PhotoDude.com

Fri. Jul 23, 2004

Phobublicans and Deimoscrats

Sgt. Stryker says you need to go look in the mirror.

I’m going to quote more of this than I probably should. But there’s a lot more I’m leaving out, so go read it. Essentially, Sarge twists the old Reagan question, “are you better off than you were four years ago,” into a question we don’t hear from either campaign…

“Are you safer now than you were 3 years ago?”

There’s a reason we don’t hear that from either campaign. Sarge starts off by comparing the “state of the union” three years into WWII:

Three years into our entry into WWII, the entire nation had been converted to a wartime footing, the Army had ballooned to Olympian proportions and had subsequently conquered North Africa and Italy [...] Victory in Europe was less than a year away. Victory in Japan would come a couple of months after that.

The main point is that we were winning, we knew we were winning, and we knew the end was in sight. There was no question of another Pearl Harbor happening, and the Wolfpacks in the North Atlantic had been all but eliminated. Americans were confident and secure in their power.

Three years into this current war, we’ve invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. We’ve created a new Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. We created a “Transportation Security Administration”. The nation and the government, however, are still on a peacetime footing. No sacrifice has been asked of the general populace. People are apparently still scared to fly and have no faith in the security apparatus meant to protect them. A sizeable portion of the public honestly believes that we’re not at war. Three years into this thing and we’re about as screwed-up a nation as we can be. If you want someone to blame for the state of things, then each of you needs to take a long, hard look into the mirror.

Most of you conservatives say we’re at war, yet you’d hardly know it from your actions. You engage in the same stupid partisan bickering and arcane gamesmanship as in peacetime. You say this Adminstration is strong against terrorism, yet your very actions and words betray your confidence in it. You support it because it uses strong words and invaded Iraq. When you eliminate all of your paradoxes about this Administration, that’s all you have left: you support this Adminstration because it talks tough and it invaded Iraq. Are you safer now than you were 3 years ago? You wouldn’t know it by listening to you.

Most of you liberals say we’re at war, but your war is against the President. You’re more concerned about defeating Bush than you are about defeating the enemy. To you, Bush is the enemy. Just like your conservative brethren, you’re more interested in political showmanship than doing anything to seriously help win this war. You oppose the President because he uses strong words and he invaded Iraq. Unlike the conservatives, you think that the security apparatus put in place after 9-11 does it’s job too well and does it against the wrong people. Are you safer now than you were 3 years ago? Obviously not. You think we’re on the verge of the Third Reich.

Do you want to know why I’m an independent? It’s because you conservatives and liberals are a stupid and silly people. You bicker and posture as if we have all the time in the world to defeat international terrorism. You say we’re at war and things need to be done right now when it’s politically convenient for you to do so, but you carry-on as if we’re still at peace. We have Americans dying overseas while they’re obstensibly trying to protect you, but all you can do is paint them as either untouchable heroes or pathetic victims. You can’t seriously debate the course of this war because for you, this isn’t a war against international terrorism, this is a war about personalities, specifically one personality: George W. Bush. For you, this isn’t a real war with real consequences, this is just another phoney war of opinion. You aren’t conservatives and liberals, you’re Phobos and Deimos: Fear and Panic. One of you uses the fear of external threats to win elections, the other tries to frighten us with internal threats. You both serve the same Master and that is why your supposed differences are as illusory as the fears you try to frighten us with. You’re more concerned with winning the next election than you are the real war. It’s a farce.

Emphasis mine. With a big Amen, as well. I could be wrong, but I think Sarge and I are largely on the same page when it comes to this election. But we’ll never know for sure. He’s constrained in exactly what he can say, because he’s active military. I’m constrained in what I can say, because I don’t care to host partisan warfare in my comments section. Because of that, I haven’t written a lot of what’s been on my mind about our developing choice, and because it’s still somewhat formative (i.e., it would be a 3,000 word screed few would read).

But Sarge does an excellent job of capturing the frustration underneath the things left unsaid. Frustration at both sides for frittering away this time for vital debate by worrying more about 30 year old military records or 30 year old medals. Frustration over the same “failure of imagination” the 9/11 Commission talked about, and which can be found in abundance on the left and right, not just the FBI and CIA.

Frustration with the disappointing binary choice left before us, at this most critical time.

If you are coming to believe that neither man may be the right man for the job they will face in the next four years … you are left with frustration. And a great concern for the future.

Especially as you watch the majority of the country devolving into a social civil war, where reason has mostly left the building, and been replaced by rancor.