Richard Thompson blogging at HuffPo

Guitar legend Richard Thompson is blogging at the Huffington Post about his new anti-war single Dad's Gonna Kill Me. Click through to listen for free.

Comments

[swampcracker]

I direct these remarks to “docweasel” who left an out-of-context thread several posts down ( See "Vienna RSS Thread Broken," 3:09 PM ).

Last night, I received the last call a father would want: "Dad, I am leaving earlier than expected." My daughter telling me that she deploys to Iraq within the month, her third in 4 years.

Just because my daughter is a career officer does NOT mean she supports this war. Four years ago, the night of Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam, she called me from Kuwait to say: “Dad, I don’t believe that itchy trigger-finger cowboy is doing this.”

Contrary to your opinion, there are military officers, and their families, who never agreed with the rationale for war in Iraq. In the military, officers are not allowed to express personal or political opinions. They are required to remain silent and follow orders. In keeping with military policy, my daughter separates her personal opinions from her official duties. In deference to my daughter, I too have kept a low profile. No longer.

The Bush policy in Iraq has not liberated anyone. It has polarized and radicalized the peoples of the region. It has created a training ground for terrorists, paid in blood by innocent Iraqis. Meanwhile, our leaders engage in fear mongering, violate our Constitution, and disregard civil liberties.

The families of soldiers on active duty make many sacrifices. Duty has kept my daughter away from every holiday, birth, death, and other family milestones for the past four years. I call it “Family Interrupted.” I watch the evening news and note the losses of other families, hoping my daughter’s name will never appear on a casualty list.

About your “defeatist isolationist” comment, it makes me very surly along with other political epithets like “Traitor” and “Godless.” In case you haven’t noticed, read the newspapers: Voters no longer support this war.

Truth is: I have met the enemy. He is not Sunni, nor Shiite, nor Iraqi, nor Iranian. The enemy is our own corrupt government and those who make excuses for it.

[mijnheer]

I believe this is the same Richard Thompson who cancelled a concert in Toronto in 2003 because he was afraid that SARS was gonna kill him.