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Showing Original Post only (View all)The Sugar Makes the Poison Taste Sweet [View all]
President Barack Obama reviews his speech one last time while waiting in a room at the U.S. Capitol
prior to delivering the State of the Union address in the House Chamber in Washington, DC, January 28, 2014.
(Photo: Pete Souza / White House)
The Sugar Makes the Poison Taste Sweet
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Thursday 30 January 2014
The President of the United States gave the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and if you ask the right people, they'll tell you it was well and truly a barn-burner. President Obama dropped so many left-leaning, frown-inducing lines on the Republicans arrayed before him that Speaker Boehner, visible over the president's shoulder, changed hues from his standard orange to alarming red to call-the-paramedics purple on several notable occasions.
(snip)
But then, if you're smart, you read the damned speech in detail...and if you did, like as not you have some serious questions to ask.
(snip)
And then...and then, there was Cory Remsburg, the last invited guest Mr. Obama made note of. Remsburg, an Army Ranger, was injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan during his tenth deployment.
His tenth deployment.
His tenth deployment.
Cory Remsburg rose up before that parliament of whores, disfigured, maimed for life, and was duly recognized for his service and devotion to country. He received a deafening ovation from a room filled with the worst people in the country, many of whom voted over and over again to send him back to war ten times over, who cheered so loudly to cover over their shame...including the president himself, whose Afghanistan "surge" played its own part in putting Cory Remsburg in the path of the bomb that left him barely able to stand, blind in one eye, and forever damaged.
The President of the United States made no mention of the insanity of any soldier having to endure ten deployments, made no mention of the concept of actions and consequences, even as he stood before the loudest microphone on the planet. Perhaps he and his people thought the face of Cory Remsburg said it for him, and if so, that is another sorry example of the eleventy-dimension chess being played by an administration which is trying to run a country that only knows, politically, how to play checkers.
There are times when real leaders have to say things out loud into microphones, even when those things are so obvious that they bleed on the pavement. What happened to Cory Remsburg was wrong. It was, in fact, a crime, a long act of profiteering that has fed tens of thousands of men and women like him into the meat grinder, to be spat out into a VA system that is utterly overwhelmed and paralyzed before the avalanche of bodies it is tasked to help.
Instead, Mr. Obama said this: "My fellow Americans, men and women like Cory remind us that America has never come easy. Our freedom, our democracy, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged. But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress..."
We have put those things aside? Cory Remsburg, and the tens of thousands of soldiers who share his damage, cannot put those things aside. Mr. Obama turned that soldier's plight into a pep rally for the country that fed him to the bomb that almost killed him. "Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes" was the only apology that ravaged Ranger got from his Commander in Chief. He deserved far more than that, as do all the men and women not lucky enough to get applause from Congress on television.
It is easy peasy for politicians to talk about putting difficult issues "aside," out of mind, away. That's the bread and butter of the Teflon not-my-problem political hack. Leaders, real leaders, address those difficult issues head-on. They challenge we the people to take them head-on, as well, and that is how we heal and rise and move on. That did not happen on Tuesday night. Again.
If you ask the right people, they'll tell you it was a great speech.
Ask me, and I'll tell you I saw a man talk like an Occupy protester while promoting the same tired, failed economic principles that spawned our yawning inequality in the first place. I saw a man talk like a Greenpeace activist while promoting or ignoring the dirtiest fuel industries in the business. I saw a man honor a ten-times-deployed wounded veteran with an "Oops." I saw a man talking very eloquently out of both sides of his mouth, again, and it made me sick in my soul.
"Between the idea and the reality," said a poet, "falls the Shadow."
It's the sugar that makes the poison taste sweet.
The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/21542-the-sugar-makes-the-poison-taste-sweet
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Will's point is that this young man should NEVER have been sent on 10 deployments
Lydia Leftcoast
Jan 2014
#67
Yes sadly we have a society that promotes those sacrifices. Propaganda portrays being a fighting man
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#112
but THAT doesn't give ANYONE the right to call him a "tool or prop" He wasn't forced to be there...
VanillaRhapsody
Jan 2014
#218
Honored him? By having him blown up instead of brought home like the majority has wanted since
grahamhgreen
Jan 2014
#101
Are you expecting people to change their minds for political reasons? I know I won't, I haven't
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#229
He understands perfectly. And just for the record. The Iraq War was NOT a mistake
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#110
Thank you Titonwan. I agree with everything you said. It is cruel to send soldiers into that
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#227
I agree with you,MM. Remsburg was not ignored but honored. Showing him and the horrors of war
The Wielding Truth
Jan 2014
#209
Why, what do you think will happen? I will tell him what I think then. I will
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#111
It's much easier to follow a strong leader than to think for yourself. nm
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#192
No they did not. Airc using troops at the SOTU used to cause major OUTRAGE on Democratic forums.
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#230
calling someone a prop denies their independent agency or is an attack on their choices
arely staircase
Jan 2014
#50
It is sickening. There has been a lot of sickening stuff around here lately. Good to see it out
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#113
How many times are you going to drag right wing sites like Breitbart to DU? I thought
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#237
You were calling out Breitbart? I and many others thought you were calling out a DUer!
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#242
breitbart, fox, frerepublic etc who are saying the president is using a wounded vet as a prop
arely staircase
Jan 2014
#243
I wouldn't know, I don't frequent such vile Right Wing garbage. Rep Peter King and Sarah Palin agree
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#245
As I said, I give no time, hits, credit to Right Wing garbage sites, why are you doing so?
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#247
Why is the entire Republican establishment of morons on the same side as the President on
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#251
I don't put anyone on ignore. I can stand up for what I believe in and have no fear of defending my
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#262
Maybe he just wanted to give you the opportunity to post another not so subtle name calling OP
cui bono
Jan 2014
#275
Well said. Politicians love to get all weepy over soldiers and corpses they sent to kill and die.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jan 2014
#25
no, he's whining because the President didn't use the soldier as a prop, because
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#63
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a dead soldier who died in Bush's war. You are revealing
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#255
She is a fucking insane LaRouchie. Her being the mother of a dead soldier
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#256
She is a grieving mother, a victim of Bush's lies. I fucking don't CARE what her politics are.
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#258
Cindy Sheehan also has a very moving story, maybe you should read it sometime. So does every
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#266
When DU still believed that unjust wars and liars who promoted them should be called out
Generic Other
Jan 2014
#293
Cap is being facetious, it's his or her schtick whenever Will is criticized.
great white snark
Jan 2014
#64
Well that's different then....he isn't really Capt Obvious....he is Capt. Obtuse!
VanillaRhapsody
Jan 2014
#66
Nice that this time, you used Sgt. Remsburg's name...but here's a better-written article about
msanthrope
Jan 2014
#39
Okay. I'm sorry. I was about to get all disgusted with this thread and then I saw your post
Number23
Jan 2014
#100
The people who NEED to read this, the whores who occupy Congress and Washington
DainBramaged
Jan 2014
#46
Shame you're delving into fiction now and doubling down on the hatred is deplorable.
great white snark
Jan 2014
#58
You have your opinion, I have mine which is radically different. I won't insult you but tell you I
uppityperson
Jan 2014
#65
I verge on agreeing re:Pitt. Over time, political opinion writers seem to just write to their
KittyWampus
Jan 2014
#289
The only reason I would have the draft is because that would end the war tommorrow.
marble falls
Jan 2014
#117
History shows it never has and rather than working to get congress to pass an equitable draft none
uppityperson
Jan 2014
#197
The loyalists dont recognize that rhetoric is a tool used by politicians in speeches.
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#128
The haters are too busy spewing hatred toward whistle-blowers. Asking for
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#195
I agree with your post and hope you didnt think I was calling you a loyalist.
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#295
The gains? Oh that's right corporate profits are at an all time high. The Corporatists
rhett o rick
Jan 2014
#236