The War President

The election train is careening toward the terminal. As much as it picks up staggering speed, and increases in volume toward an unbelievable crescendo, the hype express will come to an abrupt and silent rest in a little more than a week. Sounds too good to hope for, doesn’t it?

This evening, our local Public Broadcasting station showed snippets of today’s stumping speeches by both candidates. I wasn’t necessarily inspired by what Mr. Kerry had to say… He was doing okay until he said that he would continue a policy of hunting down and killing terrorists wherever they were, anywhere in the world. It sounded too much like an attempt to show that he could be as mindlessly aggressive as our current head of state.  Gotta court that "Rambo" vote... 

Our president and commander-in-chief stood in front of a carefully selected audience, spouting about how right and just it is to take war to terrorist nations. (I’m assuming he meant Iraq…I suppose he believes if he just keeps repeating that terrorists came from Iraq, that will make it true.) And how "his opponent" thinks that terrorists are somehow less dangerous if you don’t aggravate them (actually, if "his opponent" had really said that, I would think "his opponent" had a point…) The folks in the audience crowed encouragement and "amens," and properly booed and cursed whenever "his opponent" was mentioned. I couldn’t tell whether I was watching some demented sports contest, or a sermon by a fire-and-brimstone evangelist. All those people, shouting and shaking their fists above their heads, vigorously and vehemently defending…no, not just defending, sanctifying… our sovereign right to kill large numbers of other human beings, lay their lands to waste, and utterly destroy the lives of any not killed outright. A nightmare.

Terrorists. The terrorists came here. Brought the fight to our shores. Now we need to start marching all over the world, wherever these terrorists could be hiding, and KILL them before they attack again. I’ve got news for you. The terrorists are here. They have been here for quite some time. Long enough to plan and launch an operation like September 11th. And don’t fool yourselves that we have somehow neutralized the threat that existed in 2001. We only just this past summer—almost three years after the fact—finished putting together a "report" on the governmental failures and malfunctions that produced the climate conducive to such an attack. Congress will mull over the report and get back to us with what they plan to do about it…after the election. Meanwhile, our anemic military is being thinly spread across the world, in a purely political bid to make our president look like he’s fighting tooth and nail to prevent the next attack by killing the terrorists before they get to our shores. The one person whose involvement in the toppling of the twin towers is an undeniable fact, is Osama bin Laden. Where is he, Mr. President? Why haven’t you brought us his head on a platter?

At first, I thought, "What a childish, irresponsible way for a head of state to act!" But then I wondered, do we actually let our children get away with this kind of behavior? Can you picture it? "Johnny, why did you hit Billy? You know you’re not allowed to hit other children." "But Mom, he hit me first." "Oh. Okay…go kick the snot out of him."

And if you can’t find him, go blow up the neighborhood where you think he lives.