Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Real Party Of Death

Courtesy of a reader's posted comment, here's part of President Bush's July 4 speech at Fort Bragg: "I'm going to make you this promise: I'm not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 troops who have died in Iraq to be in vain by pulling out before the job is done." One indication a war has gone south is when its architects and apologists---which in this case include many self-described "pro-lifers"---begin to cite a perverse logic by which death is only valid and honorable if it's followed by more death. The U.S. fell into this trap in Vietnam, and it's happening again. This logic is specious, of course. The U.S. pulled out of Somalia immediately after the "Black Hawk Down" disaster, but did that tarnish the heroism or diminish the sacrifice of the troops who died there? Aren't they among the most celebrated of American heroes today?

Sacrifice on the battlefield stands on its own. Its validity doesn't depend on an ever-shifting set of goalposts in Washington.

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

One indication a war has gone south is when its architects and apologists---which in this case include many self-described "pro-lifers"---begin to cite a perverse logic by which death is only valid and honorable if it's followed by more death.

But it worked great at Verdun....
-- sglover

7/05/2006 7:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of course you are right, and your reasoning is sound. But don't expect any Democrat to be able to articulate the point. The Dems are beyond hopeless.

7/05/2006 8:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wish George Bush Sr. "pulled out before the job was done."

7/06/2006 9:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mike, that was brilliant!

7/06/2006 10:43 AM  
Blogger DED said...

With all due respect Kindness, the Democrats have been losing the PR campaign for some time now. As much as I despise Rove, he's very effective at getting the party's message out there and painting Dems as weak. But the Dems only seem to counter with "Are not!" I'd love to see them win a landslide in 2006, but that can only happen if they figure out to neutralize Rove and his henchmen on right wing radio.

7/06/2006 12:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have to throw in with DED and Anon here.

Rove & the GOP braintrust are always good for a loathesome campaign message or twelve. But looking across the aisle (Hillary? Lieberman? Kerry?) won't have your eyes seeing the promised land.

7/06/2006 3:35 PM  
Blogger Old Lady said...

That doesn't mean we have to buy the product. Knowingly buying a bad product because the advertising is good does not make sense!

7/06/2006 7:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who's saying to buy it?

What's so difficult to understand about rejecting the GOP and the mainstream of the Dems? The Dems have no one beyond Hill & the three or four others among the . . . ahem, shall we say, Elect?

7/07/2006 6:08 AM  
Blogger Old Lady said...

Metaphorically speaking-In reference to ded's statement about Democrat's PR and Rove's effectiveness. The Democratic PR is not effective because for someone to openly oppose the President's policy would incur the wrath of the populus who believe "McCarthy" politics. Everyone is afraid, no one is seeing clearly, to oppose puts our soldiers at peril. "Look the King is not wearing any clothes!" Who will say it?

There is no difficulty in rejecting the GOP & mainstream of Dems for me. There is someone out there. We as the voting public need to use our brains and do our research and take the government back under our control.

7/07/2006 3:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good design!

7/30/2007 2:46 AM  
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8/17/2007 2:50 PM  
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8/26/2007 2:34 AM  
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9/09/2007 1:12 PM  
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9/10/2007 9:31 PM  
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9/11/2007 3:04 PM  

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