Turn on the news today, and you’ll see a lot about General Patreus’ testimony to Congress about “the Surge.” A top general, heading our efforts in Iraq, reporting to the representatives of the people.
There’s a few problems:
Last time I checked, the military was supposed to work for the people of this country — not a single political party.
If this doesn’t scare the living shit out of you, then I don’t know what would.
That was a common way to rule an army… back in ancient Rome. It turned out well for them, didn’t it? Oh, wait….
It doesn’t scare the living shit out of me, though it annoys the living shit out of me. Because it’s all about a hard-sell sales job. If that doesn’t scare the living shit out of me it’s because the exact same thing happened during VietNam. Read Harlan Ellison’s The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat and replace the names of the political figures, and it will all seem very familiar.
I have no real faith in the “liberal” (snort) media, since they seem to be more interested in The Sexy than The Truth or The Necessary. However, Shrub has been trying to sell his war and his policies to an increasingly cynical public, with continuously decreasing returns.
Will he and Cheney go to jail, like they should? Gods and Monsters, no. (Nixon didn’t go; the few flunkies that did didn’t count.) Sadly, life does not tend to offer the Just Deserts endings that the movies (especially the more contemporary ones) do.