Today I peeked in my local online rag to find William Kristol busy attacking the MoveOn ad which featured a woman and her baby. Kristol, the neocon who manages a spot on the New York Times editorial pages and appearances on cable news, keeps himself busy these days mostly shilling for John McCain and the Republican party. The former Bush speechwriter's "I am so smart" chatter is loaded with big neon flagwaving and blithe references -- Jon Stewart has a lot of fun with him. One suspects dog-eared talking points rather than authentic thought with Kristol. But is easier that way I suppose.
In this lilting paean to the war that his bosses created, bought, and unsuccessfully tried to rally the world to join, Kristol produces an absolutely blistering critique. What has Alex's mother done that is so awful? She is selfish. That's it. Alex's mother has the gall to say to the world that her son will not fight. That her son will not be another pawn in the game of war.
Wallowing in the vague shadows of innuendo, the Kristol rant insinuates that the ad attacks patriotic families and soldiers (it does not). He frets over a possible futures where a disheveled America fights on, and low and behold one day finds itself without soldiers to fight--because mothers like Alex's have decided 'no more.'
However fey Kristol's rhetoric is, conjuring the lonely mother of a fallen soldier, hinting at the bleak future of war without end (John McCain's one hundred years of war fits nicely here), his chest beating message resonates and in end affirms the MoveOn ad's premise (does Kristol even read his own words?).
... we will need young men and women willing to risk their lives for our nation.
We can almost see the pundit as he pulls some imaginary beard perched smugly beside John McCain, muttering somber phrases. 'You go fight for us, we can't do it because we are too old and overtly privileged to do the job. Besides, we are the ones getting rich off these wars.' Laughing all the way to the bank.
As readers we are left with the question: Why shouldn't mothers have a choice? Oh, yeah I forgot John McCain and Kristol and Bush are against that too.
Nice job guys. You've got the whole world in your hands, editorial pages and all. For now. But not Alex's mom, apparently, and in case you haven't noticed there are millions like her. And they are voters, not imaginary characters in an ad.
Yes, we can.