Charles Krauthammer notes the despicable fakery that is baked into the so-called "debates" in Washington about the Iraq war and the President's new plan.
What is striking is how much of the debate in Washington about Iraq has to do not with the war but with the words. Who owns them, who deploys them, who uses them as a bludgeon.... The debates were not about real fighting in a real place. They were about how the various senators would position themselves in relation to that real fighting in that real place. At issue? With what tone and nuance and addenda to express disapproval of a troop surge that the president was going to order anyway.When it came to doing something serious about the surge, the Senate ducked. It unanimously (81-0) approved sending Gen. David H. Petraeus to Baghdad to do the surge -- precisely what a majority of the senators said they did not want done.
If you really oppose the surge, how can you not oppose the appointment of the man whose very mission is to carry it out? Yet not one senator did so. Instead, they spent days fine-tuning the wording of a nonbinding -- i.e., entirely toothless -- expression of disapproval.
A serious legislative body would not be arguing over degrees of disapproval anyway, but about the elements of three or four alternative plans that might actually change our course in Iraq, something they all say they desire. But instead of making a contribution to thinking through how the war should be either prosecuted or liquidated, they negotiate language that provides precisely the amount of distancing a senator might need as political insulation should the surge either succeed or fail.
Meanwhile, the reality of the war proceeds on its own hard-edged pace. Our small community of Katy, Texas has experienced another military fatality.
A Marine from Katy died in a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday. Sgt. James Rodney Tijerina, 26, crew chief on a medical evacuation helicopter, died when his CH-46 Sea Knight caught fire, spun out of control and crashed. The fire was caused by a mechanical failure, military officials told his father, Peter Tijerina, when they came to his home to deliver the news of his son's death on Wednesday.James Tijerina was scheduled to return home to his station at Camp Pendleton in San Diego on March 20.
"He had no fear at all," said Peter Tijerina as he described his last conversation with his son in mid-January. "But he was tired and homesick."
James Tijerina decided to join the Marines in 2002 before the war in Iraq began. "He told me, 'That's what I want to do, Dad,' " Peter Tijerina said. " 'I want to go and fight.' "
His father said Tijerina was very proud to be a Marine. As a crew chief, he helped pick up wounded troops and take them to safety. "He was always expressing that he felt good about doing something good for all those people," he said.
Fake, nuanced "debates" in Washington do nothing to help Sgt. Tijerina's comrades who are still very much in the fight, and want to win, not retreat.
They are like Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, whose letter home ought to be finding its way into the real debate: what are the best ways to utterly defeat our enemies, or at least achieve the best possible outcome if outright victory is beyond our means for now?
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.Posted by Alan at February 11, 2007 01:32 PMIt is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.
But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.
Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!
Isn't that what America is about anyway?