Douglas Barber

A friend of mine wrote me this morning and told me about Douglas Barber. I went online and read The Heretic’s post on Fight to Survive and it was the first thing I’ve read about it. A Lexis-Nexis search turned up zilch on the story. Big surprise there, huh? Guess some vet with a shotgun in his mouth isn't the kind of thing that's gonna get a lot of press. Still, you'd think somebody'd be paying attention. Somebody'd want to get this story out. But then again, who am I kidding? I went over this whole apathy thing a few weeks ago here and to me, it’s still the biggest problem facing this country. All these flag wavers with their yellow ribbons and there’s nobody willing to advocate for the troops. I mean, where are the suburban moms picketing the White House in the name of the vets? It’s like when you’re in theater, you’re a hero, but once you rotate stateside, you’re just another fucked-up vet no one wants to touch with a ten-foot pole. Hell, we know the cabal in Washington is responsible for getting us into this mess but where is the accountability? Where is the follow-through? WHERE IS THE GODDAM OUTRAGE? Seems to me if I’d voted for W, I’d be raising a lot more hell than the hippies about wanting to know what the fuck is going on...

Seriously, you red-state Bushbacking pricks are so fucked up. You send’em off to fight and die in your name and then when they come home, you tell’em you don’t want to hear what they have to say unless it jibes with the approved White House talking points. You’re so blinded by your nationalism and misguided loyalty to the King that you’ve chosen to ignore THE FACTS. You’ve chosen to ignore THE TRUTH. You’ve chosen to forsake the very people who do your fighting for you. How can you sleep at night knowing you’ve allowed these assholes to pull the rug out from under our veterans? How can you look yourself in the mirror every day? You maggots make me wanna puke. You think I don’t support the troops? Fuck you – YOU don’t support the troops. Because if you did, Douglas Barber and every vet like him would get top of the line psychological care when they come back; the VA wouldn’t have their budgets slashed so Uncle Sammy can save money for more bullets; guys like Rummy, Cheney, and Bush wouldn’t be allowed to run wild killing every living thing they see, enemy and friendly alike. How much blood is it gonna take for you guys to put a rein on these monsters? How long does this shit have to go on before you people start voting with some conscience?

RIP, Douglas Barber and all your bros out there who couldn't deal with The World and took that final step. You guys deserved better. On behalf of all us who were here in the rear with the beer while you were having your lives turned inside out, I’m truly and deeply sorry. It never shoulda gone down like this…

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a different note, I saw this thing on the TV the other day how they were gonna have a blogger soldier from Iraq on CNN and I was stoked. I just knew it was gonna be somebody good, you know since the press is all lefty anti-war and whatnot. No way they were gonna put on some soldier who actually supported this thing, CNN’d blow their cover. Nopes! The guy they put on was sure enough gung-ho and go get’em and full of rah-rah spirit. So, what does this guy say when he comes on? How the press is getting it all wrong! What the…?! Dude, they put you on! How can they be getting it wrong? I mean, honestly, it didn’t surprise me that they put on some guy who was totally on-board (what’re they gonna do, put The Statistics on at 10 a.m. Sunday morning?) but then he comes out and tells them they’re not doing their jobs right. Shit, if I have to hear one more goddam time how the press isn’t telling about all the “good” things going on in Iraq… Man, the press don’t say anything they’re not handed! They’re fucking embedded! Do people really think they’re going out of their way to avoid telling us about all the schools we’re building and all the TP we’re handing out and all the totally excellent work we’re doing? That’s insane. Since when has the press not been behind this war? They helped get the ball rolling for crissake. They blew the horn and waved the flag and everything was hunky-dory until the CPA dropped the ball and the insurgency spiraled out of control and no one could get the lights on, and now suddenly the press isn’t “telling it like it is”? “The press is losing the war”? You gotta be shittin’ me…

Sometimes I think you need a degree in quantum physics to keep up with how unreal the reality of this thing is. The varying levels of idiocy, ineptitude, avarice, greed, corruption, and pure evil are astounding. Just when you think you can put a finger on one small part of what’s going on, you realize you don’t know shit. This thing is so out of control and what do we have instead of leadership? A president who’s never not on vacation and when he speaks says shit that makes absolutely no sense…