A Thousand Dreams

Where do soldiers go when they die?
Do they sail away across a patriot sky?
Or drift on the breeze of the lie
That killed them?

It is coming, and in Bush’s words, "We’ve turned the corner."

The numbers and names of the dead has reached 1,000 as the wounded, climbs above 7,000. At least those are the official numbers. This administration has always had a problem with honest numbers.

But numbers are numb. Numbers are faceless.

Sgt. Ryan Campbell was killed back in April 2004. His tour would have been over on April 25th but was involuntarily extended.

Go to thememoryhole.org and browse the photos of the wounded and maimed, now in recovery and learning to cope with the loss of limbs and eyes and brain trauma. Peer into the faces of Robert Acosta and Gary Boggs, PFC. Reed Rosenkranz, and Spec. Todd Rauch, Sgt. Gary Yoakam, or Spec. Edward Platt or Kris Atherton.

Find the faces of the dead and wounded, study them carefully and intensely, and what you see is the face of America, the face of faith and dreams, of love for family and home.

If you look closely, you’ll also see the face of trust betrayed.

The price of war is not just the dead and wounded. While Bush robs the future by plundering the present, he steals our hearts and hopes. The economics of war is more than money and casualty counts. Ask Lila Lipscomb.

Study their faces, my friend, and you will see the stuff that dreams are made of, dreams that die in the far away dust of lies.

The dreams of men like Bush and Cheney have become the nightmare of America. They revel in the darkness of their chaos toys, and keep score in secret. Their dreams are made of grief and glory, of empires and profit and the bottom line. The ledgers of their lies have no room for the faces of futures lost.

A thousand dreams have died. Thousands of dreams swirl in painful confusion. And America asks, is this what dreams are made of?


John Cory
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 11 September 2004
John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970