EMPIRE

EMPIRE

This flier is one of several being posted around D.C. They all say, "No matter who wins, the system is rotten," and promise a massive "loud" and "unpermitted" demonstration -- that is, a pre-planned riot that you are invited to join -- on 3 November, regardless of the outcome of the election.

There are, as I said, several fliers, but this one is special.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph, which is from my camera phone. Still, as you can probably make out, the image is of the word "EMPIRE," with a mountain of skulls piled atop it. At the summit, there is a mockery of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima.

There is much to be said about this image, and what it represents. These are American citizens putting this stuff out, and this is what they believe: that America is an empire, built on a mountain of skulls. That Iwo Jima was fought against an actual empire does not enter their minds. That the mountains of skulls are to be found in Saddam's mass graves, not in the wake of US troop movements, likewise never comes to their mind.

But there is one part of the image that is true. The flag on Mt. Surabachi was raised atop a mountain of skulls. The skulls belonged to the United States Marines.

There they fought up Iwo Jima's hill
Two hundred and fifty men,
But only twenty-seven lived
To fight back down again.

The dead deserve better from the living than this.