Where Have I Been?

I got a nice email from a friend today. He wrote asking where I've been lately. The truth is, I've been taking a little break. Okay, a big break. You see, for about a minute, it actually looked like the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, regarding the general state of the Union and everything I would normally have wanted to say was already being said.

What with all the noise about Iraq making terrorism worse, the business of Bush crusading for torture and the number of people now willing to say that they just don't think Congress is doing what they are supposed to do, I thought I'd said enough and could take a break. If it was all common knowledge now, why keep beating a dead horse?

Everything so many of us (bloggers, alternative media, etc.) have been spouting, since the war in Iraq began, is being accepted as fact now (Saddam was not a threat to Americans. There are/were no WMDs in Iraq. Invading Iraq will make terrorism worse. Even with the best intentions, Iraq will become a mess because our government is incompetent and greedy.) Frankly, I didn't think there was much more to say.

I was wrong.

Despite the fact that we can now all agree on what the facts were before the war, it hasn't seemed to make any difference. The reaction to the information, though it took several years to be accepted by the majority in this country, is so mind-numbingly inadequate to the effects of the situation on the ground, that it was almost better before we all knew how misled we had been.

At least before we could comfort ourselves with the knowledge (albeit, somewhat naïvely) that once people understood how inadequate to the task our leadership has been, at every level, they'd be fuming mad and ready for a change. But no, it appears not. All we can do now is lambaste Bill Clinton for "losing it," when recently questioned about why he didn't "do more" to capture/kill Osama bin Laden.

Frankly, I was proud of Bill. Just like I was proud of Howard Dean for screaming his fool head off at the now infamous Democratic event that was his last shining moment in the sun. I'm sick to death of denial. I'm ready to puke at the number of "gracious" comments I've heard from self-serving politicians who would happy to see you and me tarred and feathered for no good reason before they'd say anything that might be construed as "disloyal."

Both Bill Clinton and Howard Dean have something real and important to offer: They have a sense of self-respect and dignity that forces them to speak up--even when what they have to say might not please others. They have something else too: an innate ability to call things like they see them and an unwillingness to pretend otherwise.

Bill Clinton's problem wasn't that he screwed Monica Lewinsky; it was that Republicans preferred to focus on his sex life, rather than assisting him in finding and stopping Osama bin Laden. I just wish he'd had the guts to simply do what Joan Allen's character in The Contender did under similar circumstances: announce that his sex life is none of their damned business. That would have been the smart thing to do--highlight the idiocy of the request, rather than defend accusations that simply allowed the bullies who made the request to win by smearing their victim.

Our latest debacle is a charade in which key members of Congress pretend to protect the rights of innocent civilians, yet continue to support a barbaric policy which allows untried "enemies of state" to be fingered, by the administration, with no chance to address their accusers. What's more, the specifics of the torture that will be allowed under this so-called "clarification" process aren't going to be discussed. How does that clarify anything?

Bottom line: the semantics of the discussion have changed. That's all. Bush, et al, will continue to do what they've been doing. The only difference is that Congress has essentially ratified the Bush version of terrorism. This way we can pretend we are still the "good guys."

Meanwhile, our pundits are happily pointing the finger at the likes of Hugo Chavez and that guy from Iran (whose name I can say, but never spell) calling them "hotheads" and "buffoons." Why? Because they say things like "Bush is Satan." Well, Bush says things like Iraq, Iran and N. Korea are part of an "axis of evil." Where were the pundits then?

Things have not improved. They have simply degraded to the point where people are no longer arguing over how bad it is. Now they are simply arguing over how to make it sound better.

--Laurie