This was going to be a full column on the merits of the Huskies’ passing game but obviously …

Speaking of the football game, at halftime the announcer mentioned that the band was playing “some patriotic music from the Civil War.” Huh? A war where our own citizens were killing each other is anything but patriotic. So, the oxymoron of the week is “patriotic and Civil War.”

Speaking of war, a story broke last week about how our very own patriotic army buried Iraqi soldiers alive in the war to boost George Bush’s public opinion ratings and get him re-elected, popularly known as Operation Desert Storm.

The war has been out of just about everyone’s mindset for quite some time. Most people don’t want to deal with it any more because it’s not “trendy.”

Just look at all of the flashing blue-light-special T-shirts that have such catchy patriotic sayings like “You Can’t Touch This” embossed over that highly overrated symbol—the American Flag.

Anyway, it seems our troops used tank plows to bury Iraqi soldiers alive in their trenches back in February. How scary is that?

The government and military are now predictably giving the “war is hell” excuses. The best is, “It was a cost-effective measure.”

Ostensibly, countries try to minimize their own casualties when they fight wars. But what kind of military do we have when such inhumane tactics are even considered, let alone undertaken? Does the “all’s fair in love and war” mentality justify our action? The answer is a resounding no.

One of the basic human fears is being buried alive. Hearing about this brings to mind that movie, The Serpent and the Rainbow. You know, the psychedelic flick where the guy says in a raspy voice, “Don’t bury me, I’m not dead yet!”

The scene in the desert was undoubtedly as horrible. One general said “there were little hands and arms sticking up out of the dirt.” Boy, that’s one to tell the grandkids about.

Didn’t we criticize the Japanese for forcing the Chinese to dig massive graves in World War II?

The army doesn’t even know how many Iraqis were buried alive, although about 2,000 soldiers did surrender before getting crushed by the tons of sand. The Pentagon has also refused to estimate the total number of Iraqi deaths. After all, the final toll might generate negative publicity that would hurt Bush’s re-election chances in ‘92.

The army even said the manuever was not against the Geneva Convention, those old agreements that define what is humane during a war. Well, it damn well should have been.

And of course, the government was trying to cover the whole thing up. Dick Cheney conveniently forgot to include this incident in his recent report to Congress on Desert Storm.

Reporters, of course, were barred from witnessing this American atrocity. Their stories could have swayed public opinion away from Bush if this kind of “military maneuver” became known to the masses.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but it’s a damn shame that we did this, especially when one looks at the results of the war—Hussein is still in power, Kuwait is still run by a royal family and gas prices are still high.