MEMORIAL DAY MUSINGS

We can love our country and still grieve for
the lives wasted through stupidity and
ignorance. Craig Crawford (writing in The
Huffington Post): "An unpopular president
has been able to secure unfettered financing
to maintain an unpopular war with no end
in sight -- and all this despite nothing but
bad news from the battlefield. Even Abe
Lincoln had to show tangible success --
namely, the burning of Atlanta in 1864 --
to sidetrack mounting opposition to the
Civil War and avoid what might have been
an electral disaster for himself and his
party that year.

Until Republicans on Capitol Hill start
casting votes that sync with their public
and private complaints about the president's
war policy, Bush will continue to get his way.
Even in the best-case scenarios for Democrats
going forward, they could still fall short of
the veto-proof majority they will need to take
control of this war. The more likely
possibility is that only the 2008 election can
change things. And by then, Bush will have
kept his war going all the way to his last day
in office." Oh happy day!

Paul Krugman (in The New York Times):
"Future historians will shake their heads
over how easily America was misled into
war. The warning signs, the indications
that we had a rogue administration
determined to use 9/11 as an excuse for
war, were there, for those willing to see
them, right from the beginning -- even
before Mr. Bush began explicitly pushing
for war with Iraq.

In fact, the very first time Mr. Bush
declared a war on terror that 'will not end
until every terrorist group of global reach
has been found, stopped and defeated,'
people should have realized that he was
going to use the terrorist attack to justify
anything and everything. When he used
his first post-attack State of the Union to
denounce an 'axis of evil' consisting of
three countries that had nothing to do
either with 9/11 or with each other,
alarm bells should have gone off.

But the nation, brought together in grief
and anger over the attack, wanted to
trust the man occupying the White House.
And so it took a long time before
Americans were willing to admit to
themselves just how thoroughly their
trust had been betrayed.

It's a terrible story, yet it's also under-
standable. I wasn't really surprised by
Republican election victories in 2002
and 2004: nations almost always rally
around their leaders in times of war, no
matter how bad the leaders and no
matter how poorly conceived the war.

The question was whether the public
would ever catch on. Well, to immense
relief for those who spent years trying
to get the truth out, they did. Last Nov.
Americans voted overwhelmingly to
bring an end to Mr. Bush's war.

Yet the war goes on."

"Here's the way it ought to be," Krugman
continues: "When Rudy Giuliani says
that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11,
is part of a 'movement' that 'has already
displayed more aggressive tendencies by
coming here and killing us,' he should be
treated as a lunatic." (The Iranians [Shia]
hate and oppose al Qaeda [Sunni fanatics]
as much as we do and will gladly join us in
fighting them and the Taliban anywhere
we suggest.)

Krugman again: "When Mitt Romney says
that a coalition of 'Shia and Sunni and
Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim
Brotherhood and al Qaeda' wants to 'bring
down the West,' he should be ridiculed for
his ignorance." (Someone should explain
to him why Shia and Sunnis are killing each
other, and that al Qaeda is a renagade part
of the latter, while Hezbollah is Shia, and
the Muslim Brotherhood is a non-violent
political movement.)

Back to Krugman: "And when John McCain
says that Osama, who isn't in Iraq, will
'follow us home' if we leave, he should be
laughed at." (As if they can't operate in more
than one place at a time! Osama can reach
us from wherever he is. He doesn't need
Iraq as much as we do!)

Regardless of our politics, on this Memorial
Day we should certainly thank our troops
whole-heartedly for their sacrifices, and
honor them for their courage and fidelity.
They make us all proud and grateful.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net