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I’m
P.Gregory Springer, a local author who has written for
Variety and the New York Times. I am completing two
books on travel with my sons throughout Guatemala and
Mexico.
I
heard George say the other day, in his pointy finger
kind of way, "I think about Iraq Every Single Day!"
And I
thought, well, duh. I should be so lucky to get through
even one hour without seeing those car magnets reminding
me to rally around the flag. Anyway, it leads me to
believe that George probably DOESN'T think about Iraq
every day.
What
could he be thinking about?
I am
going to stick my neck out and say (please don't spray
paint my house) I don't support the troops. Is that safe
to say these days? Or is that a crime now? I certainly
wouldn't taunt terrorists by speaking for the soldiers
and saying, "Bring it on" or anything, but no, I don't
support the troops. The troops are on a mission without
a strategy, a mission based on falsehoods. And I would
like to stop thinking about it.
I'd
like to stop thinking about a world artificially divided
up into two separate halves. We're not all either
liberals and conservatives or black and white or boxers
or briefs or good or evil or with us or with the
terrorists or any other stupid football game dichotomous
way of looking at the world.
In a
recent letter to the New York Times, a reader wrote
that, if the troops are defending the US soil by
fighting terrorists in Iraq, is George's strategy to
"leave the security of the United States in the hands of
an inexperienced Iraqi Army as soon as we can?" "There
is no higher calling," George said in his TV speech the
other day, "than to join the military."
The
same night, the streets of Urbana were filled with a
bunch of classic cars, traveling from Washington DC to
the West Coast. There were Ramblers, Buicks, 1950s
Impalas, a rock and roll band and pizza. It was fun. But
I still was thinking about Iraq. The exhibition was
sponsored by the National Guard, which had slapped
magnetic ads on every old car and set up a tent.
Dick
and Donald like to say the terrorists are desperate, in
their last throes. But who is really desperate? We've
got George on TV and the Guard making sales pitches like
a Coca-Cola campaign on a cross country tour.
After
the Weapons of Mass Destruction mantra; after liberation
for the Iraqi people; after the domino theory of
freedom; the latest thing we're supposed to think is
that we can't leave Iraq because those who have already
died would have died in vain. So, just to clarify, we
have to keep fighting a war we started because somebody
died in it?
I know
George told Pat Robertson there wouldn't be any
casualties. And I guess "oops" really isn't going to cut
it as an excuse.
Anyway, if you know a good way to get through the day
without thinking about the mysteries of the war in Iraq,
I'm open to suggestions. Shopping or Social Security or
Tom Cruise or runaway brides just aren't doing it for me
anymore.
I
still think about Iraq Every Single Day. I could dwell
on the weather. You know what they say about Illinois in
the summertime, "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity."
But maybe I'll just wrap myself up in the newest episode
of Six Feet Under. Somehow, I don't think it's going to
help. |
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