The AP: You're A Pussy

If you do not support the Iraq War, you must be a pussy, or so the AP implies in its latest article about support for the war. From the AP:

But are Americans willing to hang in a tough fight anymore?

Some wonder if U.S. society, now populated by baby boomers who recall Vietnam and never knew the hardships of the Great Depression or World War II, has simply lost its stomach for great sacrifices.

It's interesting that the AP wonders if Americans are still will to make sacrifices, especially since the Decider-in-Chief is preparing to give his escalation speech in which the central theme will be, wait for it, sacrifice.

Sacrifice. Expect to hear that word at least a dozen times in Bush's speech where he will announce an escalation of the conflict, but I ask this of you, what sacrifice?

The vast majority of the American people have not been asked to make any sacrifice at all, and have in fact until now, been counseled by the White House not to make any at all. How many times have they told us to shop til we drop, to go about our business as usual? The reality is that a very small percentage of Americans have made any sacrifices and will continue to make any sacrifices for this war.

But Bush is going to ask us to make a sacrifice, for his war. And what pray tell shall we sacrifice? Will there be rationing, scrap metal drives? Will we even be asked to drive a few less miles to ease our nation's dependence on the stuff that got us there in the first place? Of course not!

No, the only sacrifice we will be asked to make is to sacrifice believing what we see with our own lying eyes. We will be asked to see ponies where there is only pig shit. We will be asked to ignore what is right, and to clutch at what is wrong. We will be asked to mistake the hand writing on the wall for simple graffiti.

And for what in the world will we be asked to make this sacrifice? Who knows? Hell, the Bush administration doesn't even know yet. From the BBC:

The speech, the BBC has been told, involves increasing troop numbers.

The exact mission of the extra troops in Iraq is still under discussion, according to officials, but it is likely to focus on providing security rather than training Iraqi forces.

So, we know we need more troops, but we don't know why we need them. We do know however that they most definitely will not be doing the one thing we have been repeatedly told is the only thing that will allow us to extricate ourselves from that hellhole, training Iraqis to stand up so we can stand down.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of fixing the strategy around the policy, or in this case, the politics.