Sacrificer in Chief


Call it Surge, call it Bump (the latter a term Shrub should know from his cokehead days), call it whatever. Shrub himself seems to be leaning towards one of his extra-favorite special words, "sacrifice." I'm sure in his pathetically puny mindset, "sacrifice" carries sufficient solemnity, "dignitude," and gravitas to again put off the day of reckoning for his literally unprecedented disaster in Mesopotamia.

Which, when you come to think of it, is probably THE major reason why the disaster has been allowed to continue without real challenge for so long: just CONSIDERING the policy ramifications is enough to give otherwise clear-thinking individuals the mother of all headaches, while fantasists like Shrub himself, and the ever dwindling army of neo-con wingnuts experience the bliss of ignorance...or chemicals, depending on the person and time of day.

Sacrifice. A word that carries a little extra special meaning--hmmm, a "bump" if you will--for the remainder of the Shrubian base. From death comes eternal life, etc. etc. etc.

But I began to wonder: ok, so Team Bush has stepped so deeply into the Mesopotamian pile-of-shit that they've been forced to retire the now long-forgotten slogan "Shock & Awe©," substituting ever heightened, frightening rhetoric--maybe not quite "The Mother of All Battles," but plenty close enough.

So, you'd think such lofty speechifying would be accompanied by, well, at the very least, some sort of symbolic action underscoring the, ahem, necessity of the "sacrifice" Shrub touts with such resolute certitude. In other words, an example to us all by way of emphasis.

And here it is...um, I mean, was:

It became known that he refused to eat sweets while American troops were in Iraq, a partial fast seldom reported of an American president."

Seldom reported -- and apparently little observed. When the White House sent out the shared "pool report" of Bush's roundtable interview with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Australia, it became apparent that the president had fallen off the candy wagon.

"And he was relaxed. Very relaxed," was the description. "As a reporter began to ask about the Middle East . . . Mr. Bush popped a butterscotch Lifesaver in his mouth. He smacked the candy as he said: 'Middle East, that's right.'"

Well, that speaks volumes. What's life or limb when the sacrificer-in-chief gives up a butter rum Lifesaver..well, for a little while, at least.

I was further reminded of the odd disconnect vis-a-vis the war and daily life over the long weekend. On the radio military families were interviewed about the war, the casualty count, and the very REAL sacrifices they've made. As one woman said (paraphrasing), the American military went to war, while America went to the mall.

For the most part, that's the case...except perhaps for people along the still-shattered United States Gulf Coast. Oh, and Shrub hasn't done much sacrificing for THAT either.