the Cost of Conflict.

Tonight, under pressure from a newly elected Democratic congress, the President will address the nation. In this speech, Mr. Bush will outline his new plan for the U.S. military in Iraq.

To mark this potentially pivotal point in current history, I have added some new audio to SoKT that was created during another key time in recent years.

The track, The Cost of Conflict, is an audio collage that I made for my late night radio show in Boston. It was broadcast on WERS 88.9FM at 2:15 am, just 30 or so hours after President Bush declared war on Iraq. (The speech was delivered on the evening of March 19, 2003)

In the style of the Overnight Experimental Show, that Shawn H. and I created and hosted, here you can hear the President's televised declaration of war played over music, sound effects, news broadcasts, and recordings from anti-war demonstrations.

While this track likely violated some of WERS' by laws, I believe that it is non partisan in nature.

Listening to it now, I believe, as I did then, that this speech was masterfully written. Within its own context it makes sense, and I hope that with patience you can hear that now, though personally I (and presumably we) disagree with the President's conclusions.

By contrasting the focused logic of the President's speech with trembling then victorious music I hoped to highlight the real world absurdity of what Mr. Bush was saying.

Thank you for taking the time to listening to these 17 minutes. If you have any comments or input, please share.

May we find some peace in this New Year.