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The Gross National Debt

Monday, February 05, 2007

I have kind of a heavy job. I guess I should say that it's not so much heavy as it is incredibly busy. I wear multiple hats in my job which means that there's always something that needs to be getting done that does not, in fact, always get done. My home life is pretty similar - in addition to outside-of-work pursuits (in politics and music), I run the house - finances, upkeep, maintenance, decisions, you name it. It's certainly not a unique situation and it's one I imagine the vast majority of people reading live as well.

So when I decide to take and dedicate and entire weekend day to something that doesn't involve getting the myriad other somethings done, I have a good reason. That's why I spent my day at the Washington DC Peace March yesterday. But who knew that the message we were trying to send had already been received therefore making it entirely unnecessary to be there at all? I could have been doing laundry and paying the bills. Who knew. I'll elaborate after the fold.

Being at the march all day I was unable to watch the coverage of it. I was so bone tired (along with about 59 other Kossacks) when I got home that I had only enough energy to post a diary with the pictures from the march and some minimal commentary. I hung with the comments and then called it quits for the night when my brain finally hit the wall.

So it was with great anticipation this morning that I woke up and turned on the news. I wanted to see their video coverage of the march and the throngs of people that turned out and took to the streets demanding the end of the war (aside, great photos from The Washington Post can be found at this link). In fairness, CNN did cover it, though with a little less zeal and exposure than I would have liked. And then they followed the coverage with this comment from President Bush (delivered via a spokesperson and linked via North Jersey Media Group:

Bush says the troop increase is needed to secure Baghdad so the nascent Iraqi government has breathing room to function. He reaffirmed his commitment to the strategy in a phone conversation Saturday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"He understands that Americans want to see a conclusion to the war in Iraq, and the new strategy is designed to do just that," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.


So you see, he understands the need for a conclusion and, by extraction, acknowledges American citizens' desires to bring the troops home, and his new surge strategy of sending MORE troops is designed to do just that, to conclude the war and somehow lead to fewer troops.

I get it - it's like the theory that you have to spend money, even money you don't have, to make money. Who knew?

I would have definitely stayed home and paid attention to other life priorities if I'd realized the excellent brillance of this surge thing, a plan that essentially made the efforts of 100,000+ marchers entirely unnecessary. Who knows - I may have even had time to sit down and do nothing. I sure wish he would have been this clear in his magnificent strategic thinking before I gave up a day to take to the streets.

Someone should really tell the good news to Carlos Arredondo. You may not remember him, but back in 2004, upon receiving the news that his son, a Marine, had been killed in Najaf, he locked himself into the Marine van that carried news of his son's death and set it on fire.

"This is his scream that his child is dead. The war needs to stop," Melida Arredondo, who had rushed home from work when she heard the news, said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."


Arredondo suffered severe burns in the 2004 incident. By all appearances from a Google search, Arrodondo has turned up at virtually every single major anti-war protest since his recovery, including yesterday's march (photo of Arrodondo is available at the Washington Post Gallery link provided earlier). I'm sure when he finds out that Bush agrees with him totally and that surging is necessary to bring everyone home, despite the obvious contradiction in logic, he would be relieved that he can finally lay down his cross.

2nd photo courtesy of carneasadaburrito. Thank you!

So I guess I've learned my lesson. Our President has it all under control. He understands. He gets "it". He's the decider, and he's decided that he's heard the American people and the countless Carlos Arrondondo's in this country and that sending more troops to allow for fewer and fewer troops is the way to go.

So I sure regret taking to the streets yesterday.

Note: The 1st photo is courtesy of photographer Martin Fuchs. It can be found in its original context here. Martin has graciously granted me permission to use this photo. His excellent work can be found at Journal of a Photographer.


posted by RenaRF at 10:05 PM 4 comments

4 Comments:

Blogger GreenSmile said...

Rena:
I like your blogging. I occasionally post bout stuff I do with MoveOn, especially rallies and peace demonstrations. The point you make about real people having too much to take care of in their own lives that its hard to find time to fix up the country is well taken. We try hard to organize in a way that does not burn out volunteers who are already spread pretty thin. me too.

The reason for you to march and me to organize is that not enough people come and read the blog and say "oh, thats what the problem is. Well allright then, I am calling my congress critter right now." just aint happinin'. too many people need their politics "as seen on TV" so we gotta get loud and visible.

BTW, I made a ton of calls from MA into VA to GOTV for Webb. That was very gratifying.

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