Chapter 17: Earthchess

President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said he has the authority to act no matter what Congress wants. He is an insane little boy with frogs in his pants.

"I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward."

The people of America were too busy working for wages. Seventy people protested in the middle of Times Square. Nothing changed.

The leather-bound books in the study gave off a powerful musk.

"The president is the commander in chief. He's the one who has to make these tough decisions," Cheney said through his yellow demon-teeth with an unfriendly sneer.

Many [stupid] people have suggested that it would be wise to withdraw from Iraq, and stop killing people. They say that the war has no purpose, no merit, and absolutely no relation to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.

Responding to that, Cheney said the most dangerous blunder would be to give up on the global fight against terrorism because the United States has decided the war in Iraq is too difficult. That is just what America's terrorist enemies are counting on, he said.

"They're convinced that the United States will pack it in and go home if they just kill enough of us," Cheney said. "They can't beat us in a standup fight, but they think they can break our will."

We are murderers, not heros! We are spreading death, not freedom! The "insurgents" as they are called, are trying to get rid of us because we do not belong there! Go home, America!!!

People are dying for no real purpose, and their deaths have no meaning. They died for the hell of it, fighting for a childish political ideal that made no sense. Families are losing members to a mindless parade of violence. The disgusting bloated corpses of dead children lying amidst burning rubble. Hell on Earth.

In America, a wave of apathy sweeps the nation. People attend anti-war protests in the same way they would a Tupperware party. Cynicism is more widespread than ever. The endless stream of information confuses and overwhelms us, until we feel altogether alienated, depressed, and alone.

We are losing our greatest gift as human beings, that is our power of awareness. Instead we are becoming more and more aware of ourselves, rendering us almost incapable of communicating at all. We are losing our sense of collectivity and becoming self-obsessed zombies; islands of consciousness becoming more isolated by the minute.

Complete and unfiltered awareness of things "as they are" is the natural state of the mind. The way we understand things is based entirely on our own perspective of life and the universe--our very self. We appoint ourself as the viewer and the decider, and we "understand" or make sense of things in whatever way works best for us. But understanding, or comprehension, is an abstract and meaningless process with no practical purpose. Understood?

Like Bush, though, Cheney said Americans need to look at the war in Iraq as part of a much longer effort.

"This is an existential conflict," Cheney said. "It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years. We have to prevail and we have to have the stomach for the fight long term."

A greasy wad of paper embedded in a sewer grate. A tire puddle splash muddy water into your glasses, rape and murder. Parents roasting their babies in the oven. Crackheads stabbing old ladies in the face with broken bottles! Disease! Genocide! Mutilation!

Silence. Like a thunderous roar from the jaws of a transparent plastic toy lion. Insert 25 cents.

Please leave your soul at the front desk. Like when you were five years old on a grey day, lost in the rain, alone on a late road, nothing looks familiar.