When all is said and done, America's adventure in Iraq will be remembered for many precedents: most poorly executed, flimsiest excuse, greatest number of dollars lost, stolen or unaccounted for, etc. etc. Ultimately though, I think the war in Iraq will be remembered most for being the first war to be planned and instigated entirely by men who were demonstrably cowards. Pick a war, any war - from Kosovo to Carthage - you won't find a war council so thoroughly devoid of combat experience as the one who took us into Iraq. AWOL George, Five-Deferments Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, even ol' blood-n-guts Donny Rumsfeld... none of them ever bore witness to so much as a single shot fired in anger.
New Rule: No President shall be allowed to declare war unless they goddam well fought in one.
4 comments:
I think that's an excellent rule. Even better: In any future war, the two sets of government officials should line up and duke it out - maybe have a paintball game so it's more like real shooting, with red paint for fake blood - and leave the rest of us the bleep out of it.
Sometimes I wonder if the ancient Greeks had the right idea. Each side would pick a champion to go head-to-head in single combat, and the winner's side got to take home all the goodies.
Great rule also there kids should be the 1st in line to go to war. Or some way to make "them" pay for the war out of there own pockets. Or hold the prez, his administration, & congress accountable. Plus the media must not be owned by big biz!
"when war is this profitable, you are going to see a lot more of them"
Sign's been up over 24 hours now. Estimated viewership:90,000+
Have you thought about the fact that the rule would disqualify most women, given how people define combat?
Yet most of us spend all our lives in an unrecognized war zone we don't have to enlist for. This isn't entirely exaggeration. I've seen reports that female soldiers in Baghdad have trouble understanding why the guys are so freaked out about having to watch their own backs all the time. Getting shot at happens at a higher frequency there, but getting attacked is not that unusual an experience for women.
I think what you're really trying to say is that leaders should have some concept of what other people go through. Combat experience is only one way to get that.
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