Mad kings and other miscreant politicians are always willing to use their citizens as canon fodder to spread their own personal and skewed visions of grandeur. This weathered bronze statue is of a Spanish-American soldier. He stands on the north lawn of the county court house and I snapped this photo while I was on volunteer duty for the 5000 tombstone markers for the Afghanistan/Iraq wars on the south lawn.
There is some sort of plaque attached to the statue with words like 'bravery,' 'honor' and 'courage.' This soldier was lied-to. 'Remember Remember the Maine! and to Hell with Spain!' Yellow journalism was an instrument in fanning the flames of patriotism as newspapers throughout the nation decried the dastardly sinking of the U.S. warship by the Spanish. The 'cause' of the explosion that sank the ship is still in doubt, but it was the excuse that warmongers in the United States latched on to. Now they had a real 'reason' to declare war with Spain.
WMD's. Uranium from Africa. Mushroom cloud. Mobile biological laboratories. Al-Qaeda connection.
Yellow journalism as my post, Journalists as Stenographers revealed. This bronze soldier was fed a pack of lies, too. And, in his own patriotic way, he grabbed his gun and headed off to war to 'protect' his nation from the 'terrorists.' Bush's War on Iraq has killed more than the 3,548 dead Americans of this war. Interestingly, British Ambassador Hay wrote to Theodore Roosevelt that 'from start to finish it had been “a splendid little war.'
A splendid little war. Except for the 3,548 dead soldiers and sailors. No doubt George Bush thought the same thing as he stood on the deck of the U.S.S. Lincoln to declare 'mission accomplished.'
It is always a splendid war except when one catches a bullet in head or spine. Then, the 'splendidness' wears thin.
