Safire on Meet the Press
William Safire on Meet the Press today had some interesting things to say (most notably his opposition to the President's spying program). But what I thought was interesting was while listing his support of the war, gave a call out to the bravery of the troops, who he said are there for principle and call to service, etc., not out for oil, "as some have said."
Bill, Bill, Bill. It's Bushie, Chenster and Rumsfeld (wait, none of them actually DID serve in a war, did they -- loved all those deferments Chenster) who are so willing to send our kids out to fight for oil and their neo-con bizarro-world view of foreign policy. Of course the kids are fighting for their country. That's what they sign up to do. It's those leaders who are so willing and eager to sell out those kids for their own bizarro interests who need to be taken to task.
Bill, Bill, Bill. It's Bushie, Chenster and Rumsfeld (wait, none of them actually DID serve in a war, did they -- loved all those deferments Chenster) who are so willing to send our kids out to fight for oil and their neo-con bizarro-world view of foreign policy. Of course the kids are fighting for their country. That's what they sign up to do. It's those leaders who are so willing and eager to sell out those kids for their own bizarro interests who need to be taken to task.
posted by Anonymous at 11:03 AM
2 Comments:
agreed on the troops. they absolutely do a great job under very trying circumstances. however, unlike the guys in vietnam, these kids signed up for the military. so i think you get a better quality of effort, better results from this generation. as much as i would like to see a draft--so that people would pay some degree of attention to decisions being made in their name--i would not want people shanghaied and forced to serve.
i guess i wouldn't have a problem with this war if one of the two following things had happened. One, if the leadership had come right out and said, in so many words, hey, we need oil to keep the economy going and we don't think saudi arabia is very reliable. so we're going to whack saddam, because he's a barbarian, and make a better life for the iraqi people in the process and guarantee a steady flow of oil. you know, talk good old, hard-headed realpolitik, not a lot of stupidity about WMD, then democracy, then fighting the terrorists there, etc. etc.. Two, if there had been any effort made to prepare for taking down saddam, in terms of troop strength, infrastructure specialists, thought about what kind of system would follow. in other words, if the leadership had cared enough and been willing to spend political capital and $$$ to insure that this thing succeeded. but we got neither, and so we have this blathering about american benevolence, stopgap violence-reduction measures and general policy incoherence while our guys get killed.
that borders on criminal incompetence. maybe strike the "borders on."
Some months back when there was talk about possible reinstatement of the draft in the media (not by the administration, they couldn't go there), I started thinking, "maybe a draft is JUST what we need." A draft would wake up a lot of people who are zoned out in front of their tvs or at their jobs. Those people who don't think this is really anything that affects them. Of course that's the reason the administration won't call for one. They'd lose the Congressional elections, and the next election, in a walk.
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