code:  “Do no harm.”

Maybe this might be a Christmas gift we can pass on to everyone.

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022