John McCain and the Iraq War - a twisted mind?

[Stinky The Clown]

McCain has been groundlessly saying that only he would 'bring the troops home with honor and victory'. The implication, of course, is that the Democrats either *want* us to lose or will withdraw before a victory.

And that fundamental notion is fucked up on several levels.

First: wining and losing. By what measure do we declare a win in a war - any war? Usually when the people commanding the enemy forces run off or surrender or are physically taken out of power. All three happened within a week or three of our invading Iraq. We went as far as disbanding the army and executing their leader. In anyone's measure, that's a military victory.

All the rest has been bullshit. Civil unrest. Outside opportunists coming into Iraq as bad actors. But none of the aftermath was the initial war. The initial war may have created the conditions by which all this shit happened, but none was a lingering fight with the defeated 'enemy'. The 'war' was over.

Next, there's the political aspects of this 'troops home with honor' crap. It replays the domestic aspects of the Viet Nam War. That gets 45 to 70 year old men angry and that's good for Repubicans. They're loud and they're influential. And the right wing sees the cause of loss in Viet Nam not the incredible misguidedness of the entire misadventure, but rather, because Jane went to Hanoi and hippies smoked dope .... or whatever the fuck it was.

Lastly, there's Johnny's own pathology. He is (not without good reason) pissed off at being in prison and tortured for all those years. His anger toward Asians has always been there just below the surface - with the occasional public, documented upwelling. But while it seems as if his anger is aimed at Asians, he's really pissed off at anyone who doesn't see war and peace his way. Any liberal has become his surrogate Jane and Dope Smokin' Hippie.

Back to this Iraq thing. The hissingly said "My friendssssh ..... I will never sssshurrender". He is a knot of pathologies. Not without reason. Not without my sympathy. But surely without my codependency.

Iraq is his proxy war. A victory there - ideally, **his** victory there - is his proxy for Viet Nam. In his old age, he wants more than anything to be a war winner. Like his Dad. And his grandfather. And their fathers and grandfathers.

Do I feel sympathetic for this aspect of John's life? Yeah, probably.

But does that mean I want my kids - my fellow citizens - to be players in John's proxy war?

I'll pass, thanks.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. And after his 911 call to bitch about traffic, it seems his brother models similar behavior

Is anger a McCain family trait?