go ask alice

back to bush's speech the other day where he tried to equate iraq with world war II, vietnam and cambodia. one of the neo con's favorite past times is to revise history to fit their view. they do this with a lot of impunity because americans are pretty much illiterate when it comes to analyzing past events that have shaped our country. we know what happened to anna n. smith and can tell you which current heart throb or tv star is in what rehab center but to know our history, especially history that paints us in an unfavorable light the pool of "duh" forms in the collective eye of the public.

let us look at cambodia:

bush said, "in cambodia the khmer rouge began (after our withdrawal from vietnam) a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution."

let me quote robert buzzanco who is the professor and chair of dept. of history at university of houston: 'his analogy of cambodia is off-track. the khmer rouge slaughter was not caused by the u.s. withdrawal from indochina in 1973 but by the u.s. escalation of the war and intervention into cambodia in the years prior to that time . the united states had been conducting a SECRET WAR kept secret from the american people but not from the cambodians on the recieving end of b-52 strikes since the late 1960'sw. in april 1970 richard nixon (another neo con) authorized what he called an "incursion" of cambodia on the pretext of destroying the headquarters for vietnamese communist military operations there.

"a month earlier, however, in march 70, the united states had facilitated the ouster of the cambodian head of state, prince norodom sihanouk, and replaced him with a weak but pliable politician named lon nol. at this time, the khmer rouge was a small splinter group of the far left, without much popular support or military power. but the u.s. sponsered COUP, and the subsequent invasion in april, proved to be a great blessing to the khmer rouge. with sihanouk, who had tried to remain neutral in the larger indochinese conflict and thus was not preventing either the vietnamese or the u.s. from operating in cambodia, out of the way and lon nol perceived as a "puppet" of nixon, in office, there was no middle ground in cambodia. as a result, the khmer rouge soared in influence and popularity by exploiting the heavy-handed american political and military intervention.

"by the mid-1970's, as the u.s. air war against cambodia continued, KILLING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of cambodians, the khmer rouge was well-positioned as the anti-american and anti-lon nol alternative, and so was able to swarm in phnom penh and establish a regime in april 1975 and then unleashing a genocidal wave of killings that lasted until THE VIETNAMESE intervened and OUSTED THE KHMER ROUGE LEADER, POL POT in january, 1975. even after that ouster the UNITED STATES CONTINUED TO WORK WITH THE KHMER ROUGE supporting covert operations against the vietnamese supported new government in phnom penh and even, in the REAGAN YEARS, supporting the khmer rouge's claim to cambodia's seat at the united nations."

so, georgie boy, once again, you have mistated history. we, the united states, facilitated the killing fields of cambodia. the vietnamese stopped the killing. not us. brothers and sisters, the 58,000 american men and women who died in vietnam DIED FOR NOTHING! just like the thousands of american men and women who have died in iraq. FOR NOTHING. not our security. not our freedom. not in a war against terror. we are the terrorists in iraq, not the iraqis. we are the ones who bombed the cities, who have killed more civilians than the militias of iraq. we have caused the chaos. by our actions we have created MILLIONS OF POTENTIAL TERRORISTS WHO HATE US WITH EVERY OUNCE OF THEIR BEING. wouldn't you hate the foriegn government who invaded your country? who bombed your cities? who killed your children?

so today, we trade with vietnam and have china (you know, COMMUNIST CHINA) make our clothes, our toys and even OUR AMERICAN FLAGS THAT WE PUT ON THE COFFINS OF THE SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN IRAQ. and if that doesn't make you feel just a little sick in the stomach then there is something wrong with you.

down the rabbit hole we go. and our president is speaking backwards and i wish i had some kind of mushroom but the only mushroom we will get with george is an atomic one. just go ask alice. if she isn't in, ask the cambodians.