Saturday, November 25, 2006

Fiddler on the Bicycle

The situation in Iraq is devolving by the minute... kidnappings, mass killings, burning people alive in the streets...

...And where's Georgie? Is he in the war room? Is he at the Pentagon consulting with the generals? Is he hard at work in the Oval Office? No. He's off playing in his mountain biker costume.

We needed to win a much larger Congressional majority than we did. It's going to be a LONG two years.

Meanwhile, in other news...

In a misguided attempt to solve the problem of wars being fought primarily by the sons and daughters of the poor, Congressman Charles Rangel is, once again, pushing to reinstate the draft. He believes that if Congressmen in the House and Senate would be sending their own children or the children of those constituents who can afford to donate to their campaigns, they'd think twice before voting to take the country to war.

Sounds reasonable enough, but the roster of Vietnam-war draft dodging Chickenhawks currently in charge, proves that even with the draft, Iraq would still be a rich man's score to settle and a poor man's war to fight. The wealthy will always be able to afford and the powerful will always be able to pull strings to ensure that the poor and powerless shoulder the burdens and bear the sacrifices of battle.

Hey, I have a novel idea: I propose no vacations, days off or even leisure time for anyone in the Senate, House, Executive Branch, key administration appointments, cabinet positions or the Pentagon whenever the nation is at war. No parties, galas, roasts, fun photo ops, holiday celebrations, mountain biking excursions, fishing trips, golf outings, telecommuting from the ranch or Camp David or Kennebunkport, fiddling on rooftops, etc. It would be a miniscule sacrifice compared to that made by our troops and their families, but it would be a good symbolic start.

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