Holding the Troops Hostage

The rallying call "Support the Troops" has always at its base been the lowest kind of political weaseling. Rather than make an argument on the war on its merits or lack thereof, many, many war supporters regularly use members of the military as human shields, daring war critics to "fire" at them while they stand behind men and women who are not only thousands of miles away but who have no say whatsoever in whether or not they go to war. It is a particularly inhuman kind of hypocrisy, and it highlights how little actual argument they have in support of the war.

Paul Krugman sums up how that argument is being used by the Bush administration and its supporters in an even more twisted way today (here - subscription required):

There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it’s a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders — the troops — if his demands aren’t met.

That's a perfect description. Bush and Cheney and the rest of them are the bungling bank robbers who had the "Perfect Plan" (it'll be over in weeks; we'll be greeted as liberators; the oil will pay for the war...) but now, exposed as the bungling half-wits they are, they're in a standoff, surrounded and holding the tellers and customers hostage. It's a sad spectacle to witness, and hopefully we never see the office of the executive stoop to such levels again in our lifetimes.

How does it end?

If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.

But this isn’t a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn’t really trying to win the argument on the merits. He’s just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.

Every time you hear someone say "Support the Troops" while arguing to keep this debacle going into the undetermined future - possibly forever - describe this scenario to them. And ask them why they're helping the bungling bank robbers and hostage takers. (It probably won't do anything, but what the hell?)

If you have a couple minutes, you can make a quick and simple phone call or two or more to your representatives. Remind them how you feel about timetables.