The national self-immolation we like to call the national electoral season has now kicked off, and the Swami is particularly happy to pass along the first of the season’s really stupid comments. They come from Ohio, a place from which dumb comments often emanate. Read on gentle seekers of truth and justice…
This is an excerpt from House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) interview from Iraq with CNN’s The Situation Room on September 12, 2007 and since passed along the Internet channels:
WOLF BLITZER: How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the cost is going to endure? The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?”
BOEHNER: I think General Petraeus outlined it pretty clearly. We’re making success. We need to firm up those successes. We need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East, it’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids.
Well, no, Rep. Boehner, that’s not exactly the best way to look at Iraq, unless you're thinking there’s a chance the country will actually turn into Our Town. No American killed in Iraq can be said to be “a small price to pay.”
Swami sees nothing small, even metaphorically, about the price they or their families have paid.
This is similar to the “we’re going to win if you just let us kill enough of them” argument which only people like Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney think is still likely.
The TV exchange even promoted Sen. John McCain to suggest Boehner should retract the assessment.
The analogy is particularly false because the real al Qaeda isn’t in Iraq and stopping that particular brand of al Qaeda won’t really affect the long term chances of thwarting the radical killers. That brand of al Qaeda is the knockoff, hometown, bargain basement version.
The real al Qaeda is now and has always been in Pakistan and Afghanistan where it is reconstituting without much interference.
In any case, calling the American deaths in Iraq a small price to pay is horrendously tone deaf.
On the other hand, it would be nice to hear the voices of Mark Kirk and Melissa Bean on this topic with more clarity and passion.
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