What is it in political elections that cause strong, intelligent, courageous men to turn into gutless, pandering cowards? The closer a candidate is to winning the presidency, the more spineless he/she becomes. The leading candidates of both parties are usually reduced to regurgitating an endless stream of platitudes, so that it's difficult to tell them apart. All original thought is verboten because the candidates are afraid of offending various small interest groups with what they really think, which may not be politically acceptable speech. The media Thought Police is the main enforcer and hypes obvious truths, escalating them into gaffes and Gotcha moments.
I have always listened carefully to the candidates who do not have a chance. They tell a fuller, more complete truth as they see it. Guys like Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton, Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Barry Goldwater, Pat Buchanan, even Joe Biden. They have nothing to lose, and don't usually tote around a gaggle of spinmeisters. The latest candidate to become victim to the thought police is Senator John McCain, who used to be on the Straight Talk Express (and ironically supports "the new surge"). Earlier this week on Letterman, McCain was forced to grovel after he said,
"Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives, over there."
GOTCHA: Don't you read the news or listen to television. You can't say, "lives were wasted." It's not approved speech. Don't you know that the average citizen is a goose-stepping ignoramus? Get with the program, John! If you ever want to climb what Disraeli called, that "greasy pole", you have got to pander to the masses.
Barak Obama, who seldom gets into this kind of trouble because he speaks in generalities, blew it in the same way a few weeks ago. He said,
"We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."
McCain, just like Obama before, was forced to eat his words; "I should have used the word 'sacrificed,' as I have in the past. No one appreciates and honors more than I do the selfless patriotism of American service men and women in Iraq."
The last time I thought about the word "sacrificed" was after I saw the movie Apocalypto. The Mayans would roll severed heads down the steps of their temples as sacrifices to appease angry gods, --- rituals which served to keep the ruler's power over the terrorized masses. Is this what we are doing in Iraq? Nothing else makes much sense.
Nobody says the dead soldiers were not brave and patriotic, just that their lives were foolishly wasted (just like the Mayans who lost their heads). The Iraq war has been idiotically, colossally counterproductive; instead of preventing terrorism, the US actions in Iraq have served as terrorism's best recruiter. Before the war, the true enemies of the US (and Israel) - Syria and Iran - were contained by Saddam's hostile Iraq. Now they are stronger than ever. We live in a more dangerous world now than before the Iraq invasion.
We need a war on terrorism, but this is the wrong war.
There will be a nuclear terrorist action - and many more non-nuclear bombings - in major US cities in the next few years, as most of the terrorism experts are predicting.
(Aside: Looking ahead, we need a president who is able to deal with the terrorists' threat in a measured and nuanced way. After a few bombs go off on buses, the ability to deal with terrorism will surely decide the next election.)
But this Iraq war has backfired catastrophically. It was stupid from the beginning and resulted in more than 600,000 people killed needlessly. If Americans don't admit the stupidity of this war, then why would we want to bring the soldiers home?
The best way for the families - and the media - to honor their dead would be to make sure that the remaining soldiers are brought home as soon as possible, so that that there will be no more "wasting" or sacrificing. If America can finally learn the lesson - to stay out of useless wars - then these dead servicemen will not have died in vain. In effect, what Bush and the administration are saying is: Let's roll more "sacrificial" heads down the steps to honor the ones who have died already.
How twisted is this?
Cindy Sheehan, who lost her first born son Casey in Iraq, says the best way to honor his memory is to save the rest of the soldiers. "I don't want any more people killed just because my son is dead."
jfleetwood@aol.com