Ghost Troop Home Page April Fools Part 3
Renee,
Debbie, Don, Missy, Stefan,
Do any
of you know Gretchen Sonnier? I don't think I do, but
I was on the "To: list" with all of you who I DO know.
What
about the authenticity of the story? I checked in Snopes.com: Urban Legends and
couldn't find any reference to this story at all.
I am
quite suspicious in that there is very little to identify Capt. May (e.g., what
it his full name) and terms such as "3/7" (Cavalry) are not
explained. And, the rhetoric is so overstated for someone claiming to be a
journalist and an honors graduate. On the other hand, Frank Michel is a Houston Chronicle associate editor…
While I
believe the Bushies have the press in their pockets
and this story, if true, should be promulgated, I don't want to pass it on if
it is a hoax.
Ray Gingerich
Brother Ray,
As far as Woodward and Bernstein, I think that they are institutional all the way, but I’ll give ‘em a try. But don’t expect much. The Washington Post hemmed and hawed before they began the slow march to the truth of Watergate. This time around the cowards list includes the NY Times (Thom Shanker), The Waco Tribune Herald (John Young), the El Paso News (Mary Benanti), the Houston Chronicle (Frank Michel, David Langworthy, Jeff Cohen). I could go on, and on and on (Energizer Bunny-style) because I haven’t even begun to list the broadcast media I’ve contacted. I'll send you all you want. The e-mails, letters and essays are part of my pending book/investigation. Last week I contacted the Christian Science Monitor, and they’re independent enough to move first. They’ve done it before.
Brother Ray, I believe you have done more in the way of research that some one-hundred media folks with whom I have talked since the day it happened. You may be right in your views on war. I don't know. I'm a skeptic who tries to fight off complete cynicism. When this war is over (if I'm not over first) teach me your views in detail. I only ask that for now you help me in such manner as you deem proper. I believe now that you are a man of principle, and I welcome you to my cause – or are you welcoming me to yours, or does it really matter? [Editor’s emphasis, in all cases]
I am charging as a cavalryman at the tyranny of George XLIII because that was my first military training, and you fall back on basics in a crunch. To me the whole matter is clear-cut: My brothers in the 3/7 Cavalry died; I was a boy soldier once and a cavalryman, and I was deeply affected by the silence that dishonored them. I am suffering from a kind of dementia known as heroism. I’ll try not to come down with another case should this one not prove terminal. But I’m not backing down. I’m enraged like Achilles or Orestes or Antigone: I’m fighting because my comrades deserve their sad rites, and because my leader has become my tyrant. The Constitution I support isn't the one that is pasted over the eyes of the public every time one faction or another wants to monkey with our perceptions or, in time of war, our lives. The Constitution I support was created against such abuses, and it is a document fraught with booby traps for boobs like Bush who try to subvert the Republic that allows thee and me to try to talk wisdom into each other's fool heads. (I speak for my own fool head, at any rate).
Right now you can't imagine how I feel, going on two months underground. I have improved my bunker like a good infantryman. I have established escapes along with secondary and tertiary fighting positions. I have weapons throughout, behind doors, over lintels, lying on floors, standing in corners. There are staffs, long, medium and short, nunchaku… the list goes on. If they come when I'm weaponless, I can break bricks with a punch or knife-hand strike. That’s my world nowadays, brother. I may be an ignorant, violent man – in fact I know I’m an ignorant, violent man – but I believe I'm fighting a fight against a tyrant, and my bad qualities may be just what’s needed in a true revolutionary. I imagine you could find Founding Fathers with even less savory characters than mine. I call myself Captain May because, true to my oath to the constitution, I had no choice but to revolt, using such non-violent skills as will best serve the cause because they are the only efficient means. Remember, Brother Ray, I'm claiming neither great intelligence nor great character – I'm simply claiming to be smarter and more decent than King George XLIII. I'd like to see the light of day again, and soon, but in the meanwhile the emails you have sent me are kindly, gratefully received. Even you skepticism makes me optimistic, because you have the patience to research what I knew when I wept the night it happened, April 4, 8:30 p.m., Central. I am fighting an actual war. I’m not playing around a damn bit, and there’s a fair chance I’ll die to prove my earnestness, but as Martin Luther said: Here I stand, I can do no other.
I am honored by your kindness, and hope we shall meet some day. You seem like a truthful man, and after my five months in this Infowar, I am in awe of truth. Thanks for the Russian intelligence. I forwarded it to a couple of contacts. It seems to be a general corroboration of my specific observation. Iraqi Resistance Report IV is an elaboration of my specific observation.
After I knew that the prez was going to cover it up and violate the Constitution, I went to the Honors College of the University of Houston, where I studied Latin & Greek Classics, and began to take up a collection for the 3/7 Cavalry. The students gave little, but they were interested -- perhaps amused would be the better wordd -- so they looked it up on various international media (the Arab speakers were invaluable). They got bored after a couple of days because it all checked out with their research, and they figured that if the dumb American government was going to lie to the dumb American People, it wasn't their problem.
It's interesting that you are a man of faith (a Menonite). I don't
know much about you guys, but you mention massacres, a la St. Bartholomew's Day
in
Regards, Brother Eric.
PS: I'll attach the letter that, in my estimation, put me on the prez's hit list, then I'll put one that perhaps gives a kinder perspective of me: It is to an Indian gentleman whom I met while returning from one of my two raids on Crawford when King George was plotting up the road. Finally, I’ll include the emails I wrote when I thought the assassins were coming for me – and I’ll always believe that my dash to the mental ward bought me my life, at least for the time.