A new feature: Stalin's Sermons

Going forward, I will compose essays on topics that interest me, to be known as Stalin's Sermons. This is the first installment, dealing with Iraq.

It's reasonably clear that the mesopotamian quagmire ranks as the greatest in a long line of reactionary failures, even if the path to ruin was smoothed by dimwitted Dems like Hillary and Kerry, both of whom voted for it. The question today is which policy options we have.

Stalin has argued from the start that the illegal invasion of a sovereign country with a distasteful government is something that should be undertaken only if it is justified by the "national interest", a quaint concept that used to be of importance before God's Own Circus started running things.

But now that it's too late, and we're in, what course should this country pursue, and what should the Democrats do?

It's clear that a unilateral withdrawal now would create a gaping power vacuum in the heart of the Middle East, much as did Ronnie's withdrawal from Lebanon or the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. A U.S. withdrawal should only occur if the costs of war - material and immaterial - outweigh whatever benefits accrue from staying. But to make that calculation, we need more of a game plan than the vapid rhetoric about "beating the tayruhrists". Sorry, Sean, Rush, Bill et al.

How do we define winning, and what do we need to do to win? This is the basic question that not a single reactionary has yet answered to my satisfaction. Presently, we're hearing talk of a troop withdrawal, of some units dribbling back from the quagmire, just in time for the 2006 elections. This may prove helpful to the war that the cons really care about, the domestic one against Democrats, but I doubt if that treasonous political calculus for war-fighting will help them stave off the coming cataclysm, either here or in Iraq.



If - and that's a big if - cons actually cared about winning the war that they dragged this country into, then they would do what is necessary to win it. That would involve real sacrifices - we need men to fight, and the money to pay for it. In short, we need to roll back some of the Bush tax cuts, and to draft a large number of troops - whichever number is necessary to win. That draft should start with Barb and Jenna, and move on to the children of other people who shilled this war in the first place - yes, Bill O'Reilly, that means you. Draft all the war whores, and leave the honest Americans at home - that's the way it should be.

But this will not happen, because repugs always - always! - care about their domestic agenda far more than about anything else. In short, they are setting up America for defeat.

Will the Democrats have the balls to inflict some real political pain on the party of treason? That remains to be seen; but the early signs are good. Certainly, after over a decade of steaming piles of lies, even the most pathetic Democrat - please note the Lieberman exception - is ready to stand up for this country against those who would hand it one defeat and disaster after another. If Cindy Sheehan can do it, and force the treacherous rage machine into irrelevance, then, please, Dems, you can do it too. Get cracking.