Who's War?

Great op/ed in the Washington Post today (link), from a professor of political economy at Princeton University.

Truly, you have to admire the way the Republicans have taken control of the dialog in this country. How have they done it?

By making this faaaabulous new war available now, at absolutely NO cost to you!

But wait, there's more! Not only will the war not cost you a dime, we'll put more money in your pockets by cutting taxes during a time of war, which has never been done in the history of mankind!

But wait, there's more! Statistically speaking, only about 10 million out of 300 million Americans even has a family member in the military. Therefore, most of you really won't even need to worry about somebody you care about coming home in a coffin!

Isn't that a sweet deal? You get to wave your flags, and put your yellow stickers on your SUV's, and you have to sacrifice - ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING!

Hell, you don't even need to donate any money to any service related charitable causes. You don't even need to see the carnage, nor the death, nor the destruction if you don't want to. The media's not going to show it to you, so no worries!

Isn't that brilliant? The Republicans have made sure there is no popular revolt, nor Kent State style massacres, simply by making sure that nobody is really inconvenienced by the war. Not even the Yellow Elephant Republicans who are staying out of the war in droves by saying "I can do more here", or "I'm going back to college".

Well - isn't it nice you have a clear consciences eh?

When our son, then a recent Princeton graduate, decided to join the Marine Corps in 2001, I advised him thus: "Do what you must, but be advised that, flourishing rhetoric notwithstanding, this nation will never truly honor your service, and it will condemn you to the bottom of the economic scrap heap should you ever get seriously wounded." The intervening years have not changed my views; they have reaffirmed them.

Unlike the editors of the nation's newspapers, I am not at all impressed by people who resolve to have others stay the course in Iraq and in Afghanistan. At zero sacrifice, who would not have that resolve?

I'm reminded of a scene in Fahrenheit 9/11. It is inauguration day after Chimpy ripped off the voters, and the motorcade is slowly driving down the street. There are huge crowds - there to protest. They shower the limo with eggs, and the Secret Service calls off the traditional Presidential walk, out of fear of mass rioting.

That was the beginning of this President we have now. And the protestors are gone, and there's no rioting in the streets... because even the protestors got this war for free, at absolutely no cost to them either.

** update **

Krugman has a new editorial. It's very good.

The campaign for Social Security privatization has degenerated into farce. The "global war on terrorism" has been downgraded to the "global struggle against violent extremism" (pronounced gee-save), which is just embarrassing. Baghdad is a nightmare, Basra is a militia-run theocracy, and officials are talking about withdrawing troops from Iraq next year (just in time for the U.S. midterm elections).