The Meat of the Matter

And Now Back to the Issue at Hand

War in Iraq. The U.S. has grown since the 1960's, when we fought an unpopular war for the first time. The lesson we learned was that the soldiers who risk life and limb by serving our country are heroes regardless of what we think of the war they're fighting. This was a good lesson. There was never a lesson, however, that we should be "careful in criticizing" the decision maker's in said unpopular war. No one said that we could just leave the Vietnam debacle at "mistakes were made". And yet, the current administration is treating war critics as if they are being unpatriotic. It's as if the current administration is reaching into the past where we learned some grand lesson (like the one about not criticizing our soldiers) and concluding that this is something we all learned a long time ago. "Hey, we all know that you're not supposed to criticize our government when were at war." Bullshit! At what point in our history did someone criticize our government's actions during a time of war and somehow risk national security? What is at risk here is George W. Bush's re-election. Our soldiers in Iraq are at risk because he sent them there! NOT because some of us back home are criticizing that decision! Colin Powell cautioned Senator Kennedy for what he said in a speech that Powell didn't even hear. Kennedy accused Bush of misleading the country about the war, which is not exactly a preposterous claim. Then Powell, who is more-and-more becoming Bush's sock puppet, slaps Kennedy on the wrist by appealing to some imaginary "higher law" of not criticizing the government during wartime. I've been hearing this a lot: "don't criticize the government about the war." And yet we hold the citizens in Hitler's Germany in contempt for not criticizing him. Here it comes, accusations that I'm comparing Bush to Hitler. That's not what I'm intending, but fire away. Today we accidentally bombed a mosque. Better not say anything because we're the good guys! Shhhhh!