Maine Owl

Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day) is a day to mark with sadness for all those who died the end of war.

Today my moment of silence will be a prayer of hope for the end of war, what Memorial Day is supposed to be.

My late father (picture) served in World War II. My dad returned from the war with his body intact, but his being was changed forever. They used to call it shell shock, now it's better known as PTSD. As a result of growing up with this great and gentle man as my father, I have felt from a very young age that there is always a better way than war to solve political problems.

That sentiment is conspicuously missing from all of this holiday genuflection before our Pentagon greatness. The leaders of our country, both Republican and Democrat, through their approval of limitless war funding and utter failure to even breath one word of concern about the myriad of human wreckage we are causing in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, have driven a stake through the heart of the spirit of Memorial Day.

THIS should be blockbuster news:

Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran
By ANDREW COCKBURN

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."

Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials. This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.

Of course on U.S. shores it's not possible to think about consequences in such a manner, but looking at this finding from Iran's point of view and applying the standard for self defense established by President Bush himself would mean immediate preventive Iranian attack upon the United States is justified by the Bush Doctrine. If Iran were to wait until the threat against its territory were to fully materialize, it would be too late.