The tired old slogan “We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” is being parroted once again by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Just who are the “we” and who are “they”?

Are the “we” the military generals who need perpetual war to use up old war products and try out the new while making a profit for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Honeywell and United Technologies?

Are the “we” Lockheed Martin, the biggest U.S. defense contractor who saw net profit jump 41 per cent to $830 million in the first six months of 2005?

Are “they” the brown people, who live on oil-rich land, whose religion is hated and for whom there is no care nor clue?

Are the “we” the bankers who are making billions from their favorite financial sport, which is war?

Are “they” the governments and people of oil-rich countries who want to control their own resources?

Are the “we” the Misinformation Complex agents and assets who spin filthy racist war propaganda, such as FOX TV or films such as The Islamic Mein Kampf?

Are “they” the jihadis who are coming around the corner in your neighborhood to take over your 7/11 store, your gas station, and your Pizza Hut?

Are the “we” the “embedded” journalist and the “embedded” academics whose grants on terrorism come straight from the government?

Are “they” the scholars and journalists from the Middle East and from all over the rest of the world who dare expose the lies of the academics and pundits here?

Are the “we” the young people who have no future to look forward to in a declining empire?

Are the “they” the women, children, and men of the Arab, Muslim, Native/Indigenous, African, Asiatic and Latin American worlds which are perpetually warred on?

Are “they” the university-educated women of Iraq who did not typically wear abayas or hijabs had free choice to cover or not to cover in Saddam’s day, while still embracing a culture valuing family, tradition and education?

Are the “we” the TV-numbed Bubba who says that he lives in the Land of the Free but he’ll murder anyone who disagrees with him?

Are “they” all those who do not want a materialist, dishonorable, greed-based, dumbed-down world in which to live and raise their children?