But that isn’t completely the point of this diary. I had an argument with my parents this past weekend (among many other political arguments that went absolutely nowhere fast – its those damn facts that keep getting in the way…) about Iraq. Not totally different from many other arguments that I have had with members of the “pro-kill em and bomb em all before they all kill us” crowd that I encounter from time to time. But this time, after hearing (and rolling my eyes yet again) at the comment that “we need to be strong and show our strength because they respect that” and my initial rebuttal that suicide bombers want to die so why would they be intimidated or impressed by military “strength”, I lost it.

I flat out asked if either of them would want or have wanted me to go to Iraq and fight. And as expected, silence from my father and an emphatic “hell no!” from my mother. Which completely proved my point, and led to this post – it all boils down to this:

If you don’t want to serve in Iraq, and don’t want your own family to serve in Iraq, the I don’t want to hear anything about why this is a “noble war” or that it is right or that it is just or that it isn’t something that should NOT be stopped as quickly as we can.

Period.

That little discussion ended right there, and it dovetails right into the debate going on now in Congress. John Warner and John McCain – two men who should fucking know better – are once again looking to abandon the troops that they have sent to Iraq for a mission that they can’t even define, and one of them insists needs major change of direction. I’ll say this about McCain – at least he has family serving in Iraq.

But if the only reason that 30,000 of our troops are coming home next year is because they can’t physically stay there any longer, then there is a big problem, and that problem can’t be solved by burying heads in the sand. For anyone to NOT support something as basic as getting troops the proper rest in between deployments, then they should have their head examined, and should have every single military age member of their family shipped over for a deployment of their own.

To not recognize the dire situation that our military has been in and the strain that our troops and their families are under is a complete dereliction of duty. Frankly, there are two ways to stop this travesty of justice from continuing – (1) fund a withdrawal and ONLY fund a withdrawal, and (2) reinstitute the draft.

Now, I don’t want a draft or any continuation of this disaster any longer, but as Bobby Kennedy and Charlie Rangel both said – a draft is the only way to make every family impacted by this disgrace in Iraq. And once the “lucky sperms” are at risk of being shipped halfway around the world without proper training and equipment and are thrown into the middle of a raging civil war where the only thing that both “sides” have in common is their distrust for our troops, there would be the critical mass necessary to bring this debacle to an end.

I am lucky. I don’t know anyone that was killed in the 9/11 attacks, or anyone that has been killed (or injured) or whose family members were injured or killed in Iraq. I am willing to bet that at least 70% of the country can say the same. And I am also willing to bet that many of those care more about who won American Idol or what will happen with OJ Simpson or if Britney will lose custody of her kids.

While I personally find that disgraceful, it is something that has been perpetrated and fostered by the actions of our elected (and selected) leaders. Why should much of America really care (and I don’t count answering a poll that you would rather not have our troops in Iraq anymore as “really caring”) if our own members of Congress don’t care?

Yet, voting against proper armor, equipment, training and rest is exactly what Congress has done over and over and over and over. Sadly, it is likely to do it again with the Webb amendment today.

Those members of Congress who vote against this amendment should be ashamed and should have their own military age family members immediately deployed to Iraq. Of course that won’t happen. And unfortunately, as with all prior votes, they won’t even consider the impact of this vote on the troops - other people’s children who they are shipping off and abandoning in Iraq.