There will not be a war "drumbeat" or serious debate on Iraq until hundreds of thousands march in protest in every major city in the U.S., and this will not happen.  The true in-depth reporting of the war, on a daily basis, is on cable, and a large audience for a CNN or HN or C-Span show is a million or so viewers.  The networks devote 40 to 60 second soundbites on the war, showing briefly some horror or other, then on to the Yankee-Red Sox game or Tiger's comback in this weeks $8 million tourney.  The taxes of the wealthier are low, the poor either don't have the the inclination or representation to scream, and the middle class (like me), without even children to use as a deduction, pay, after deductions, only some 11 to 14% of our gross income--not enough to bother us.  There is no draft, therefore no fear. To my mind, our only sacrifice in this war is the price we pay for gas (which could be alleviated by tapping the White House and Congress).  And, statistically, very, very few families are affected by troop casualties in Iraq.  Is it any wonder that apathy reigns, no matter how incensed we of the blogosphere become?

Even worse, now the election season is nigh.  Only a juicy sex scandal or soaring tragedy involving our soldiers will displace, say, Bay Buchanan, all over TV as she plugs her book psychoanalysing  Mrs Clinton, saying, as Rush and Hannity do, that Hillary, like all Democrats, has no core values, is mentally problemmatic, and will do and say anything to become (not president but) "leader of the free world."  Thank you Frank Luntz for the negativity of that wording. Well, Hillary, unlike Bush through his surragates, has not called her opponents' wives whores, drug addicts, mothers of illegimate babies (black, no less!), or implied McCain was a traitor because he might have given away secrets to his captors in the Hanoi Hilton, and so on.  Nor could I imagine Hillary going to South Carolina and, in fealty, kissing Pat Robertsons' (ahem) ring, as McCain did. And, as for core values,  remember that Hannity supported Arnold's run for candidate over an anti-abortion Republican congressman, telling his horrified listeners that they should vote in the primary for Arnold despite the fact that he (Sean) had said for years that the "murders of the unborn" is our number one major issue, and these murders must be stopped.  Hannity said that Arnold can and will win, unlike his pro-life opponent, and that "we'll change Arnold's mind on abortion later, by "Hannityzing" Arnold.  Imagine, this puffed of bag of hypocrisy telling his 16 million listeners, as Rush does to his 20 million, that the liberals have no core values and will say anything to win.  But, more horrifying, imagine their listeners who buy into this illogic and call C-Span the next day to repeat the trash talk.

So that's it.  So few affected by the war.  Many of those who have an interest swayed on every major issue by illogical hyperbole (but they are VOTERS, these Coulter readers, Bushies and dittoheads, rest assured on that).  And, finally, what if we finally had a real debate on Iraq (on the final night of Dancing With the Stars) and nobody came?

 

was written by my husband as his comment on the subject.  Thanks, hon!

just emailed jim webb to not give up on the iraq vote.