"The Swamp's Large Perimeter"

by

Michael Hafter

Freelance Journalist

All Rights Reserved

On December 12, 2016 A.D., America was given another nauseating opportunity

to witness just how wide and deep The Swamp has grown.

Instead of confronting the mountains of evidence that the U.S. invasion of Iraq

was a massive war crime, 3 stooges in black robes dwelled instead upon
legal questions of such pivotal relevance as this:

"Is Paul Wolfowitz covered by workers compensation insurance?"

That might have been an interesting side note: it is well known among

underwriters that insurance contracts in general should not indemnify

criminal conduct, because the sky's the limit on actual damages.

If an insurance contract should indemnify criminal conduct,

underwriters are usually wise enough to set strict caps in advance

on dollar amounts they will pay out, when serious crimes

have occurred.

You see, The Swamp now has a perimeter that extends from D.C. all the way

to San Francisco, then up to Seattle, back over to Boston, and completing the

loop at Arlington National Cemetery.  How fitting is that destination, yes?

Let's touch on just a few historical tidbits, relying upon the sometimes perfect

(but not always perfect) recall of this writer:

Item #1: After spending millions combing Iraq up and down, left and right,

UN investigators finally gave up their search for weapons of mass destruction,

because there weren't any to be found!

Item #2: Former Secretary of the Treasury Paul H. O'Neill was fired by

G.W. Bush, because O'Neill had the guts to object at Cabinet meetings

where the attack on Iraq was being planned -- months before 9/11.

And, no, 19 Arab "hijackers" were NOT responsible for that carnage.

Item #3: General Wesley Clark has also admitted seeing Pentagon plans

to hit 7 Arab countries in 5 years: "starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." Anyone with an Internet computer

can hear General Clark speak those words on a YouTube video.

Item #4: Quickly forgotten in the mass of "fake news" has been the

experience of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame-Wilson.

She barely escaped with her life after The New York Times and

The Washington Post blew her cover as the lead of a CIA team,

tasked with intercepting weapons of mass destruction and the

ingredients and technology required to enrich uranium. One of her

accomplishments intercepted a shipment of VX nerve gas that

the Bush White House had attempted to smuggle into Iraq

(without that VX, there were no WMD in Iraq, remember?)

Immunity is the wrong question to debate, ladies and gentlemen.

By some estimates, the U.S. attack on Iraq has resulted in 2 million Iraqi casualties,

not counting future deaths from widespread contamination by depleted uranium

ordnance. In case you didn't already know, that's where spent fuel rods

are ending up.

George W. Bush preferred to call it "shock and awe" -- a crass euphemism.

When this writer visited the District of Columbia in the summer of 1969,

there was a joke circulating among other college students that

went like this: the coach of the rowing team that won each race

would be dumped into the Potomac River, and them promptly

doused with chloroform -- formerly used as an inhaled anesthetic

during surgery -- because that River was overflowing with raw sewage.

President Trump was not joking when he described the

District of Corruption as a Swamp, and the organization

Judicial Watch was right on, to title their documentary

with that accurate observation.

This writer has recently entertained a day dream that

went like this: everything within the current boundaries

of that District is razed, and the earth is excavated

to a depth of 20 feet below mean River level:

that will allow the raw sewage to turn D.C. into an

open cesspool.

Perhaps some out-of-work Capitol Guard will post

a conspicuous sign: NO FISHING ALLOWED HERE.

Swimming will be permitted for Senators and Representatives:

it wouldn't be proper to deprive them of a long-standing exclusive privilege

reserved for all elected members of the U.S. Congress.

# # #