May 5, 2007
Failure to Anticipate
Well, it looks like we have a problem. According to Frank Davies, the memorial set up by House Republican leaders to commemorate the fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is full. Yes, that’s right. They set up a memorial with a fixed amount of space, based on wishful thinking that the war would be over soon.
Way to support the troops, guys. This is the problem with both parties right now; America as a whole would rather substitute wishful thinking for analytical thinking right now. Budget deficits? No problem, we’ll hope them away. Failing education system? Not a big deal! We can pass bills that force illusory gains so that we can pretend the problem doesn’t exist! Quagmire of a war with no end date in sight? Not a big deal, we’ll just set up a memorial with a fixed amount of space, because it can’t possibly go on long enough or remain bloody enough for the casualties to approach anything like filling the space we provide.
According to Michigan Republican Vernon Ehlers, the problem here? More space is needed.
No, the problem couldn’t be the war, or the failure to plan for the war, or the continual failure, now that we recognize we didn’t plan for the war, to start planning for the REST of the war.
The problem is that they built that wall over there too damn small for our boys. That’s the problem, Congressman. That’s what you need to be focusing your time on; remembering our people who have fallen over there, lauding them as heroes, reminding us over and over again not to let their sacrifice be in vain.
Not, you know, actually going about trying to spare the lives of the guys who are left on the ground over there, or trying to fix things so that their mission might be a success in the end, or at least fixing it so that our armed forces aren’t broken by this war and the soldiers actually get the leave, training, and equipment that they’re entitled to and that they quite frankly deserve. Because these are problems that haven’t ended yet, they can be safely hoped away, while our Congressmen can spend our valuable time (not theirs, because quite honestly, the moment they’re sworn in I consider the next two years of their time mine, as an American citizen) taking problems that have safely ended, such as families broken by the death of a loved one over there, and turning them into propaganda by enshrining the names on a wall, and then blaming the wall for being too small when those little problematic soldiers keep dying.
Blame the wall, Congressman.
Don’t blame the lack of training that leaves Air Force and Navy personnel manning .50 cal machine guns on Humvees instead of fulfilling their MOS (that’s Army slang for ‘job’, for the uninformed).
Don’t blame the stress of deployments that have long since been longer than military regulations, because our armed forces are too small to field a fighting force that’s effective for the mission at hand.
Just blame the wall.
Don’t blame the lack of equipment that leaves a 19-year old a triple-amputee because his convoy was hit with an IED and his Humvee didn’t have the right armor yet.
Don’t blame the ‘war planning’ that leaves our guys clearing neighborhoods and leaving… and then clearing, and leaving, and clearing, and leaving, over and over for years, without trying to solve the underlying problems that cause the insurgency.
Keep blaming the wall, Congressman.
Don’t blame a government that, between its three branches, couldn’t see beyond the next election cycle long enough to find out how much misinformation was being fed to them up and down the line.
Don’t blame yourself, Congressman.
It’s the wall’s fault, for being too small to hold this war. It’s the wall’s fault, because the legislative branch didn’t see fit to make it their responsibility to stop this thing, or at least make it winnable. It’s the wall’s fault, because nobody can blame any given Congressman for concentrating on the narrow, myopic view instead of trying to keep this country great.
It’s the wall’s fault, because it’s the only thing left standing when every Congressman, Senator, journalist, judge, and free-thinking person lies down and lets the inertia of the war take over.
The wall is to blame, because each name reminds us of our failures, and each name that can’t fit reminds us that we didn’t fix those failures when we had the chance.
The wall is to blame, Congressman. Not you. You were just doing what every other Congressman did and laying down on the job. Nobody can blame you that the job, in this case, happens to be maintaining our great nation. Because nobody can blame you personally for its downfall.
They can look at the wall, and blame it, instead of you.
And if the wall does a good enough job, Congressman, someday there will be no more Americans left to blame you. Just the wall, standing there, still doing its job long after every Congressman and Senator is gone.
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