Call me old fashioned, but I still think war is serious business. Obviously the combatants themselves have the most at stake, but even beyond that there are at least some consequences for the nation as a whole. These include the fiscal ramifications as well as the effect a state of war has on our liberties. I'm beginning to wonder if these consequences aren't nearly invisible to most of us in general, and to the political class in particular.
Rudy Giuliani sent us shopping after 9/11. George W. Bush had a good laugh with his friends in the media elite by pretending to search the oval office for WMD as a part of gag for the White House correspondent's dinner. Now we have neo-con Bill Kristol becoming best pals with President Obama over starting another war in the middle east and then
joking about it:
Throughout 2007 and 2008 in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama ran as the anti-war candidate. But Obama has taken on different stripes with this gesture, Kristol joked.
“What’s the joke – they told me if I voted for McCain, we’d be going to war in a third Muslim country?” Kristol said. “I voted for McCain and we’re doing it.”
Here's a
reality check for Kristol and his gang, and anyone else who forgets exactly what is at stake:
An Army Reserve soldier from Green Bay died Saturday during action in Afghanistan.
Spc. Justin D. Ross, 22, was shot and killed when his unit came under fire from insurgents in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Nathan Banks of the 364th Public Affairs Operations Center.
He was assigned to the 863rd Engineer Battalion of Wausau. His unit specializes in route clearance, the first soldiers to enter an area before more units move in.
There will be times when it is necessary and proper to ask men to pay the ultimate price. Is it too much to ask for those of us over here to treat the occasion with the seriousness it deserves?
1 comment:
"I'm beginning to wonder if these consequences aren't nearly invisible to most of us in general, and to the political class in particular."
That's why we should re-enstate the draft. Right now.
Pass legislation to re-enstate the draft and then let these paper tigers wave the flag and lecture us about spreading freedom and democracy to far away lands that have nothing to do with our way of life. Nothing to do with us at all.
How many of these bulls__t wars do you think we would have fought over the last decade if every suburbanite family knew that little Johnny might have to go over and do his "duty" because our political class thought it was necessary in order to protect our way of life?
Give me a break.
How many people in this country would be apathetic to war then?
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