Sent this to a conservative friend.
I hear a lot about congress "micromanaging the war" recently, but my reading of history shows much more severe micromanaging in the history of the United States. Read for instance about the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
Further study of that committee will show you congress hauled up military officers in front of a committee and grilled them for mismanagement of actual battles and specific military tactics (General Meade after Gettysburg). Something that would never happen today, where strategy is still rightly debated as this is a democracy.
Our history show a proud tradition of questioning authority, not trusting what our administrators tell us, and it has always led to a better country in the long run. See Harry Truman's committee during WWII.
Please note, both these committee's were from the same political party as the president. Repulican's micromanaging Lincoln, Democrats micromanaging FDR. Wouldn;t it have been nice if our recent republican congress had micromanaged Bush in the great tradition of our democracy?
So do not listen to choice "words" that seem to come creatively out of the minds of some very astute marketers, but trust that good old american common sense, ingenuity, and pragmatism.
American can win any war we put our mind too. But we are a democracy first, and we have to listen to the people, it might be a weakness is some minds, but as Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."
Those of you who really want to win this war have to do the following:
- Mobilize the country. We will have a call to arms, all available pro war young men 18 to 40 are going to have to join the army. Industry and private enterprise will have to be adapted to war needs as they have in the past.
- Raise taxes- at no point in US history have taxes been cut during war. Bush has seen fit to do that, but it is time for those who get the biggest return from our way of life and form of government will have to pay for this war. In the past we issued War Bonds, why have they not been brougt back so all those who have benefited so much from Bush's economic plan can invest in our troops?
- Be ready to sacrifice your loved ones, look at them and ask if their death is worth the benefit we will get out of winning in Iraq. Because that is what you are asking others to do.
If this was truely a fight for our national survival or "to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States", then the three steps above are just the beginning. Clapping louder in unison for our dear leader is not going to cut it.