the invertebrate & the conscience free

The war party's strategy is clear enough: whatever the opponents of the war propose as a means of hastening its end, the hawks will construe as a betrayal of the troops. What we need do first, therefore, is expose this rhetorical strategy. Make it clear that the people who put our troops needlessly in harm's way will exploit our sense of loyalty to those troops to keep them in harm's way indefinitely. We cannot allow ourselves to be so bullied. The war's opponents need to develop some backbone and take the high ground on the matter of our soldiers. It is, after all, precisely our concern for the troops -- for their welfare and that of their families -- that most strongly motivates our opposition to this war. We are attempting to save their lives, plain and simple.

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In a speech delivered by Dick Cheney in Sydney, Australia, he referred to the Iraq war as "a remarkable achievement." That it certainly is. In years to come historians will remark again and again on this achievement, much to our country's shame. What a fiasco it has been, from start till present! An almost-unbearable burden to those Americans possessed of a social conscience. As Neil Young puts it in song, people of conscience are "living this war every day." Happy the man who can put it out of his mind and continue with his daily routine.

snatching victory

Yesterday listening to a right wing pundit who heads an organization the aim of which is to punish those Republican congressmen who do not continue to support Bush's war. He complained about the "defeatism" that is permeating this country. He exhorted the American people to get behind the President and the troops in order to "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat."

I find the pundit's metaphor faulty. Victory is no longer in the jaws of Defeat. Defeat has chewed Victory, has swallowed Victory, has digested Victory, and is presently preparing to excrete Victory onto the dusty ground of Iraq. If we snatch Victory now, we snatch it from the bowels of defeat. A rather unsavory clot of Victory that would be.

I suggest the pundit attempt to snatch a bit of reality from the jaws of delusion. The war was never winnable. It's time to bring our soldiers home.