JABbering Stooge

Though it pains me to admit this, the true human cost of Bush’s Iraq quagmire has been something of an abstract excercise for me and those don’t yet know someone who knows someone who was killed for the giant pack of lies that Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were willing to commit treason for. Sure, I could shout from the rooftops about all the hell this was causing the families left behind, torn apart by blood and distance; those soldiers who did make it back scarred physically and/or mentally having to pick up the pieces of their lives, but it never really impinged on me the way it does for those with more direct experience of war and loss - until today.

Buried in the Metro and State section of today’s Austin American-Statesman was an article about a local Marine who was killed - Cpl. Steven Gill, who was killed by an IED in Iraq last week. I first heard his name mentioned on the news the other night, but for some reason the name didn’t register in my mind until I read that he was a fellow Westwood High School graduate (though a year behind me) and that he had received a black belt in Kuk Sool Won, the very same martial art that I study. It all came back to me; he was a good friend of one of my friends - they often went to the same Kuk Sool class. I last saw him back in October (I remember it because it was the night of a total lunar eclipse), when he, some other acquaintences and I hung out at my friend’s place after my friend and I had gotten off of work for the evening.

Although I didn’t know him very well, I was around him enough to know that he was definately someone worth knowing, and that (at least to my perception) he always carried a boundless energy, engaging sense of humor and strong sense of personal honor wherever he went. His death is a tragedy that should not have happened, and probably wouldn’t have happened if Bush had kept his eye on the ball and gone after bin Laden like he’d promised in the aftermath of 9/11.

I would not presume to speak for his family and friends. However, in my eyes, the blood of Steven Gill and all the other soldiers who have died and will continue to die needlessly in this war, along with the thousands of injured soldiers and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians will be on the hands of Karl Rove, "Scooter" Libby and anyone else involved in the illegal, treasonous outing of Ambassador Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative. Furthermore, if any American citizen dies at the hands of a suitcase nuke that would’ve been otherwise stopped had Valerie Plame’s cover not been blown, their blood will also be on the hands of the traitors that Bush and his GOP flunkies continue to protect.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Jul. 27, 2005 10:37 PM)