Someone has to say it
Drifting Through the Grift reflects on the Iraq war, four years later:
Periodically, I stick my head into rightie blogs. They all look and sound alike. They're PRO-VICTORY! They hate the U.N.! They support the troops! They denounce Defeatocrats! They have pictures of the burning World Trade Center on their blogs. They post the names of 9/11 victims. They're the blogospheric answer to those gas-guzzling SUVs with the yellow ribbon magnets.
Occasionally, they ramp up the righteousness. Take one blogger who identifies herself as an Eowyn voter. Eowyn is the brave warrior princess from Lord of the Rings who disguises herself as a man to fight. So how is this person like Eowyn?
It's telling these "Eowyn voters" don't choose fight by, y'know, enlisting in the military and going to fight on the battlefields, as Eowyn did. In fact, if Eowyn really existed, she'd probably tell them to quit using her name. (Besides, what's wrong with just calling yourself one of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, anyway?)
You've heard all this before, right? Chickenhawk cheerleaders who spout the same crap over and over again, giving lip service to supporting the troops. They are strangely silent about overextended soldiers, lack of body armor, or the shambles that Walter Reed Medical Center has become. But boy oh boy, someone writes a book against Bushco, and they throw a fit. The Dhimmicrats/Dummocrats/Demoncrats/Dumbassocrats propose a withdrawal date, and they stomp and snarl. Earth to righties. The date is 2008. That's next year.
And besides, 65 percent of Americans don't agree with what you think. Yours is a minority opinion. As DriftGrift would say, get used to hearing it.
One last thing, before anyone wanders in and accuses me of being a Defeatocrat who hates the troops and wants al Qaeda to bomb the United States. I live in New York City. I was here on 9/11. I saw the towers fall. I remember the rising smoke where the towers had been. I remember going to hospitals, offering to give blood, and I remember being told that they had more than enough donors.
And I remember that smell that lingered in the air for days afterward. I remember how dead and dazed the city was. I remember waking up one morning to a BOOM in the sky and a moment of fear before I realized it was just thunder.
And then, when I heard Bush mention Saddam and Iraq, I remember I thought, "HUH?"
I wanted Bush to find the man behind these murders. He didn't do it.
I wanted Bush to track down al Qaeda. He didn't do that either.
Bush's presidency is one of things not done and directions not taken. He could've enlisted the rest of the world in this war against terrorists. America's not the only country where there was a terrorist attack, you know. He could've concentrated on Afghanistan, where the man who killed nearly 3,000 people was known to be hiding. He could've unified this country.
Instead, he took a detour into a war based on nothing of substance. He and his administration saw 9/11 as a golden opportunity to score partisan points. For them, it was the chance to fulfill all their fondest neocon dreams, and establish a one-party state while they were at it. Instead of tapping into the best America has to offer, they chose to pervert everything this country should stand for.
Long story short: Bush and his administration blew it. They failed. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They lied. They made things worse, not better. The evidence is there, and it is overwhelming. Instead of clinging to their Dear Leader and their outdated talking points, these righties perhaps should ask whether the Iraq occupation--it's not a war anymore, it's an occupation--was a good idea in the long run, given the utterly disastrous results. They could also ask why New York City had its homeland security funds cut. Or why the Bush administration lied about the air quality at Ground Zero. Or a whole bunch of other stuff that they don't like to think about.
One last thing: if Tolkein were alive today, I suspect he'd be one of Bush's most scathing critics. And he'd consider the activists, the war critics, and the whistleblowers to be the real Eowyn voters.
Four years ago, there were plenty of good people who stood up and said, "this is stupid and will result in tragedy". We were called un-American. We were called un-patriotic. We were called traitors. We were right. You were wrong. Get used to hearing it.
Periodically, I stick my head into rightie blogs. They all look and sound alike. They're PRO-VICTORY! They hate the U.N.! They support the troops! They denounce Defeatocrats! They have pictures of the burning World Trade Center on their blogs. They post the names of 9/11 victims. They're the blogospheric answer to those gas-guzzling SUVs with the yellow ribbon magnets.
Occasionally, they ramp up the righteousness. Take one blogger who identifies herself as an Eowyn voter. Eowyn is the brave warrior princess from Lord of the Rings who disguises herself as a man to fight. So how is this person like Eowyn?
I choose to fight the war that is upon us. I choose to fight by blogging, I choose to fight by voting, and if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to physically fight for my life or for those around me, I will choose that as well. Terrorists would do well to remember the old adage, "If captured, don't let them give you to the women." Because we will protect ourselves and our families, and it won't be pretty.
It's telling these "Eowyn voters" don't choose fight by, y'know, enlisting in the military and going to fight on the battlefields, as Eowyn did. In fact, if Eowyn really existed, she'd probably tell them to quit using her name. (Besides, what's wrong with just calling yourself one of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists, anyway?)
You've heard all this before, right? Chickenhawk cheerleaders who spout the same crap over and over again, giving lip service to supporting the troops. They are strangely silent about overextended soldiers, lack of body armor, or the shambles that Walter Reed Medical Center has become. But boy oh boy, someone writes a book against Bushco, and they throw a fit. The Dhimmicrats/Dummocrats/Demoncrats/Dumbassocrats propose a withdrawal date, and they stomp and snarl. Earth to righties. The date is 2008. That's next year.
And besides, 65 percent of Americans don't agree with what you think. Yours is a minority opinion. As DriftGrift would say, get used to hearing it.
One last thing, before anyone wanders in and accuses me of being a Defeatocrat who hates the troops and wants al Qaeda to bomb the United States. I live in New York City. I was here on 9/11. I saw the towers fall. I remember the rising smoke where the towers had been. I remember going to hospitals, offering to give blood, and I remember being told that they had more than enough donors.
And I remember that smell that lingered in the air for days afterward. I remember how dead and dazed the city was. I remember waking up one morning to a BOOM in the sky and a moment of fear before I realized it was just thunder.
And then, when I heard Bush mention Saddam and Iraq, I remember I thought, "HUH?"
I wanted Bush to find the man behind these murders. He didn't do it.
I wanted Bush to track down al Qaeda. He didn't do that either.
Bush's presidency is one of things not done and directions not taken. He could've enlisted the rest of the world in this war against terrorists. America's not the only country where there was a terrorist attack, you know. He could've concentrated on Afghanistan, where the man who killed nearly 3,000 people was known to be hiding. He could've unified this country.
Instead, he took a detour into a war based on nothing of substance. He and his administration saw 9/11 as a golden opportunity to score partisan points. For them, it was the chance to fulfill all their fondest neocon dreams, and establish a one-party state while they were at it. Instead of tapping into the best America has to offer, they chose to pervert everything this country should stand for.
Long story short: Bush and his administration blew it. They failed. They didn't do what they were supposed to do. They lied. They made things worse, not better. The evidence is there, and it is overwhelming. Instead of clinging to their Dear Leader and their outdated talking points, these righties perhaps should ask whether the Iraq occupation--it's not a war anymore, it's an occupation--was a good idea in the long run, given the utterly disastrous results. They could also ask why New York City had its homeland security funds cut. Or why the Bush administration lied about the air quality at Ground Zero. Or a whole bunch of other stuff that they don't like to think about.
One last thing: if Tolkein were alive today, I suspect he'd be one of Bush's most scathing critics. And he'd consider the activists, the war critics, and the whistleblowers to be the real Eowyn voters.
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