Dead for a Lie

June 7, 2003

By Mike McArdle

I didn’t know Kirk Straseskie, in fact my only contact with him was reading a newspaper article about his death. Straseskie was a marine who was killed in Iraq on May 19th of this year. He drowned after leaping into a canal to save four fellow Marines whose helicopter had crashed. By the time Straseskie was killed the newspapers and embedded reporters were on their way home. The staged-managed tearing down of the Hussein statue was just a memory. The little man who had started the war had taken his dress-up victory lap on the USS Abraham Lincoln and had film in the can for his reelection effort next year. The 24/7 cable news channels had moved on to Laci Peterson.

So not much attention was paid to Kirk Straseskie, who drowned after jumping into a canal to try to save four other Marines who had crashed in a helicopter. The war is perceived as being over and the fate of the new casualties only resonates in hometowns like Beaver Dam, Wisconsin where Straseskie grew up.

Straseskie and the other Marines that he tried to save probably didn’t ask a lot of questions about why they were in Iraq. A good serviceman follows orders and leaves the larger decisions for others. They had more than enough to occupy them without dwelling on the political issues that surrounded the war.

But Straseskie’s father had seen enough of the war to know that Iraq did not and in fact had never posed any threat to the United States as the President had claimed. John Straseskie who had served in the Army and National Guard for 26 years expressed anger at the loss of his son in a war that that he now thinks was sold under false pretenses. “He put our troops over there to finish what his dad didn't do. They found no weapons of mass destruction," he told the Capital Times, a Madison, WI. newspaper.

Now, far too late to save to save Kirk Straseskie or console his father, the press and the intelligence community have begun to wake up to the fact that they and the American people were deceived. We’re finding out that Colin Powell denounced some of the claims about Iraqi weapons as “bullshit” before his speech to the UN in February. A newly formed group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity wrote a letter to the President protesting "a policy and intelligence fiasco of monumental proportions." An Army intelligence officer told Time Magazine that Donald Rumsfeld was “deeply, almost pathologically, distorting the intelligence". Greg Thielmann, recently retired from the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research says that the Bush administration “was grossly distorting the intelligence” on both weapons and the Iraq-Al Qaida connection.

Kirk Straseskie will never have his own children or find his life’s work or be able to comfort his parents as they grow older. His life was ended sixty years prematurely because of a lie told by his government, the government that he volunteered to fight for. He almost certainly went to his death believing that he was in Iraq to defend Americans when it is now obvious that he was not.

Tony Blair in England will now face a parliamentary inquiry on why the rationale for the war now appears to have been false and U.S. Senate committees are at least talking about pursuing their own investigation. But the gravity and result of the deception demands a lot more than that.

If this administration cherry-picked the intelligence data or ignored the real data in order to justify a pre-ordained conclusion then they murdered Kirk Straseskie and the four other Marines that he tried to save, and dozens of other U.S. soldiers. And they also murdered a few thousand Iraqi civilians who in the absence of weapons have become the back-up excuse for the war (we had to go to war now to “liberate” the Iraqis).

If they sent human beings into harm's way under false pretenses then they have committed a crime, a crime against America, a crime against Iraq, a crime against humanity. And if there were real justice in the world then Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz would be placed on trial, not here, but in The Hague where the international law that they have expressed such utter contempt for is enforced.

Colin Powell? He should receive a worse punishment. The General should have to go to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and explain to fellow vet John Straseskie why he helped send Straseskie’s son to his death for “bullshit.”

 

© Democratic Underground, LLC

...is another Bush Murder.

BUSH LIED!

BUSH IS A TRAITOR TO THE NATION.

IMPEACH THE BASTARD!

...of a Con Artist and the Morals of a Thief and Liar.

Tell it to the Dead Marine's Dad.

26 Years in Uniform. Not the Liberal Wacko you would lie and pretend all opponents of that evil man in the Whore House to be.

BUSH LIED. PEOPLE DIED. It is really that simple.

911 - What Really Happened.

Why has Shrub tried to block every investigation?

Why does he not want the report to come out?

It can't be National Security because most of it is already in the Public Domain. Got something to hide?

BUSH LIED! PEOPLE DIED!

FIRE THE LIAR!

IMPEACH THE TREASONOUS SWINE IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

Unlike clinton, Bush inhalled a whole lot.

Drank a lot too. Alcoholic's annonymous i hear.

Man, that family is fucked up.

a draft dodger.

Yeah sure, he's got character, so does Yogi the Bear.

But below the camera, we got a draft dodger sending people to die.

Yabadabadoo!

is "lefty" suposed to be an insult?
is "righty" a joke?
Empty words with assigned and promoted meanings. No content. As usual. from Gush Admirer.
Opps a typo.
I ment to type Bush Admirer. Thank you.

...was admired by a majority of Pre-War Germans. Following your "logic" does that mean that Hitler was a great leader in your book BA?

In an age of "Cooked" Polls and Mass Psychological control a majority of Sheeple expressing "admiration" for der Fuhrer is not a very powerful argument.

Tell it to the Dead Marine's Dad.

the polls become the arbitor of righteousness.

Of course we live in a democracy, but lets not get lost in the fiction that truth can be judged in poll numbers.

I won't mention b vrs g, but lets think... according to polls americans want a national health plan. According to our faire and juste president, this is a no starter. Does that mean that he is wrong because the people say so?

Your arguement is off.

After reading all of the article and the comments I stop to wonder what in the hell any of you do calling yourselves Americans. This Marine has a name it's Sgt Kirk A. Straseskie and to his friends he was just Sgt Skie. or Kirk. Never in a million years did this MAN ever second guess his commander and chief (President Bush for all of you who have failed to realize) nor did he question why he was sent to this war in the first place. His pride and honor far exceed to intelligence any of you claim to have and he would turn circles in his grave if he actually gave a damn about what you thought. So before anyone feels they have a right to voice their opinion on this subject; stop and realize that the friends and family who love him will feel the pain of his passing for a time but it's the pride and honor of what he fought and stood for that is held in our hearts and will last an eternity. I wish he were here to tell you all to "SHUT YOUR HOLE" but thats what he has friends for. With love for Kirk and his family.

it sure took you a while to post.

This poor bastard died for wall street not his people.

And the Criminal and Chief put him in harm's way for $$$$

not anything else.

What you you expect from a coward, liar and asshole by the name of Bush.

This Air Force NCO stands proud and offers a crisp salute to the service, the sacrifice, and the memory of Sgt Skie.

God rest his soul.

Notice of Revocation of Independence. 2001

To the citizens of the United States of America,

In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium", "caramel", "balm", "palm" and "calm." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. Generallym you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary." Using the same 27 words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed."

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf.

3. You should learn to distinguish the ENglish and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard.

4. Hollywood will be required to occasionally cast English actors as the good guys.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen," but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up halfway through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15 % of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every 20 seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies.

7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 98.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. "Merde" is French for "shit".

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day".

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

10. Please tell us who killed JFK. It has been driving us crazy.

Thank you for your cooperation.

why don't you like Utah!

As for JFK, ask Bush Snr. While he still is alive, so to speak.

That was pretty funny.

Are you the token funny guy amongst the Lefties?

Finally...one with a sense of humor.

One note: If you force us to read the Guardian, I'm comin' after you with guns a-blazin'.

ahum...

i believe it is spelt humour

not humor.

this time, you're wrong. American spelling not english.

Did the Queen send you here to taunt us?

what if she did?

what are you gonna do.

james bond will stop u

fucker.

I shall now stagger off to weep, cursing the day I was released from the institute for the criminally insane, waiting for the next violent mood swing.

come now

for i was only joking

after all, james bond doesnt really exist you know.

That would be asking too much of people whose brain cells have been damaged by too much television watching. At one time in my life I used to have a heavy New England accent and people in the Midwest section of this country used to ask me if I was an immigrant from central Europe.