On Hardball the yesterday the subject was whether or not members of congress would advise their children to participate in the military in the Iraq war.
A Republican congressman, Franks (maybe Trent Franks from Arizona), didn’t answer the question but he did say that the real question was whether or not we want future US children to have to take part in a battle to decide the fate of the US. That if we don’t “win in Iraq” the jihadists would and the nation’s future would be imperiled.
If that’s really true, why are we waging such a colossal struggle with the same 200000 troops on a conveyor belt in and out of Iraq? Shouldn’t we put the nation on a war footing, raise a large an effective force so as to put the lid on Iraq and hold it as long as necessary?
Our current method seems to be to have our army trying to police scattered rat holes while we hope that the some Iraqi group will put together a government that will help prevent the dire consequences that Rep. Franks predicted.
This is a plan for victory in a global struggle for our national survival?
Because that’s the way our military is currently oriented. Oh, I suppose we could offer more money for the troops, maybe provide some enlistment incentives, etc. But that would cost money…and people from all over would scream about that. You’d have to raise more taxes and such. So, it would be unpopular on multiple levels…and to a pretty broad spectrum of people (liberals for obvious reasons as well as fiscal conservatives for others).
I agree with you…if it IS so important then its what we should do. The fact we aren’t doing it speaks to the possibility that perhaps it really ISN’T that important to the majority of American’s.
Politics has always been the land of hyperbole. Remember the “missile gap” that Kennedy used to beat Nixon over the head? Remember the anti-Goldwater ad that showed the little girl picking peddles off a daisy? Remember the invasion that was coming from Guatemala? Remember the “welfare queens” that were bankrupting the country? Remember all the Communist agents in the State Department? Of course the present unpleasantness in the Middle East is not WWIII, of course Iraqi insurgents are not going to show up in East Harness Buckle, Kansas, if we do not keep an occupation force in Iraq for the indefinite future. Of course the sky is not falling. It’s just part of the drill and fits into Lincoln’s axiom about fooling the people. A little critical thinking is a valuable commodity – and one that some of our elected leaders seem to think ought not to be in high demand. Just remember Menken’s observation that no one ever went bust by underestimating the intelligence of the American electorate. There is not one of these people, Republican or Democrat, whose statements should be uncritically accepted as a verity.
The remarkable thing is that these guys are allowed to spout transparent non-sense without being seriously called to task on wider stage. Why, oh, why do we put up with these bedwetters and Chicken Littles?