Washblog

This story is way too long but I write to divest myself of the dis-ease which sickens me in heart and soul as I continue to experience an erosion of the ideals of our military confiscated by a bullying Administration and too easily relinquished by a trembling Congress. It's a last straw for me to hear a uniformed officer inside the Pentagon say something descriptive about the whole of the military as ' the aroma of Jesus Christ'.  It's a last straw for me as a practicing Christian who prefers and chooses not to be defined by the definitions of Christianity to hear a military official steal Christ concepts to aggrandize what the military is doing in Iraq. Read it all or don't, I write it more for my benefit than yours and it's my way of trying to heal from the virus that seems to be running rampant these days through our country.

If what we are witnessing of Democratic leadership - potential decision makers on Iraq invasion/occupation (war) - potential Commander-in-Chief type leadership; then as a military family I have a gnawing concern about their capacity to lead in a time of war. Not that I am at all advocating for Republican led Congress to give us more of the last five years. I already can see how the Republican leadership led us in a time of war - they created one. The Democratic leadership didn't do much to stop them and still isn't doing much more than what sounds like some loud mewling to my ears.  

Essentially in the military culture, it's either send the troops in and get the job done and get out or don't send them in to do a half-assed job and get them picked off one by one.  Or, better said, that has been my understanding over the decades of what our military troops say they want, when they are 'off to war'.  So I ask this Democratic Congress, are you becoming the decision makers that commit our troops to doing a half-assed job?

I don't think I am a war mongering kind of personality, and I don't think I am a peacenik kind of personality either. While I can't see much value in war under most circumstances, I know I'm not enough of a pacifist that I wouldn't defend my own.  I am not sure I have actually found my niche in this public dialogue and discussion that permits only one way (pro-war) or the other (anti-war).  The extension of such a divisive setting as the framework in which to have a discussion seems very limited to me. And this is too much a comprehensive matter - how a country initiates a war, and reframes the Constitution to support sustaining a highly questionable war (some would call it illegal and be willing to serve time in prison for the right to call it an illegal war, ie, Lt. Ehren Watada).  

So, here at Washblog, a political type blog related to matters concerning Washington state politics, the dialogue seems sometimes to have heightened focus on discussion of candidates - next election and how to get Democratic candidates elected.  But, I see that as limiting the dialogue as well, because it is then strictly a partisan kind of discussion - which is the better of the worse of all evils - a Democratic holding office over a Republican holding office - and forget about any other party or Independent holding an office because the $$$ conditions just don't facilitate or permit such to happen.

I care about all the other issues on both sides of the aisle that affect the daily lives of Americans - they affect my life too.  I worry about the state of our democracy that will be left behind as legacy for my children and grandchildren - things like economy, jobs, medical, social security, aging infrastructure, global warming, sustainable living, eco-footprint,an increasingly more corporate owned America,capitalism at it's selfish heighth. I recognize that many Americans are not overly concerned about the issue of the Iraq war as I am since in our family we do have 'skin in the game' with 2 returning Iraq veterans, one on his way back in October for a second deployment to Iraq -- the 'surge' and all, you know. The other fighting a different battle now that he is home - you know the one - undiagnosed post trauma stress, or battle fatigue or shell shock or soldiers heart or any of the other names attached to soldiers who return home and start to come apart after the trauma of combat.  

It seems a kind of situation has developed where our military at war now serves as a proxy for our country at war.  The rest of America need not be involved and can continue towards the precipice with blind folders firmly intact. The 'war' America initiated has been 'outsourced' and the troops and their families are the key stakeholders - seemingly without voice because our voices are surely not represented in or by Congress.    

If a Democratic Congress has it in mind to sit out the next year and a half waiting for positioning for the 2008 elections at the expense of lives lost everyday in Iraq - soldiers, civilians and innocents who just happen to be in the way......and that is called leadership, or smart maneuvering, or savvy politics, or reality based politicking ...then perhaps they can give to me the explanations I must give to my children and grandchildren about how war and politics work independent and interdependently. Politicians seemingly oblivious to the realities of soldiers sent to war in one regard except as it gives them a platform and rhetoric for political positioning.  

This is not intended strictly as a rant on Democratic Congress; because a Republican Congress has done enough damage now as to bring our country to what is being called a Constitutional Crisis.  Both parties exploit and misuse our 'troops' as a political platform to further their own cause and agenda.  Other political parties and Independents are willing to do likewise.  Peace/activist groups and coalitions are willing to do likewise.  Fundamental Christian group like The Christian Embassy (see Time article August 3, 2007; see CNN video interview Aug 6, 2007 )  are willing to do likewise. When a uniformed Pentagon officer says in a video 'we are the aroma of Jesus Christ', I'm utterly sickened as I think of the permeation of such a view throughout the ranks.  Frankly, I'm sick at heart at all of the different factions willing to exploit the fact of a combat-ready, and combat deployed military to get their claims across.

Understand that when I point to the exploitation of what the military culture considers a code of honor, trains, lives and dies by ... I am also pointing to the Iraqis who have no choice now but to live and die by our U.S. standards, ethics, morality and choices.  

Talk about 'owning' the Iraq war  -- here in our country all political sides and in essence the American people have taken 'ownership' of Iraq and we 'own' the Iraq war. Why would we take ownership of something the Iraqi people have owned for over a thousand years?  Who the hell do we think we are on this global stage anyway?  Now we 'own' a warring country where we have instilled the supposed freedom of democracy while we are not much more than out of infancy in our own country as an experiment in republic democracy.  Maybe I understate, maybe our own country is more at it's adolescent state as an experiment in republic democracy.

What's the point of this story?  Me, being heartsick of trying to be patient, understanding, enlightened, comprehensive and looking ahead to the 'next steps' in this fiasco of the path our political leadership has taken us. Me wanting our existing Democratic majority Congress to exercise some authentic leadership in the matter of the Iraq war and hold this Administration to account - NOW - not next year, not in 2009, NOW!  I'm not sure leadership is defined as skulking in corners waiting for the right time and positioning while giving in to a hungrily, abusive bullying Administration who has stolen power, solidified that power, and reaches out for more.  

What's that formula for leaving an abusive relationship - it can take up to eight efforts to leave before successfully 'leaving' the relationship.  Is a Democratic Congress the unknowing victim of an abusive relationship or perhaps a knowing victim but uncertain of it's own personal power to end the abuse?  

I can't get beyond the image of young people trying to muster up the courage to live or die another day in Iraq while we permit those who are the decision makers a free pass, a free walk.  What good is a rant then if no options offered for what to do about it?  Well, since it was Congress (Democratic and Republican) that recently gave authorization for more funding to fund the war, to fund the soldiers so as not to appear anti-troops.  Congress authorized the 'surge', but not enough of a 'surge' to make much of a difference in Iraq or to the lives being lost there daily.  Send enough troops in to do the job they know how to do or pull them out - there is no in between. As my husband is fond of drawing an analogy of when one has to cut off the cat's tail; one can do it slowly inducing more pain to the cat, or do it quickly and get it over with but either way one is acting to cut off the cat's tail and that fact is inescapable.   How's that for either/or dialogue - right fitting given the either/or dialogue forced on public discussion already.

(Side note: Okay cat lovers-and we have one of those personable cats,no offense is meant here in using this analogy. I'm not sure where my husband lined up with using a cat for this analogy, but it's only meant to be an analogy, no harm is ever intended or meant to real cats. Oh, and interestingly, I have so often heard that working with and trying to collaborate, coordinate with Democrats is like trying to herd cats.  Now that analogy makes sense, but I don't know about the analogy of cutting off a cat's tail - why and when would one ever do that on purpose unless the cat's tail was injured and injurious?)

Now where would those troops come from since our existing 'all volunteer' military is stretched beyond broken. I guess Congress thinks it is okay to have a crippled and disabled military struggling to hold on and execute the unreasonable orders of a Commander-in-Chief who was finished with this war back in May 2003 when he declared Mission Accomplished. I'm not using this in sarcasm, it seems he really did believe his interest in the war in Iraq was over and mission was accomplished and he was ready to move on to the next Presidential taskings he set out for himself via his inner advisors plans for the new American century.  This President has moved onto other realms, like how to concentrate more power into the hands of the Presidency, executing a kind of take over coup right in front of our noses.  

As the troops are sent out again and again in second, third, fourth, fifth deployments, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that our 'all volunteer' military is not working.  Perhaps it is working, after all, the troops do keep going back to those repeat deployments.  Meanwhile the majority of military families continue to remain stoically silent as they are trained to do in a cultural code of honor while their own loved ones are decimated. That culture points to a different kind of honor and it is not about believing in this war or any other war for that matter.  It is the inside culture of the military in honor, duty, courage and service to the country.  Replace the Iraq war with say the Iran war and you would find troops and military families adhering to their own cultural identity and ethics.  Which is why civilians need to be paying attention, need to be speaking and not leaving it to troops and military families to have to speak in larger and larger numbers with each successive war as initiated by the United States Congress.  I don't think you would really want the troops and their families to turn in revolt and refuse to serve the very country that depends on them to keep them safe.  

It's an additional burden for us, as military families of loved ones deployed, returning, not returning, returning damaged to have to try to make our voices loud enough, strident enough, diligent enough to be heard amongst the already loud din that governs politics. When we do give voice, and I speak for myself here, I don't want that voice assimilated into some other messaging or agenda or strategized by others with longer tenures in politics and/or activism as to what tactic is going to be effective.  

How about a military draft then, that would net the country more soldiers. One could say the military draft of Vietnam wasn't working either, but we have a Vietnam Memorial with over 58,000 names of U.S. troops on it and a few million dead Vietnamese, who knows how many Cambodians, Laotians and a wiped out Hmong population to show for that 'military draft'.

So I guess it did work and maybe we need to define what it means when we say something is working or not working.  Seems to me both the military draft and the all volunteer military are working - just fine - in accordance with whatever Administrative faction is in power deems appropriate at the time.  And no, I don't want a military draft.  My two granddaughters are high school age now, and next thing I know, they'll wind up being drafted into the military and sent into combat along with the other 2 in our family who will be sent back to Iraq in repeat deployments.

Imagine this scenario - my granddaughter, caught up in a military draft because there are not enough troops to do the job in Iraq, sent to combat in Iraq, fighting next to her Father or her Uncle who is back in Iraq for a third or fourth time. Or maybe by then the war will have expanded to Iran or another part of the Middle East (you know where all those terrorists are sitting on U.S. oil and interfering with our way of life here in America).  Unreal - not hardly - not for our family - not for military families - and when the time comes for your kids to be caught up because the 'decision-makers' are too busy politicking to be acting in courage on behalf of your kids on the matter of Iraq war (which btw, this President has already declared as 'the long war' to last decades) - - - - you'll find yourself a 'newly minted' military family and you can join me in a support group, eh?  

Or maybe you can help me end this damnable war and get our country back on track with the Constitution and it ain't going to be holding our breaths to wait and see what happens in the 2008 elections.  I heard that tune in 2004, and in 2006, and I've tuned it out, my dear political astute friends - and I urge you to sing a different tune.  

Since Congress is able to multi-task and does it all the time, they can well do both a simultaneous push  to impeach both Cheney and Bush, giving something back to this country, ie, the Constitutional remedy when an Administration has gone beyond the rule of law as this Administration has done while immediately curbing the war in Iraq, getting our troops out and home, reparations to the Iraqis to build their  now freed country as they see fit.

And Congress will have to figure out how with a depleted U.S. military we could fight off the 'terrorist' whether it was here or there.  I'd say we have weakened, rather than strengthened our military might and standing on the global stage.  Remedy is required and it is the decision-makers who need to provide that remedy - Now!  

Your move Americans - and I suggest we move Congress to move to action, and sooner than later.