Dear gentle readers please do not think John Kerry reflects what the vast majority of Democrats believe. Of course, I’m kidding about the tar and feathering. Or am I?
This is one of those situations where there is no spinning, John Baby. What you said is that the men and women who serve in Iraq are stupid and have no choice but to be there. I think I know what you were getting at--that some young people turn to the military for a chance of advancing either a career or an education. But, you really did it this time. If anything good comes out of this colossal blunder, may it be that you never run for office again. Democrat leaders please talk to John Baby and stuff a sock in his mouth.
Okay. This was a diversion handed to the Republicans on a silver platter, but let’s get back to talking about the failed leadership of the Republicans on the war and the chance to change that. Before the Kerry snafu, Republicans from Bill O’Reilly to Lynn Cheney were throwing about the question, “Do you want us to win?” Well, I’ll answer that when they can tell me what we are going to win and for how long and at what cost of our soldiers’ lives. I’ll tell you what I want. I want the Iraqis to run their own damn country without having to have the U.S. hold their hands. Of course, I don’t want to see the country turn into a hotbed for terrorists. But I’m also afraid that while we are mired down in Iraq, the fox is stealing the chickens over in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, The BBC reports that the Pentagon has created a new unit to use “new media” to push its messages and “set the record straight.” Maybe the new unit of public relations hacks can tell me where the weapons of mass destruction went. I wonder if the new unit will be more successful in spinning the war. You know we Americans can’t think for ourselves. We are being manipulated. But Al Qaeda or other enemies are not manipulating us as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says. We are being manipulated by the Republicans and their failed War of Terror.
I wished to heck Secretary Rumsfeld was kept awake at night worrying about the young men and women he sends into battle an unseen enemy instead of worrying about U.S. enemies “manipulating the media” as he is quoted as saying.
I don’t have the answer, but neither do these guys.
4 comments:
I think the republicans are clutching at straws, there is real anger about the direction of the USA at many levels, not only the war, but also inequality.
Soldiers are mostly from poor families, especially in the USA. Why is that? Why aren't rich kids going off to war? What kind of democracy allows this to happen?
The fact that the poor are usually not very educated (lets be honest: some are stupid some are average, few are highly intelligent but very very few would have gone to the army if they had alternatives especially these days) reflects the fact that most higher education in the US is very expensive and private.
Poor people are mostly excluded from education. The big change now is that unlike the past if you don't have a college degree you are unlikely to get a good job, and blue collar jobs are going to China Mexico and India, making the rich people that own the companies exporting those jobs richer (shareholders are included in this).
Increasingly middle income americans are affected too, mostly through their children. Sometimes as there are no good jobs to go to to live like a human being, people are forced to go to the army as it offers training and the only viable career...
Some become criminals... some become cleaners etc..
Whereas C students like Bush succeed based on their parents money not their own efforts, so this is hardly meritocracy. I wouldn't call Bush a smart man certainly he doesn't think about policy. I think he has outsourced the thinking to other unelected people who are influenced by lobbyists around him which is a big problem in a democracy.
As we live in a world were the rich can avoid the army, saying that poor people are the ones fighting the war is not a lie
Just think about it... Increasingly being poor makes you a non citizen in America..
This is particularly relevant since both Bush and Cheney avoided going to Vietnam by Bush getting his rich family to intervene for him to guard the fearsome invaders in Texas (i.e. nobody) during Vietnam, always at the ready from the bar, armed with several bottles of alcohol. Whereas Cheney used his university study as a reason not to go to Vietnam and he was granted this.
If they had fought in a war i would have much more time in listening to Bush or Cheney talk about the necessity of war or sacrifice, the reality is neither has experienced it... and they talk far too much about it.
I also fear that they use the war to obscure the financial interests they protect int he background. Americans need to do something about the corruption of their government..
The joke was unfunny and misunderstood.
He wasn't trying to say that only ignorant uneducated people will be stuck in Iraq.
The transcript shows that he was trying to say that Bush is ignorant and Bush is "Stuck in Iraq."
That was the joke.
But it didn't come out right.
Thanks Macko for stopping by to visit. Like you I have problems when American leaders send young men and women into harm's way without ever having faced combat personally. It should only be done after the most careful thought and consideration of alternatives that do not involve deployment. The most compelling of reasons should be the only justification. The War in Iraq was not such a situation. We were given what ended up to be the most flimsy of reasons. President Bush, V-P Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld told the world that there were weapons of mass destruction. Now I opposed the war from the beginning since I believed that Saddam could have been kept in check by less drastic means. However, once the decision was made, I kept hoping they would find the weapons of mass destruction so that at least the reason for us entering the conflict would have been more compelling.
Well, here we are now with the spin continuing. John Kerry was dumb as dirt to say what he did in the way he did. He played right into the hands of the Republicans right when the Democrats were making some progress in getting the public to focus on
the war instead of some silly irrelevant issue. I can't forgive him.
I'm eligible for absentee voting for state and presidential candidates, and I have to say, the available dems that are available at the moment lack any luster to be had. Kerry is nearly as weak as they come, and is beginning to remind me of a weeble wobble when it comes to politics in general. We could really use some bulldogs to head off the sly cat repubs in the next election, and I honestly haven't seen any. Will the real democrats please stand up?
Concerning Rumsfeld, you're not going to get so much as a roll over or a sniff out of him. If he were ever going to feel guilty, he wouldn't have help send our men and women in the first place. Had it been me, I would have vehemently opposed this war, step down and taken the licks that were coming to me afterwards. I'd rather be unemployed than betray my countrymen.
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