The War Comes Home

Threats and promises from (1) the Democrats’ 2004 presidential candidate, (2) the guest of honor in the Presidential Suite at the 2004 Democratic Convention, and (3) the new Chairman of the House Investigative Subcommittee on National Security:

1.  John Kerry, who supports the troops, sent out an email yesterday about his plans to reunite them with their smarter contemporaries:

This is our chance to take the power to lead America out of the Bush Republicans’ hands. . . . Winning means forcing an end to the disastrous war in Iraq, and getting our heroes home.

2.  Michael Moore, spiritual head of the Democratic “base,” sent out an email yesterday threatening to go after any “spineless Democrats” who don’t get with the program:

WITH THE DEMOCRATS IN POWER IN THE HOUSE AND/OR SENATE, WE CAN GO AFTER THEM!  These spineless Democrats who enabled Bush to start this war and funded it ever since are due for a shellacking from all of us.  For nearly 6 years, they’ve hidden behind the cop-out of, "Hey, we’re the minority, we have no power."  As of tomorrow, hopefully, they will have no mask to hide behind.  And it will be up to us to go after them.

3.  Dennis Kucinich, long-time Congressman and 2004 presidential candidate, will become an influential person in the House.  In an advertisement in The Nation this week, his re-election committee gave this preview of what he plans to do:

Kucinich is in line to chair the Investigative Government Oversight Subcommittee on International Relations, National Security and Emerging Threats. Under his chairmanship, the truth will finally come out about 9/11, the Iraq war and how the Administration’s policies have jeopardized America‘s security and standing.

Maybe the State Department will call for a unity government. More likely is the future envisioned by James Lileks in his post yesterday:

I expect the next two years to go poorly, I’m afraid.  Then again, I’m often wrong; perhaps it’s possible for a country to win a war with apologies and investigations.

Perhaps we’re not at war at all; perhaps Iran and the jihadists are merely an illusion conjured up by the puppetmasters, just as they turned Iraq — the veritable Monaco of Mesopotamia — into a Threat, and just as they defended Israel against the brave Defenders of the Apartment Buildings in Lebanon. 

I really should relax.  I mean, if you’re driving down the road and you see a car coming towards you head on in your lane, there’s no reason to worry.  You’re in the right.  What else matters?

Forcing an end to the war in Iraq, going after any Democrats in the new majority who stray from the base, and investigating all the way back to 9/11  — the homeland is now a battleground, just as it became in Vietnam, and those who remember history may be condemned to watch it repeated. In his bleat this morning, Lileks says that “if I were an Iraqi I wouldn’t necessarily be booking a spot in the line to the embassy roof, but I’d be checking price and availability.”