response time

I'm sick of hearing War Hawks talk about how Americans just dont have the gumption to fight a war any more, and that's why we're losing in Iraq (and why we lost in Viet Nam). That's a load of crap. We're losing (did lose) because we know, despite all the distracting bells and whistles of the Neo-Cons, we know that this war is wrong.
The difference between WWII and the Iraq War is not that Americans are big pussies now and were once Real Men then, but that the fight against Nazi and Japanese aggression was a real fight against a very real and tangible threat. Countries were invaded, militaries were destroyed, and millions were rounded up, jailed, enslaved and killed because of their ethnicity, creed, sexual orientation, or handicap. As unpleasant as 9/11 may have been, it cannot be compared to the invasions of Poland or China, or the Holocaust and the Bataan Death March. These were occurances on a horrible scale, and Americans very rightly took up arms to oppose them. Not only that, but they raised taxes, recycled for the War Effort, rationed supplies, and bought millions of dollars in war bonds. They sacrificed to win.
Compare that with today, when we've instead cut taxes for the rich, consume 25% of the world's energy, and going shopping (much of it on credit) is considered to be a patriotic duty. The only thing we seem to be interested in sacrificing is a few thousand soldiers and the future of our children.
If there is any weenieness on display now, it is in our timidity about protesting this horrible war.
You want proof that this is no Next Greatest Generation Conflict?

A) The war had to be sold to us. And sold to us using all the guile of an ethically challenged Madison avenue ad firm. We're a pretty righteous and blood-thirsty bunch*, do you really think we'd have to be talked into a just war?

B) The press is kept from the bodies of soldiers, with coffins being snuck into the country as if we have something to be ashamed of. Do we?

C) Not only were taxes not raised to pay for this war, but the cost of the war is hidden in a budgetary shell game called "emergency appropriations", which doesnt get figured into the "regular" budget numbers. I think the "emergency" is over, though the crisis shows no sign of stopping.

The administration has gone to great lengths to insulate the public from effects of the war (except for gas prices - that effect we get to feel), with the result that the only Americans who have actually felt the pain of this conflict have been the families of the 54,000 casualties killed or injured so far (though let us not forget that this number does not include casualties in one of the Bush Corporations finest slights-of-hand, the private contractors). They'll tell you that it's because our lily-livered liberal natures will get in the way of doing what's "right", and so we have to be "protected" from the truth of War.
I would suggest that the moral sense and courage of the nation is just fine, and were we not befuddled by deliberate deception, a majority of the nation would be clamouring for us to get out now, and for the heads of those who got us in. Oh, wait, maybe that's starting to happen already...
Isnt it interesting that while the Senate cannot muster the 60 out of 100 votes to pass any anti-war resolutions, the poll numbers show opposition to be right about at that 60% mark?

New Campaign Slogan:

The Republican Party. Putting the "Con" in Neo-Con.

Oh, and as for the charge of "encouraging our enemies", fuck our enemies. I thought that I was excercising one of those freedoms that our enemies hate so much. I mean, which is it? When I freely criticize the Bush Administration, as is my constitutional right, do our enemies cheer and feel validated, or weep and gnash their teeth in impotent hatred and jealousy? Not that I give a damn either way. What I say is based on what I feel, not what some fundamentalist asshole on the otherside of the planet (or next door, for that matter) thinks.


* Check your local listings for proof