One Never Knows, Does One?

Hey Democrats!

Can we talk for a minute or two? Just as I predicted a month and a half ago when I composed a little ditty on this very site called, "No Time For Democratic Timidity" (26 November), a lot of you folks are starting to appear weak in the knees. After twelve long years in exile, you finally got power - real, tangible power, baby! - and you don't want to blow a good thing by showing (Dare I say it?) political courage - Oh, perish the thought, my dears! The buzz around DC these days is that you don't want to cut off funding for this disgusting and obscene war because you'll be "perceived" as not supporting the troops. Yeah, I know, I know, perception is everything in Washington - no argument from me there - but so is hindsight. A year from now, it will be obvious to everyone (Who knows? Maybe even that fucking idiot in the White House) that cutting off the financing of the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. It might even translate into votes in November of '08! As the late, great Fats Waller once famously observed, "One never knows, does one"?

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That's right, Dems! The time has come for you to show some guts! What do they call it? Intestinal fortitude? Yeah! That's it! You remember the old song Bert Lahr sang in the Wizard of Oz, don't you? Sure ya do! "What makes the muskrat guard his Musk? Courage". In an interview with Diane Sawyer to be broadcast later this morning on ABC News, Nancy Pelosi said that the Dems plan on passing a "non-binding resolution" opposing the First Fool's decision ("I'm the decider") to send another 21,500 American kids into this quagmire. Whaat??? That's not courage! That's political expediency! C'mon, folks! Do the right thing! This war is, for all intents and purposes, over. It's lost! Anyone not watching Fox News figured that out a long time ago. The only reason the Bush Mob is keeping it going is so they can hand it off to the next (read: Democratic) administration on January 20, 2009. When that happens - OH, BROTHER! - it will automatically become your war. It will forever be known as Mr. Biden's war - or Mr. Edward's war - or Mr. Obama's war or - Heaven help us all - Mrs. Clinton's war. Now you don't want that to happen, do you? Ah! I didn't think so.

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The Sunnis and the Shiites and the Kurds will continue to kill each other in horific numbers regardless of whether or not America continues its mindless, stupid occupation. Of all of the ironies too numerous to mention, the biggest irony is the one that no one has mentioned thus far: Saddam Hussein's regime, as awful as it was, was in reality a strategic necessity. He held Iran at bay and kept inner-ethnic feuds (some of them dating back centuries) from erupting within his own country - and no one in the Bush White House was smart enough to figure that out. Ha! Ha! Ha! Isn't that a rip? Who would have thunk it? Are you laughing yet?

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I hate to keep rubbing this in your face Nancy, but over three-thousand American kids and half a million Iraqi men women and little children have been murdered as a result of this fiasco. You could end it today if you wanted to. That's why we, the people, sent a Democratic majority to the Congress in the first place. The ball is in your court, my dear.

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And here's another thing you can do: please STOP referring to it as "funding" the war, OK? The word "funding" conjures up images of the Children's Aid Fund. It makes people positively teary-eyed! Here's my idea: from this day forward, don't call it "funding", call it "financing". Whoooaaa! Now there's a word with some seriously evil connotations - particularly in parts of the so-called "Bible Belt." When the knuckleheads in the mega-churches hear the word, "financing" or "financier", they immediately think of "elitist" northern Jewish bankers in custom-made, thousand dollar suits. "It's jist a buncha dang New York Jew lawyers keepin' this thing goin', Bubbah! Ah tell ya, it's a dang conspiracy"! It just doesn't get any weirder than that! As I said before, perception is everything.

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There is a limited window of opportunity here, kiddies. Get out while the getting's good. The Bush Mob's argument is that if America bails out of Iraq now, the place will erupt into chaos....umm....yeah....In case you haven't noticed, that country is beyond chaotic - we're talkin' full blown holocaust here; a holocaust engendered and nurtured by this nightmare of an administration. We can only hope and pray that, in a matter of time, Iraq will be able to heal it self. It's a long shot but there is no other viable option - none.

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George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld - and the tsunami of human excrement that comprises this despicable administration - opened up the gates of hell when they went into Iraq almost four years ago. Only God knows whether or not we would have been able to save the Iraqi people from themselves, but at least we'll be able to save them from us. That's reason enough to leave.

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Pray for peace.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net