A War for Dummies

How that became the rallying cry for dummies for war

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
11/2/06
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/VRWC/dummies.htm

One of the Weasels, not one given to conspiracy theories, read about Kerry’s “punted joke” gaffe, sighed, and remarked, “At times like this I wonder if the skull-and-bones stories about Kerry being a secret ally of the Bushes aren’t true.” To be sure, the Republicans were absolutely besides themselves with joy that a Democrat allegedly insulted the fighting men and women in Iraq by implying they were stupid.

Of course, lost in the foofooraw was the fact that Kerry did NOT say, or even imply, that the troops were stupid. In fact, he wasn’t even talking about those serving in Iraq. He made a remark about how Putsch used to live in Texas but now “lives in a state of denial,” and then said of the C-Student Putsch, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The GOP, desperate for any distraction, decided to simply lie about what Kerry said, aided by the GOP sounding boards in Faux and CNN, and noted without question by the mainstream media, the most worthless and overpaid group of entities in America outside of corporate boardrooms.

Kerry put up a brave face, saying “I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq.” But then Kerry proceeded to fold anyway and apologized. The GOP can only hope there’s a few million voters out there too stupid to understand that Kerry isn’t running for office who will get out and vote against Kerry because he hates troops, or something. I don’t know why Kerry apologized; the Republicans didn’t want an apology because they wanted to keep flogging Kerry, and now that he has apologized, they’re only going to sneer at him for having done so. There is no point in treating right wingers with decency and respect, because they will never reciprocate.

But I thought about the line that dumped the hapless Kerry in so much hot water, and I wondered how many parents had said to their kids over the past three years, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.” I bet hundreds of thousands of eighteen year olds have heard something like that in recent history. My parents certainly didn’t hesitate to use the possibility of ending up in Vietnam as a reminder that I needed to get good grades in college.

If some right winger comes up to you, grunting and belching about how Kerry implied that anyone going to Iraq was stupid, you can stop him dead in his tracks by looking him right in the eye and asking, “Knowing what we know about Iraq now, would YOU enlist to go over there if you could?” Unless he’s a liar or a complete fool or both, the answer is going to be “no.”

Only a fool or a liar would volunteer to go to Iraq now, and only a fool or a liar would keep those poor bastards the right wingers were pretending to defend from Kerry over there a day longer.

The troops that are there are not stupid. To be sure, most of them enlisted with the hope that they would never have to be in a war, but with the knowledge that if a war did come along, it would be their duty (and bad luck) to fight. People sign up to do something for their country, to get a free education, to make something of their lives. Only fools sign up simply to fight.

The guys over in Iraq all signed up in the belief that war might come, but that if it did, their country would not go to war for dishonest or dishonorable reasons, or frivolously, as a means of keeping a politician’s poll numbers up. They trusted the admin to approach war as a final resort. They trusted the administration to explore every other option, and to go to war only if it was necessary for the freedom and security of America. They trusted the administration not to fix the intelligence and facts around the policy.

Putsch lied to them about that, and dropped them into it. Their government, whom they trusted to act responsibly and with forbearance and not to throw away their lives on a whim, continues to lie to them to this very day. Eighty percent of the troops over there STILL think that they are fighting in Iraq to “avenge 9/11." Given that the troops AREN’T particularly stupid, the only other possible answer is that they are being lied to about that. Still.

They aren’t fools, but they were fooled. They trusted their government to do the right thing, and their government betrayed them. And is still betraying them.

The news yesterday was that a high-ranking advisor in the Ba’atist government claimed that three days prior to the American invasion, Saddam had capitulated and agreed to all of the administration’s demands. “Saddam was willing to yield to all American demands, announced and unannounced, to reach peaceful resolution,” said Hossam Shaltout, a political advisor to one Saddam Hussein’s sons.

Putsch not only attacked a country that was no threat to us for false reasons, but he attacked a country that had just surrendered.

Maybe some of the heroes who are standing tall for the troops against the veteran-hating John Kerry would like to stop by Iraq and pass THAT little tidbit among the guys. I’m sure they would appreciate hearing that. Nothing like learning you put your ass on the line because a pack of cowards and hypocrites lied to you.

And now the disgraceful Republicans, drawing from a bottomless well of dishonesty, shameless hucksterism and cynicism, spring to the defense of the very people they have lied to and cheated, and try to use them yet again to stifle dissent against themselves.

But it won’t last long. House Majority Leader John Boehner, one of the slimier examples of that vile pack of Republicans, while defending the almost comically inept Donald Rumsfeld, laid the blame for Iraq on the soldiers of the generals serving over there.

That’s the Republican mindset for you: blast Democrats for purely imaginary slights against the troops, and then whip around and excuse the administration on the grounds that the troops fucked it all up. It’s the sort of thing you expect from Boehner and his pack of jackals.

And speaking of jackals, I bet the reporters at Faux and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of America’s pathetic media don’t even mention that a ranking Republican claimed Iraq was a failure because the guys on the ground messed it all up.