My buddy called me from Chicago with the news: "Well, we just bombed Afghanistan." I said, "How the hell did you get back so fast?"

Well it turns out that my buddy didn't bomb Afghanistan. And he's not the only one --I didn't and you didn't either. Heck, even the squadrons that did, had to, unless they wanted life in prison.

Nope, it was the government of the United States that bombed Afghanistan. And that --over six weeks later-- is still bombing ... and openly preparing to invade and conquer it.

Not us.

Hard to know it nowadays though. The propaganda engines are discharging an ocean of "we Americans" venom, trying to blind, deafen and finally drown us. Been laid-off? No unemployment benefits? No health care? Homeless? Been beaten by cops? Jailed for getting high ... or being too dark? Forget about it.

This is no time to ruin American unity with your petty personal problems. Why, we're all in this together now. God bless America! The rest of the world --especially the rag-heads and the sand niggers-- can suck one of our 15,000 pound bombs. And praise Jesus Christ we haven't nuked 'em ... yet.

That's the message. Patriotism. And patriotism means it's killing time.

Killing time for civilians overseas: relentless bombing of a land virtually without military targets using weapons outlawed by the Geneva convention. Cutting off food aid to starving millions as winter sets in -- and sealing the borders so they can't get away. Openly discussing which country will be the next target.

Killing time for international law: no extraditions, no World Court, no UN, no discussion. Just one country ruling the whole world. Got a problem with that? Well then, you're with the terrorists, and will be destroyed.

Killing time at home too. Death to Constitutional rights --no right to a trial, a search warrant, or the presumption of innocence. The death penalty waits. Searches and soldiers everywhere ... daily life militarized.

Killing time for jobs and benefits. Killing time for Social Security. Killing time for the National Treasury (over $140 Billion handed out to mega-corporations by a unanimous Congress ... and that just for starters).

It's war all right -- war waged by the ultra-wealthy and their government in Washington. War against us, the working people, the students, the farmers. War against common humanity across all lands.

Wall St./Washington Inc. wants common people to cheer for war against ... common people. To make them applaud the bombing of their houses, and the poisoning of their waterways. Just lay Old Glory over it and tell the citizenry that the only "we" is America. Corporate America.

But common folks should want nothing to do with their looting, ruination, repression and murder.We should defend the Bill of Rights. We should stand by the words of the Declaration of Independence: that all people "are endowed with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." And that "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

And we should think like Malcolm X; " I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter--no, not I.... I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."

But it's up to you. What's it gonna be --the "us" of common humanity, or the billionaires' USA?

Steve Eckardt is a long-time Chicago railroad worker, currently living in Philadelphia. He writes the regular column "Seeing Red" and produces the website <SeeingRed.com>.

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