War’s Unpopularity Soaring, Sheehan Concedes Defeat, Retires

As usual, I feel compelled to point out that I am not making this up.

Now, I always liked Cindy Sheehan better in theory than practice. “A bad messenger for a good message,” I’d say, because as a media personality she was almost always strident and bellicose (like Michael Moore and every leading light of the conservative right – think Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, the whole rotten bunch of them), and her participation in any given event had the tendency to draw attention away from the event, and towards Ms Sheehan.

But now she’s hanging up her spurs, declaring on Memorial Day that her battle is lost and her son’s life officially a waste of time. Once again her personality will rule the news cycle, and once again, she’ll provide 24 hours of media cover for her sworn enemies’ slimy machinations. Oh, Cindy… please stop helping already!

I find myself caught between generations. My dad on the one side, who served in WWII; and my son on the other, for whom I’d sooner chew off my own arm than see him serve in the armed forces. Obviously, I don’t have a beef with the armed services as such, being the level-headed pragmatist that I am… I’m all for us being the biggest, baddest fuckers on the international block. It’s always worked for us in the past…

But is it just me, or does it seem our wars are trending stupider? And that it’s the young, untested Commanders-in-Chief that get us into our most ill-advised conflicts? JFK with Vietnam and W with Iraq, both disasters. It took cagey old pro Richard Nixon to extricate us from Vietnam (“Get us the #@%& out of there, you &*@%ing %&#@!! Now I have to go to China…”).

And in the early 90s, Saddam decided to take a crap on his neighbor over there in Satan’s sandbox, and experienced political insider George H W Bush executed a measured, timely and effective response. Plus imposed a bunch of restrictions and extracted concessions that made Saddam our bitch the rest of his life.

And in doing so, Bush Sr. earned back some of the international respect for America’s military prowess and skillful statescraft that had been squandered in Vietnam. Much was made of this at the time, and I was forced to agree. Sure, it was a tempest in a teapot, but it was a clear win at a time when it was real good for us to chalk up an uncontested victory.

Then Dumbleyou comes along and upsets the apple cart again. Now we’re the world’s bitch. Impotent, militarily shamed on the world stage for all to see. The enemy now not only ‘knows where we live,’ and how to get here but also has a blueprint for beating us in the field. What a difference six and a half years make.

So here’s what I think, having mulled all this over at length.

I don’t want my son dying for some dipshit’s ill-advised war in twenty years. And it seems like the best way to try, anyhow, to ensure that, is to keep young, inexperienced motherfuckers out of the White House. We got lucky with Clinton; he was a perfect political storm – brilliant, lucky and with enough political balls to reconcile with his foes when circumstances turned again him or his policies. Working in secret with the oppo Senate leader (through Dick Morris) to get policies approved – that alone ought to earn him a profile in courage.

Dick Morris… [shudder!]

Having lucked out myself and been born between wars, I’m looking at my son’s generation, and wondering what we can do to protect them [him!] from tinhorn despots like Saddam Hussein and George W Bush. (I’m compiling a bullet-pointed list of all my grievances against the current administration. It may end up being my longest post ever.)

And I’m thinking we need to hire presidents with kick-ass resumes, not perfect pearly whites. The problem is, winning the White House is a popularity contest and the Prom King isn’t usually the sharpest tool in the shed; but governing requires a pocket-protector wearing policy wonk, and we keep electing the prom king!

I’m sorry, Barack, I say we don’t gamble on youth and telegenics twice in a row. Sen. Haircut, you were a fucking hawk on Iraq before it was uncool to be a hawk on Iraq, that proves to me you’re young and stupid, and I shouldn’t trust your judgment. All your peers jumped on the bandwagon – feckless bastards – but you pulled the wagon with the bit in your teeth.

And this brings us back to Cindy Sheehan. She’s packing it in because the weak-kneed Dems in Congress caved once again to the White House last week, but what I’m beginning to understand is that that’s how savvy political pros operate – in incremental dribs and drabs. They’re playing fucking political parlor games and our kids are getting blown up over there in record numbers – but it is an imperfect process, and until it is revised, this is how it operates.

What Cindy doesn’t realize is that when a chess master tells you “I’m going to checkmate you in twelve moves,” there’s still another twelve ass-kickings coming before the final blow is delivered.

We’re on our way out of Iraq. That ship has sailed. There is no popular or political support for the continuation of this level of involvement in Iraq, and the GOP congressmen running in ’08 are gonna make double-damned sure that W’s war doesn’t drag them into retirement with him.

That’s gonna be a lot of wasted lives between now and then, and goddamn it, people ought to be held accountable. But right now things are heading in our direction, and right now is no time to be letting the pressure off, not even for a minute.

Unless you’re Cindy Sheehan, in which case you not only have my sympathy for your son and eternal gratitude for your initial efforts in getting the anti-war ball rolling, but my blessings on your timely retirement. Thank you for not helping anymore.

*Flag photo by Fang, Christmas Island, Memorial Day 2007