A Moment of Silence for 5 years of war

I grieve for the families who have lost a loved one. I grieve for the soldiers who have come home wounded, missing limbs, or emotionally damaged. I grieve for our country as we awaken to the fact that the cost of war is high. I grieve for the loss of justice as elected leaders try to justify warrantless wiretapping, detention without trial, and torture of prisoners. I pray that we elect new leadership whose moral compass is the U.S. Constitution, the Golden Rule, and the rule of law. May we make the right decision. Amen.

Five years ago, President Bush gave the order to invade Iraq. He convinced Congress, the press, and a majority of the American people that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was working in league with the same terrorists who carried out the attacks of 9/11.

It was false.

The U.S. Government knew that Saddam Hussein ran a secular government and had nothing to do with the radical Osama bin Laden. The U.S. Government knew that our own weapons inspectors had found no WMD in Iraq before the war. The U.S. Government knew and had been told by generals and State Department personnel that occupying and rebuilding Iraq would be long, hard and costly. But, no one could stop it. The flags were waived, the songs were sung, the press embedded, and we were off to war.

I grieve for America. How poorly we have been led. Six and a half years after 9/11, the mastermind of 9/11 is still free. Who could have imagined that America would stop chasing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan so we could start a war in Iraq?

I remember when Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. The Iran hostage crisis made Ted Koppel a household name and launched the program later called "Nightline". Every night after the 10 o'clock news, Ted Koppel would begin his evening summary of the events by announcing how many days the American diplomats had been hostages. "It's day 142 of the Iranian Hostage Crisis." "It's day 213 of the Iranian Hostage Crisis." "It's day 414 of the Iranian Hostage Crisis." It was a daily drum beat that drove Jimmy Carter from office.

Today, we have nothing like that. If we did, the newscaster would start his broadcast by saying, "It's been 2470 days since 9/11, and Osama bin Laden is STILL free."

I grieve for the loss of a free press, one that is free from influence from its corporate owners. I grieve because I don't think America has learned the right lessons from the Iraq debacle. I grieve that Americans can't find Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan on a map. I grieve that the President didn't know the difference between Shia, Sunni and Kurd before starting a war. I grieve that we have wasted 30 years that we could have used to establish energy independence.

So, I take another moment of silence to pray for America, then I'm going back to the work of electing new leaders for our country, state, county and city. I hope you will join me.