Another Memorial Day has come and gone. Now, everybody feels good for having watched the required number of parades; for having listened to the usual blasts of hot air, exuding from the usual politicians, extolling the sacrifices made by "Our Veterans." And our President has made the usual stiff-legged walk, with the floral wreath, at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery.
In the meanwhile, the wounded and stressed are beginning to come home in increasing numbers for (mis)treatment at Walter Reed Hospital and for the interminable delays combined with callous indifference at Veterans Administration facilities.
Incompetence and confusion, the dominant features of the Bush Administration in connection with the Iraq mess, continues. Post Traumatic Syndrome--what a dumb phrase!--is heightened with each repeated deployment -- the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th--in a military organization stretched far beyond its ability to keep up with the demands placed on it.
In addition to the demands placed upon the military, our Nation is now waging a war unlike any other in our history: an "Assymmetric War," one in which our enemy's weapons are simple, inexpensive and easy to make (IEDs, Armor Piercing Devices, etc , including a seemingly never ending supply of suicide bombers eager to mate with virgins in Paradise). Our sophisticated, expensive devices are no match for the enemy's determination to kill as many of our soldiers as they can, no matter the cost to them in their supply of martyrs.
Is there no end in sight to this bloodbath? Yes, I claim there is...All that is necessary to keep in mind is that "W" is always wrong. He says we must "stay the course." This means that we shouldn't. It also means that we should promptly bring our troops home. Besides, can anything worse happen to that wretched country than has been going on for four years?
Then, for the first time we can really concentrate on fighting the "War on Terror," everywhere the bastards are hiding, but not in Iraq.
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