I will not kiss your f*ing flag

Imagine a universe where a man can gun down women and children anytime he pleases, knowing he will never be brought to justice. A place where morality is null and void, and arbitrary killing is the rule. A place that has been imagined hitherto only in nightmarish dystopian fiction, like "1984," or in fevered passages from Dostoevsky—or which existed during the Holocaust and Stalinist purges and the Dark Ages. Well, that universe exists today. It is called Iraq. And the man who made it possible is George W. Bush.

The moral vacuum of Iraq—where Blackwater USA guards can kill 10 or 20 Iraqis on a whim and never be prosecuted for it—did not happen by accident. It is yet another example of something the Bush administration could have prevented with the right measures but simply did not bother about as it rushed into invading and occupying another country.

With America’s all-volunteer army under strain, the Pentagon and White House knew that regular military cannot be used for guarding civilians. As far back as 2003, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld convened a task force under Undersecretary of Defense David Chu to consider new laws that might be needed to govern the privatization of war. Nothing was done about its recommendations. Then, two days before he left Iraq for good, L. Paul Bremer III, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because, as one of his former top aides told me, "we wanted to make sure our military, civilians and contractors were protected from Iraqi law." (No one worried about protecting the Iraqis from us; after all, we still thought of ourselves as the "liberators," even though by then the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib and other places were known.)

--Michael Hirsch --Newsweek, The Age of Irresponsibility

...in Republican Bizarro World, privatizing the armed forces "saves money" and "makes sense," even though Economics 101 (which Bush claimed to have gotten a B in, but really got a C-) tells you that a private army makes more money when demand for its services increases, and selling arms to the "enemy" makes sense both as a straight-up commercial transaction and as a way to increase demand.

Modern Republicanism is not a governing philosophy. It is legalized banditry. And you are supposed to wave a flag and give them medals while they rob you and kill your children.

-- Kagro X, DailyKos

I don't have much to add to the discussion. Except to note that the above is pretty obviously true, and if you still wear a Republican button come election time, you've aligned your electoral desires with murderers who've managed to create a nation almost singlehandedly emptied of the rule of law, not to mention common elements of morality that we enjoy here every day (still).

And they did it, remember, with all those God fearing and obedient Republicans in the heartland, who fill their Sundays with Methodist picnics and bean casseroles and in the white rural South, where grits and collard greens were the favored dishes, and, of course, where everything is done most sincerely and sweetly in the name of the 'Lord'; and in the shadow of the flag.

It's nothing new. We can harken back to World War I to find the same vapid combination of righteous Christian indignation matched to the jackboot of  nationalism that we saw last week in the Senate's oh so pathetic condemning of an ad that did nothing more than tell the truth about a lying General and a criminal war. I only hope that history is swift in sorting out the criminals, the betrayers, and the liars from this pathetic moment.

Oh, and e.e. cummings has a little something to say about this, too.

i sing of Olaf glad and big

i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or

his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but--though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments--
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed

"I will not kiss your fucking flag"

straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)

but--though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat--
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat

"there is some shit I will not eat"

our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died

Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too

preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.

Dedicated to Moveon.org

more brave than me:more blond than you.

•  Tips

  by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:15:47 PM PDT

  •  tipped and rec'd nt

    by Boreal Ecologist on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:11:24 PM PDT

•  Jesus Christ I love that poem

  I'd almost forgotten about it, but once I read the first few lines I discovered that I had at one point in the past completely memorized it.  Off-center meter and rhyme and all, cummings had great poetic sense.

  by slippytoad on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:29:11 PM PDT

•  Titles with the F word not allowed.

  It causes DKos to get blocked from some sites.

  Change title, please.

  by pucklady on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:32:35 PM PDT

  •  Um... title is changed.

    Just as an fyi, the title is a quote from one of America's greatest poets.

    Seems a shame --but I'm sure e.e. cummings would understand the mentality --you see, he spent his entire life in rebellion against it.

    by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:35:15 PM PDT

    •  this poem was my introduction

      to e.e.cummings.  When I saw your title, I knew exactly what it referred to.  It affected me profoundly as a college student during the Vietnam war.

      by indybend on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:43:45 PM PDT

    •  Sadly, those who would find an excuse

      to block DKos probably have no great appreciation for poetry.

      by pucklady on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 08:06:43 PM PDT

    •  You have altered the poem

      in an unjustified manner.

      I have cummings' Poems 1923-1954 in front of me, open to p. 244 whereon the poem is printed. The line in question reads (with emphasis added) precisely thus:

      "I will not kiss your f.ing flag"

      Similarly, the other line in which off-color language is found (or implied) should read

      "there is some s. I will not eat"

      (emphasis again added)

      If you want to quote a poem you ought to reproduce the text in question precisely as printed--especially when quoting e.e. cummings, who was obsessive about typography inasmuch as precise typography was (as you know) essential to his meaning.

      Please correct these lines.

      by Uncle Cosmo on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 08:53:51 PM PDT

      •  Uncle Cosmo, sir

        I merely copied this poem from one of the great tubes on the internets.

        Had I know my particular copy was in error I would have immediatly corrected it, but I want to ask, given the rather high profile 'editing' my title has had, how do you know that e.e. cummings didn't intend f. to be fuck and s. to be shit but was told to be published, he had to do otherwise.

        Until and unless you get back to me with that info, I'm keeping the current 'rendition' intact.

        I would also advise your future admonitions to be in a much less accusatory manner.

        'You have altered the poem in an unjustified manner', indeed.

        e.e. would likely tell you to  f. off.

        by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 10:11:16 PM PDT

        •  I have to agree with you, DM

          I clearly remember Olaf being presented to me with the fully-spelled words.  And I learned of him in English Literature classes, twenty years ago.

          by slippytoad on Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 06:47:47 AM PDT

        •  This is how careful cummings was

          of his typography: One of the poems appearing in one of his books was holographic, i.e., handwritten. (I presume someone cut a plate of it.) This book was one of those encompassed by the collection I own.

          IIRC (I will verify this when next home) in that collection it is noted that because the poem could not be reproduced precisely as originally published--i.e., a facsimile of eec's handwriting--cummings had asked that it be omitted from the collection.

          If there is any evidence that cummings himself wanted those words to be spelled out in future publication, then of course I will defer to that, but if it exists I haven't run across it...& I've been reading cummings' work for the last forty-plus years.

          by Uncle Cosmo on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 11:40:59 AM PDT

        •  Just FTR (since this diary has long since dropped

          off the face of the net) the poem in question is #44 in the volume no thanks (1935). Acontemporary review in Time magazine notes that

          Poem 44, for which Author Cummings does not seek wide circulation but which he wishes to "exist for posterity." will appear only in the holograph edition (limited to nine copies at $99 each) wherein Mr. Cummings will write it in longhand.

          FWIW, E. E. Cummings: A Biography by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno gives the title/first line of the poem in question as "the boys i mean are not refined".

          by Uncle Cosmo on Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 02:00:33 AM PDT

  •  perhaps, but it raises the DK profile

    at the NSA very high!  Happy trade-offs, no?

    by Compound F on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 06:47:32 PM PDT

•  Dude.

  And they did it, remember, with all those God fearing and obedient Republicans in the heartland, who fill their Sundays with Methodist picnics and bean casseroles and in the white rural South, where grits and collard greens were the favored dishes, and, of course, where everything is done most sincerely and sweetly in the name of the 'Lord'; and in the shadow of the flag.

  I go to church with people like this.   Trust me, they're not all bad.  

  by SpamNunn on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:01:03 PM PDT

  •  I'm sure their bean salads are very tasty.

    And of course they are not all bad, if by that you mean their daily life is not consistent with their passionately avowed politics of imperialism, war, torture and death.

    Excuse me if I don't find their private virtues to be of great interest.

    by Boreal Ecologist on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:07:18 PM PDT

    •  Unless you know each and every one of them

      personally, you are an ignorant person to say that.  I know just as many bad Democrats as I do Republicans.   I will pray for you.  

      by SpamNunn on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:17:30 PM PDT

      •  I'll pray for you, too

        with Love and Kisses
        and say simply this:

        Let the Great
        Allah Buddha Jesus Kali Venus
        keep you warm
        all night long!

        by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:25:13 PM PDT

        •  Thanks. You seem to have

          covered all the bases!  Sleep tight.

          by SpamNunn on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:27:35 PM PDT

      •  excuse me...

        ...I am saying that I understand that many of them are convinced Republican voters, from which the rest follows (given a very little poetic license). So I don't see how I am doing anyone an injustice. Thus, at least on this account, I don't feel in need of your prayers, though very kindly meant and taken.

        Save them for the real miracle, like a plague of poisonous toads, or a flash of enlightenment, headed for the White House.

        by Boreal Ecologist on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:32:46 PM PDT

  •  Never said they were

    I was merely pointing out that the evil from this war comes from the same pious place.

    How many church goers piously holding their hands in prayers vote Republican in the fervid belief that the Republican party uphold family 'values'?

    Even as they unleash hell on earth in another country?

    Sorry if you took offense at the descriptions, but the problem is the hypocrisy of those who piously neglect what the fuck they are actually voting for.

    A lot of the folks--exactly as I have described-- take comfort in their 'down home' country values...even as Iraqis are beaten to death in Abu Ghraib. And they don't blink and eye, because they are 'saved' and they are 'innocent'

    Seems to me there's a disconnect there that needs to be bridged and you can either help, or get out of the way.

    by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:09:30 PM PDT

    •  At least you realize that everyone is an

      individual and deserves to be judged separately.  Not that any of us are worthy to judge.  Bless you.

      by SpamNunn on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:19:35 PM PDT

  •  and just so you won't think this is personal

    ...my aged Uncle, Aunt and American Cousins are just such people. I know they are not all bad. In day to day life, if you happen to be of the right colour, nationality, education and class background, they are great people to be around.

    by Boreal Ecologist on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:09:35 PM PDT

    •  Prejudice is learned. Help them to

      understand the worth of every human being.  Bless you.  

      by SpamNunn on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:20:32 PM PDT

•  cummings was a conscientious objector

  and ambulance driver in World War I, IIRC?

  He's still subversive, way cool.

  by Elwood Dowd on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:20:16 PM PDT

  •  I love cummings

    he takes a huge anger I think
    (he was kept in a pow prison for awhile himself)
    and turns it into this brilliant understated poetry.

    He vamps on the i, making it small, but it's all smoke and mirrors. He's got one of the strongest egos in modern poetry. And, I think, in some ways, he's far more brilliant than the overrated contemporaries Elliot and Pound both of whom had academic chops, but whose ideas crippled their voices.

    cummings starts fresh. His voice builds his ideas out of experience. That's what makes all the difference.

    by DelicateMonster on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:30:58 PM PDT

    •  today

      we all have control of our typography and distribution. I wonder where he'd push us.

      I thought of John Lennon as our Yeats and Yoko as Maude Gonne. I wanted to see him as a sixty-year-old smiling public man, among school children.

      by Elwood Dowd on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:37:30 PM PDT

      •  beautiful image

        would that it were so

        by indybend on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:48:13 PM PDT

        •  He would smile

          and be thinking of Leda and the swan, he would not be at peace, he would be smiling at the kids, he would be frustrated, he would be a public man.

          Damn.

          by Elwood Dowd on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 07:52:15 PM PDT

•  Tipped and Rec'd for e. e. cummings! n/t

  by dantyrant on Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 08:31:15 PM PDT