Something More Political Than Usual
Never the one to let a high-minded moment go without a jab worthy of a fraternity president, 43rd argued on Armistice Day (when the First War To Save Us Having to Have Any More Wars was ended at 11 on the 11 Day of the 11 Month, as SJ was taught long ago) that critics who want to investigate whether pre-war intellligence was "fixed" (which of course is a Britishism meaning "arranged" and nothing more pernicious than that) are hurting the morale of the troops. While SJ hesistates to speak for the troops, we suspect that like many people in the middle of things, they don't have much time or much care about how things began. (A mechanic is not normally interested in why you drove the car without oil.) But then it is just like a fraternity president to complain about criticism as hurting someone else when they feel its sting.
posted by RobCrowe at
4:33 PM
2 Comments:
funny--my mechanic ALWAYS wants to know why the hell I was driving without oil. Again.
"The troops" is the trump card the administration brings out every time the going gets tough. It works all too often. Liberals are so anxious to distance themselves from the Vietnam protesters who spit on soldiers that, at least at the level of rhetoric, they cower in a corner whenever "the troops" are mentioned.
Now, I'm not in favor of spitting. On soldiers, on sidewalks. Maybe spitoons. But the "left" needs to grow a spine and stop letting the Republicans define the terms of the debate. Rhetorical capitulation leads to policy capitulation.
i take your point, but you don't receive my meaning. (i don't mean the spam above, although it does seem like a pretty good idea.) SJ's thought is that Bush is being famously clear, so long as you subsitute him for "the troops" trope. SJ approves of neither side's use of it, but he strenously thinks it does much more service (or did...) for the latter rather than the former.
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