Flotsam and Jetsam...
Just a few things that have rattled around my head for the last few weeks, but that I haven't had time to think out and put on paper, so to speak...

Changing the Tone:G.W. Bush promised us during the campaign of 2000 that one of things he would do if elected was to "change the tone" in Washington. Well, he has succeeded. The demoncrats have taken shrillness to new, unexplored heights and are, as a mass, close to communal apoplexy. The banshee wailing of your typical dope-o-crat is reminiscent of that old cliche of the opera singer shattering a crsytal champagne flute via sympathetic vibration whilst hitting that high C. The amazing thing is that not one of them has exhausted their pipes yet, which means that sales of Chlorosceptic must be sky high. Along with the incresaed volume and pitch comes the physical manifestations of a party on the verge of self-implosion. They are displaying all the signs of a nervous breakdown, from Howard Dean's pulsing head vein, to John Kerry's public state of denial about everything he's ever done or said, to Ralph Nader's impossible fantasy about becoming the world's first President who never had a real job at any point in his life. Yes, the tone has changed, but will our eardrums survive?

Iraq: The word "quagmire" is sooo passe. I won't use it --- refuse to use it. Instead, I'll utilize the little-known term of clusterfuck. Now, GW and Company are my boys, so I hate to criticize, but let's get real here: someone has screwed the pooch, big time. Instead of focusing on the typical reasons given (most of which make no sense) for the appalling lack of progress in Iraq (no WMD's, for example), let's tell the truth: it ain't working because we've been treating Iraqi's (and Muslims in general) as rational human beings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Got a bunch of "dead-enders" who believe Allah will prevail --- stomp on 'em. Got an insurgency being supplied, funded and staffed by Iran --- slap the Theocracy in that country. We've been playing nice and the other side hasn't. So, how long will it take until someone notices? Fallujah is not a incident that requires "negotiations" it is a situation that calls for raw, naked, destructive power. Fallujah, in my opinion, should have already been left a smoking ruin overgrown by rank weeds and populated by small pockets of surviving wildlife. Want to get the message across that we're serious? Make an example out of someone and damn the bad press. You're a republican, and bad press is an automatic for you.

The Coalition of the Willing: Taking a page from France's playbook, Spain, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Japan (I think) are yanking their forces from Iraq. Well, hate to lose the manpower, but how effective do you really think it was to begin with? Note also that of those countries mentioned, three have Spanish connections and one was flattened by nuclear weapons. 'Nuff said.

The Draft: Chuck Hagel (Communist-France) has decided that the country needs conscription again since: a) we're involved in a struggle with international terrorism that will take decades to resolve, and b) when lawmakers, Presidents and judges, etc, have their own children in the military, they might be a bit more careful about committing troops to operations like Iraq. Got news for ya, Chuck --- the military don't even want a draft, The main problem is not that we don;t have enough troops for the long haul (surely we don't) but that the troops we have are the wrong kinds. Our military is still designed to fight a mechanized war on the plains of Germany. It's tank heavy, hard to move, and doesn't have near enough leg infantry to do what we need it to. Add to these factors the fact that American troops are committed to Europe and Japan 60 years after WWII, Korea after 50+, and that we depend way too much on reserve and Guard formations staffed by unwed mothers, and these are the main causes of the manpower shortages. What is needed is not a draft, but a way of making the military a more attractive career option for the X-Games generation. How you do this is beyond me, though. We're dealing with a generation that has no idea of what responsibility, patriotism, work or even intelligence are all about. If you doubt it, just remember that American Idol is somehow still on the air. Over and above making the military an attractive option, there must be a way to make the infantry an more attractive option. A draft does neither.

Be back in a couple of hours with some more diseased rantings from my fevered imagination....