A SUGAR-COATED LEGACY

Contributed by Michael Linn Jones

George S. Patton was a brilliant tactician. He served his nation well despite his tendency at times to put his foot in his mouth. His nickname was "'ole blood and guts." Some of the soldiers who served under him groused that yes, it was his guts, but their blood. In other words, Patton's roaring rhetoric was paid for by someone else's physical sacrifice. It must be said, though, that General Patton was no coward; he was a brave man, a throwback to 19th century thinking that even generals should be prepared to stand the front lines if need be.

I mention this because it has come to the forefront of my mind that enough is enough. The much-vaunted "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has become nothing more than a huge millstone around the neck of the United States of America. It has become a disease eating at the vitals, and the vitality of our nation.

Say what you want about anyone in the Bush administration involved in starting the debacle on its downhill lurch towards disaster. Take your list of names....Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Pearl, Rice, and so on. The fact is, no buck stops with them. It stops, one way or the other, in the Oval Office. And the man currently employed there by the American people is the ONLY one who matters. It is HIS judgment that we live with.

The point has been reached where the grasping of straws is commonplace; the tried and true method of blowing smoke up the ass of the populace. But....but, as Lincoln said, not with all the people all of the time. When I hear these complaints that the media is not telling the "full story" on Iraq, that the wonderful works being done with schools and hospitals is going unheeded in the press.....I no longer cringe. I get angry.

For, it is put across like some dubious business deal. Look at all this great stuff that's been done in Iraq. They have water, electricity, facilities, their zoo is making a comeback. And ALL it is going to cost you to 3,500 (so far) totally forgettable people and a mere trillion dollars or so. So give us your son or daughter, and even if they return home in a coffin, well, you get a free flag. And, the eternal thanks of a nation.....along with a passing glance by the man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Maybe a tear or two if the cameras are rolling.

I woke up thinking about the scene from the film "Full Metal Jacket." Sgt. Hartman discovers a contraband jelly doughnut in the footlocker of Private Leonard Lawrence, branded by Hartman as "Gomer Pyle." Hartman has the entire platoon do push-ups while Private "Pyle" stands on his footlocker and eats the jelly doughnut. He tells "Pyle" to enjoy it, because the other marines are paying for it.

And so goes our nation. We have a rich boy who will never really grow up sitting in the White House. His flawed decision making is evident in business and politics. After 9/11 he really broke bad and proved to his daddy that he, not his father, has the bigger pee-pee. What is life, after all, if one is asked to face the consequences of their own decisions? Such burdens are for the little people.

So, enjoy your sugar-coated jelly doughnut, Mr. President. In 2009 you can do the 1,000-mile mosey back to Crawford and rest your laurels. Enjoy it all, because everyone else is going to be paying for your sweet tooth for a very, very long time.

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