OC Weekly: The Kevlar Anniversary

[question everything]

by JIM WASHBURN

Thursday, 16 March 2006
The Kevlar Anniversary


What do you give a war on its third anniversary? According to etiquette guides, third anniversaries should be celebrated with leather, which is great if you’re Tom of Finland. But for our troops? How about Kevlar, or a plane trip home?

Last week, Donald Rumsfeld said that if civil war breaks out in Iraq — like that mosque bombing wasn’t already their Fort Sumter — American troops would likely stand back and let Iraqis handle it to the extent to which they’re able. So the administration is both arguing that we can’t reduce troop numbers in Iraq because there might be a civil war, and that if there is a civil war our troops will stay out of it. Why not get some of those inflatable stand-ins they use in movies now, and send our guys home?

(snip)

Remember Iraq linked to al Qaeda? We’re averting a mushroom cloud? We’ll be greeted with flowers? There’s no ethnic or religious turmoil in Iraq? The war will pay for itself? The weapons of mass destruction will be found? The insurgency is just a few dead-enders, ragtag foreign infiltrators? The insurgency is in its last throes? Mission accomplished?

Remember when Bush, the best-guarded man on earth, taunted, “Bring ’em on!”—daring insurgents to attack our troops? That may be the only goddamned thing he’s said in this entire war that has panned out, as 2,311 flag-draped coffins now attest—more than a score of those from our own community. What was that son of a bitch thinking, sitting smug and secure half a world away when he hadn’t even equipped our troops with working body or vehicle armor? If it’s such a noble war, why aren’t his kids there instead of carrying on the family tradition of keeping barstools safe for democracy?

(snip)

As deadly wrong as things are over there, this war and its proponents are just as surely killing this country. Using the actions of 19 murderers with knives as justification, Bush is physically and morally bankrupting this country: throwing hundreds of billions into the wrong war; flouting the Constitution; claiming repressive new executive powers in perpetuity; tossing out rights at home and long-standing treaties abroad; and spying on peaceful Americans who oppose his policies.

(snip)

http://www.ocweekly.com/columns/lost-in-oc/lost-in-oc/24698/

[question everything]

1. Self Kick. This is really good (nt)