Old Man & The War: The Lost Years
Think of the Iraq war as an old man.
This old man would like nothing more than to go out in a blaze of glory. But his life is dominated by fights with a sister in law, and as he shuffles around his thoughts frequently turn melancholy as he thinks back to when he was young, full of piss and vinegar and the world was his red, white and blue oyster.
“You goddamned blowhard!” screeches the sister in law. “You wasted all those goddamned years! You never did what you said you were gonna do and now that you’re finally doin’ it it’s too goddamned late to make any difference to anyone, let alone your long-sufferin’ family!”
The old man is tempted to give the crone a pop in the kisser, but instead mutters barely comprehensible imprecations and wonders if his bladder will hold out until it’s time to take the paratransit bus back to the Crawford Convalescent Center. But under the medals on the breast of his frayed dress uniform jacket he knows in his heart that she is right:
Instead of hunkering down and working hard, he wasted years bragging that he had the Biggest You Know What on the playing field and calling everyone who didn’t agree with him an unpatriotic coward.
Alas, it is this analogy that comes to mind as we slouch toward the Bush administration’s September “progress report” on the Iraq war and the lead-pipe cinch certainty that despite signs of some progress on the battlefield, what ultimately is the most important kind of progress – Iraqi political reconciliation – is as dead as the once limber timber between the old man’s legs.
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9 Responses to “Old Man & The War: The Lost Years”
Nice way of looking at it, Shaun! But I guess this will draw a lot of flak…
Well, maybe it would be more fair to see the US as a man in his 40s, trying to overcome alcoholism. Too late to change all the things he screwed up, but there’s still a chance to do some good for the people that suffered because of him. Like, moving out, giving the house to the wife and working hard to pay for the tuition of the kids.
:-/
A bit OT, but I guess this will interest you, Shaun:
Strangely, I can’t remember reading this as a headline at WaPo. Bad memory, I guess. But, of course, regarding all the buzz about the ‘declining’ number of casualties and the ‘fact’ that the surge is working, this sure is mayor news.
Shaun – I am in Hong Kong with limited Internet access but I am glad I stopped by long enough to read this. Your unusual approach to describing the situation makes it hit home stronger than normal. I concur with everything you wrote. Thanks.
Shaun – with each passing day, you simply embarrass yourself further, and sound more and more like chicken little.
I suggest you try looking at other points of view besides just your almost perverted desire to see US failure wherever possible.
To quote from a short Examiner article:
But I am sure you will reject any such sentiments for some self-serving rationalization, given your hatred towards Bush.
AustinRoth that doesn’t prove anything. For the last couple of years the mantra of the anti-war critics was “Al Qaeda is a minor part that can easily be destroyed if the Sunni tribes turn on them. The larger problem is sectarian Shiite/Sunni/Kurdish relations.” So really, all that has happened is to prove that view correct.
There is no longer any Sunni in the government. The Kurds are about to be attacked by Turkey, or if not, units from other places in Iraq that will certainly provoke strife. We have given a lot of weaponry to people that fought us for years and flat out say to reporters that we aren’t targets…for now.
That said, if we restricted our mission and definition of “victory” to mean “severely diminish Al Qaeda In Iraq” and had troop levels commensurate to do that, then I wouldn’t object. Right now we don’t really have a defined goal though, well there is always the buzzword of the month…but that’s not really a goal.
Hello, AustinRoth? How do you interprete the latest casualty numbers? How does this compute with your perception that the surge is working?
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Aslo, I want to point out that this is an opinion column, not a news story. And even an unsigned one, so obviously the author isn’t willing to support his view by giving it the weight of his good (?) name. Imho it is extremely farfetched to regard this single opinion as evidence of a broad consensus.
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AustinRoth, with each passing day, you simply embarrass yourself further.
Dick Durbin may have said negative things about the war in Iraq that you so cherish, but I would like to point out that when Durbin had the chance to show he meant what he said, he voted to continue funding the war.