AND DON’T “COME BACK ‘TIL IT’S OVER OVER THERE”

2/6/08

If you are a military age male (Given what the Bushite “Big Government on a World Scale” approach to foreign policy has done to our military, “military age” is between 18 and 45.) who supports John McCain for president, immediately drop whatever you are doing and enlist in the military, and preferably not the Coast Guard, the National Guard, or any Reserve Branch. I mean active duty, front line military. This goes for every male John McCain supporter who is eligible to join, whether you are a college student, a law student, a master of the universe Wall Street Whiz Kid who just can’t leave your important job figuring out ways to enrich yourself and your employer by further screwing up our economy, a Congressional staffer, a political hanger-on, tradesman, or ditch digger. You simply cannot support John McCain unless you believe wholeheartedly in the Bush/Cheney/McCain Soviet style imposition of the American way of life on the world at the point of a gun, the most salient consequences of which are, and will continue to be, if John McCain has his way, thousands of American deaths, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqi (and Iranian and God knows what other nationals) deaths, making the Middle East safe for terrorism for at least 1,000 years (The people over there have long memories.), and the enrichment of some key GOP constituencies, most notably the oil and armaments companies and their executives.

Don’t try to pull a pusillanimous Dick Cheney move and argue that you have “other priorities.” You doubtless think the war is more important than other people’s priorities. If the war, and its expansion, is such a noble, purposeful idea, it surely is more important than whatever other priorities you might have, even the pursuit of a career in politics sending other people’s kids to fight Mr. Bush’s, Mr. Cheney’s, Mrs. Clinton’s, and Mr. McCain’s wars.

And if you are a parent, and especially a mother, of young children who supports John McCain, don’t complain when the draft is reinstituted and your kids are shipped off to fight in Mr. McCain’s crusade to tell the world how it should live, or else. If your guy wins (and thank God he won’t), your kids are going to go over there to fight and perhaps die. It won’t be someone else’s “noble service” to which you can pay lip service and go about your day any more.

Don’t try to argue that you support John McCain on “other issues” or that you “salute his character” and will support him despite his views on the war. Every other personal characteristic or policy stand of John McCain pales in comparison to his support of the war. If you try to ignore this, or pretend it simply isn’t true, don’t worry about it; the Democrats will remind you from now to election time of the inevitable equation of John McCain with continuing and expanding the war.

Believe me; it pains me to say this. Many young men I know and like (friends, children of friends, students of mine) support John McCain. None is in the military. I don’t really want them to put their lives in danger in order to satisfy the deranged desires of a man who can best be described as a war maniac. I just want them to reexamine their support for John McCain.

Fortunately, John McCain has less chance of becoming our next president than a certain north side ball club has of winning the World Series each year for the next decade. But when someone gets even this close, sane people have to realize how close we are to becoming a modern Sparta, or Rome…in the bad sense.