Should There Be a Parade?

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My gentle snowflakes, Perry and Romney and Gingrich and Palin, etc. are running around this mid-week all a-flutter because there has been no parade ordered up to "honor the troops." 


President Obama is somehow being un-patriotic. (Irony here folks.)

Well, it seems to me that a parade is a pretty poor "honor" for what we have put our troops through. 

Now, I will admit that I might be out of touch--never having been a member of the military myself and not understanding the military mindset. But, I can not even begin to imagine that a whole lot of soldiers really want (after years of their lives spent scrabbling around Iraq) to march up and down some city streets just so a few people can feel good about the whole "cakewalk" war thing.

Then there are all those troops who came home already--probably to be rotated back into Afghanistan and combat again next year. And all those sent directly from Iraq to Afghanistan. 

Seems not to be the time for a celebration of a mess that we have not managed to yet clean-up.

How about this? If we want to thank our soldiers, protect and expand their benefits--healthcare and education. Pay them better. Give them body armor--without them having to write home and ask their family and friends to take up a collection to get it. Make sure, if and when they do get home, that they go to the top of any list for any and all jobs available. Stop the big-banks from foreclosing on their homes. 

Hey, I could go on and on and on....  From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Send--that is you, personally--send one or more of them a welcome home card. Put five hundred dollars in it. 

And finally, DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER SEND THEM OFF ON ANYMORE WILD GOOSE CHASES like the last 10 years. No more bizarre, ideological machinations to prove the bona fides of a bunch of slimy, smirking chicken hawks.

Just saying.

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All of the Above

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Over at Slate, Doonesbury is running a straw poll on President's biggest fiasco. Here are the choices:

THE IRAQ WAR. The lead on his obit. Conceived in obsession, sold with lies, executed with stunning incompetence, our unprovoked dismantling of a nation, killing tens of thousands, driving millions from their homes, torturing suspects, squandering global goodwill, handing Al Qaeda a new front, is a widening stain on American honor, one that will take generations to remove. KATRINA. Why clueless cronies in critical positions are a bad idea. Hard to pick a favorite moment of callousness. Barbara Bush telling the Superdome inhabitants how good they had it was breath-taking, but the iconic shot of Bush touring the drowning city at 30,000 feet said it best. Heckuva job, Junior. THE ECONOMY. Endless tax cuts for the rich, skyrocketing deficits, a weakening dollar, unconscionable lack of regulation. Unfortunately, you go into a depression with the economy you have, not the one you wish you still had. By the way, the entire world blames us for the mess. No pass for Clinton, but this was on your watch. Pretty well sums it up. Short, pithy, to the point. Not a word wasted. Too bad I can only vote for one. Whatever happened to "All of the above" as a choice? 20 January 2009 can not come soon enough. I so want Bush 43 out of our collective faces. Too bad he's going to Dallas (complete with gates across the street, paid for by you and me) and not the wilds of Crawford where there is less visibility. Take one more whack at the ugly little troll: Go vote.