What war?

[Richardo]

Another in my series of guest articles at a RW blog. This one in response to another RW blog that is finally getting the message about how screwn up the management of the war really is.
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The http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2007/01/10/the-time-for-evasion-is-over">Right Wing Nuthouse piece on the inadequacy of the war effort is eerily similar (almost point-for-point) to a shorter screed I wrote on my favorite lefty message board all of 18 months ago.

Am I smarter than they? I doubt it: I'm just less invested in the mystique of President Bush and his elective war, and therefore more detached from the party line.

After some research, I found http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1925255&mesg_id=1925287">it (July 13, 2005). I was responding to http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1925255&mesg_id=1925255">this post:

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Historically, during time of war, Americans expected to sacrifice
....if not their own lives, certainly property and paying more taxes.

So I am puzzled why the majority who continues to support the war and its expenditures balk at paying more taxes.

Has anyone written an editorial about this, or is this too logical for our illogical world?
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My response was as follows:
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This has been my thesis for two years...

In addition:

The full force of industrial capacity is commandeered for the war effort if necessary (make more body armor, suckers - that's an ORDER!)

Sufficient troop strength ensured by conscription - even in 'popular' wars like WWII

Raw materials needed for the war effort are rationed to the public (most notably gasoline).

This adminstration has done the complete opposite in all of these cases: Tax less, spend more, encourage consumption, maintain civilian economy, refuse draft.

If there WERE a serious war on terror, we would be expected to make these sacrifices (indeed most would EXPECT to make these sacrifices). Since we are not, you can only deduce that there IS no serious 'war' on terror. OR that Bush is too cowardly to level with America about the resources required to prosecute it fully.

We have now spent more time screwing around in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, than it took America to prosecute ALL of our involvement in World War II - from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. THAT'S what you can do with total commitment.

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Summary: If we're truly at war, Mr President, act like we're at war - raise our taxes, equip and man our armies, redistribute resources, make sure all the citizenry have a personal stake in the outcome. Most of us want a stake. Our fellow citizens are being killed and wounded. Thousands of our client's citiziens are dead, wounded, or refugees. Tens of thousands of families are mourning. The least you can do is take the sacrifices as seriously as we do.

Leadership, as the President has so often pointed out, is not 'governing by the polls'. But neither is it 'ignoring the polls'. You're not leading if no one's following.

Leadership is having a vision, articulating the vision, and executing the vision. Leadership is trusting oneself and one's fellow citizens enough, being courageous enough, to be honest and frank with them. Morale is not built on happy talk, jingoistic propaganda, or by simplistic declarations that 'war is hard' - morale is built on knowing that our leaders see the complexities, pitfalls and dangers of war, and have a plan to overcome them.

Leadership is being confident enough to question oneself, to listen to challenges, to seek counsel, to make SURE it's being done the right way.

Leadership is not ignoring the polls, it's ignoring the politics. And anyone who keeps a political adviser at the top of his staff plainly does not know this truth.

The President should have given his 'New Way Forward' speech at the start of the war - he's 45 months; 3,000 American lives; 20,000 American wounds; and about $400 billion too late. And he gets no credit from me for giving it now. He got us into this ill-conceived debacle, now he's pretty much letting us know that we and his successor(s) will have to find our own way out of it. "A New Way to Stay The Course" might have been a more apt title.

What I heard from the 'New Way Forward' will achieve nothing but getting President Bush a few more months closer to his own 'graceful exit'. That's not leadership, that's running out the clock.