The summer of my thirteenth year of life was clouded by the idea of four more years of public education. I dreaded those years like a ball and chain. Four more years of getting thrown into lockers, putting up with idiots, and perverse boredom in the classroom. Four more years of unadulterated teenage angst. It sucked, that summer. I was downright depressed.
Somehow, I got through high school with only a few battle scars.

Today, the front page of CNN.COM declares the Army will be in Iraq for four more years. I'm filled with the same sense of dread as that chubby thirteen year old girl facing her own war.

Americans, I ask you: four more years for what? For more troops to die? For more insurgency? For more mortar rounds going into flesh?

Since when does the administration of this country get to decide so carelessly what to do with human lives? Oh, I guess since Bush is the best new jock in the class. He doesn't really care what the nerds and dorks of the country think about him, because he can throw them into the proverbial lockers of middle class abandon, and promote his jock friends to high status with the cheerleaders. He has an on-going vendetta against another school district, and that school district has the prize mascot Bush desires--oil. He'll use all the school funds to get what he wants, and proclaim it is for everyone in the school. The gain, however, will only help the athletic department. The rest of the students are screwed.

Four more years. This time, however, it's not about me surviving others. It's about America surviving through deficit, deceit, and immorality. It's about men and women losing their lives or limbs. It's about troops returning home to a land that gives veterans little assitance. It's about the middle class bailing the wealthy out again. It's about gas prices soaring high above three dollars a gallon. In short, it's another Vietnam. There is nothing to win, friends. We have nothing to gain from this war. In the history books, this will be another failure--by the end of these four years, we will have lost so much human life that we can erect another memorial wall.

I hope we can hang in there, and fight for ourselves against the jocks overrunning this school. I hope we have the tenacity to endure the torture, praying for redemption, praying for someone to step in and control this maniacal president.

Do we have the guts to start demanding action?